Plastic monitoring on Vietnam rivers

More than eight million metric tons of plastic are dumped into our oceans every year, and 90 percent of global marine plastic pollution is estimated to come from just ten rivers, eight of them in Asia. In one study, Vietnam was estimated to have the 4th highest rate of mismanaged plastic waste worldwide, with 0.28-0.73 million metric tons per year of marine plastic debris. The Mekong River is listed amongst the top ten polluting rivers worldwide. Solid waste generation in Vietnam has doubled in less than fifteen years and is expected to double again by 2030. However, reliable statistics on the amount and varieties of plastic in Vietnamese rivers are missing, as well as information on key areas where plastic is leaking into the waterways. The overall purpose of the plastic diagnostics is to deepen knowledge on the different plastic waste types leaking into rivers and the ocean. In addition, the surveys (as inputs into the plastic diagnostics) will also increase the understanding of plastic waste quantities and key locations for plastic waste leakage into waterways. The specific objective under this assignment is the development and piloting of an integrated plastics transport monitoring concept on rivers and thus contributing to the increased understanding of plastics pollution in the country. The results are intended to inform policies and investment programs to reduce marine plastic pollution. Therefore, a monitoring strategy will be developed within the project, which aims at quantifying the plastic transport at Vietnamese rivers automatically. This will be realized by means of AI-supported video analysis (DFKI Germany). For calibration and validation of the video recordings, it is necessary to perform direct measurements at the rivers. For this purpose, a measurement methodology (BOKU Vienna) will be developed, which can be applied to exemplary stretches in Vietnam. The measurements should address the entire water column and the entire cross section. The methods will be tested and implemented together with the local partner (WAREC Vietnam) on site. Several measurements at different boundary conditions together with the continuous information provided by the video technology should allow to draw conclusions about the annual plastic load. The developed system shall be adaptable for further stations worldwide.