Funded by UKRI’s Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging Challenge and delivered by Innovate UK, the Plastic Litter & Remote Sensing Discovery Programme has carried out a scoping study. The research, outlined in a report entitled ‘From detection to action: The Role of Remote Sensing in Shaping Marine Plastic Litter Policies and Innovations’ identifies what measures are needed to ensure that these technologies can offer scalable solutions for efficiently monitoring plastic litter and help inform and support evidence-based policy making.

As part of the scoping study, the Programme team, comprising Innovate UK, the Arribada Initiative, and the Satellite Applications Catapult, conducted a series of scoping activities to gather valuable insights. In addition to an online survey and facilitated cross-sector workshops, the team also consulted companies and performed a limited literature review to explore the commercial potential of using remote sensing to detect and monitor plastic litter.

These activities identified genuine potential for remote sensing technologies to help address the plastic litter issue by providing scalable solutions for efficient monitoring and analysis, and data to inform and support evidence-based policy making. However, the results also highlighted a number of limitations associated with current technologies that prevent remote-sensing data from being applied to policies and interventions that support monitoring, regulation, and solutions to plastic litter. These include:

• the low spatial resolution of satellite sensors, which can make it difficult to consistently detect smaller land diverse plastic litter items;
• the lack of a single sensor capable of consistently and accurately monitoring plastic litter in all marine environments;
• a shortage of in-situ, validated observations of marine plastic to ‘ground truth’ remote sensing interpretations; and
• the fragmented nature of the current remote-sensing and plastic litter community, resulting in a lack of standardisation that makes it difficult to compare studies or interpret data from different sources in a regional or global context.

Based on these findings, the research identified the need for further technical innovation and a more supportive environment for the uptake of these technologies, including measures to promote innovation and collaboration, develop standardised industry protocols, and stimulate investment and market-readiness.

To achieve this, the report outlines a Roadmap to accelerate the development of technologies across varying Technology Readiness Levels and support adoption. The recommendations, in line with Innovate UK’s portfolio of products, focus on leveraging existing products to support the remote sensing sector’s growth, with a two-tiered funding framework comprising a ‘Kick Starter’ for early-stage feasibility and proof of concept projects and a ‘Major Projects’ to demonstrate and scale-up commercial solutions.

“This Roadmap aims to enhance the UK’s environmental monitoring capabilities through remote sensing and position UK plc as a leader in the global mitigation of plastic pollution,” explains Luca Budello, Innovate UK Business Connect’s Knowledge Transfer Manager for Geospatial Insights.