Riverine and Marine Litter RIMMEL project Georg Hanke, Daniel Gonzalez, JRC D2 4.12.2017 WD + MD meeting, Tallinn, Estonia

How does litter enter the marine environment? Coastal shoreline input (including wind-blown) Discharge/loss at sea Input from inland through rivers, streams and ditches

European Rivers as sources of litter

European Rivers as sources of litter ca. 2500 rivers (catchment area >100 km2) and more smaller rivers, streams Almost no data on floating macro litter input to the seas is available!

RIMMEL - JRC exploratory project id 2750 RIverine and Marine floating macro litter Monitoring and Modelling of Environmental Loading Close collaboration with MSFD Technical Group on Marine Litter Providing overview on options for riverine litter monitoring Development and testing of approaches for monitoring of riverine macro litter Link: http://mcc.jrc.ec.europa.eu/dev.py?N=41&O=440

Options for riverine litter monitoring Collection Booms, nets, traps (deployment requires major effort) Existing structures (data are not comparable) River shoreline (depends on morphology, interpretation is challenging) Observation Visual observation (requires observer availability) Camera observation (under development)

Observation methodology compromise RIMMEL Observation methodology compromise Surface floating litter as proxy for litter flux Observation from bridges close to sea Lower observation size range limit 2.5 cm Note: River morphology and flow state can cause turbulences, vertical mixing, subsurface litter cannot be seen Tidal estuaries provide challenges Integrating methods account for variability Deployment of nets/booms is costly/difficult

Observation network

Observation network A network of 36 Scientific Institutions, Authorities and NGOs observing 54 rivers Community linked through on-line communication platform for discussions and feedback

Requested/recommended ca. bi-weekly monitoring of 0.5-1 hour duration JRC Floating Litter Monitoring Tablet Computer Application Requested/recommended ca. bi-weekly monitoring of 0.5-1 hour duration Toward a Harmonized Approach for Monitoring of Riverine Floating Macro Litter Inputs to the Marine Environment http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fm ars.2017.00086/full

Variability – all rivers Items/hours

Variability – all rivers Items/hours 35 rivers with good temporal coverage 797 valid datasets across Europe 443 hours of observation

Extrapolated to river width ~ x 2 Extrapolations Average across all observations: 19.8 items/h Observed Extrapolated to river width ~ x 2 items/hour 19.8 ~ 42.1 items/day ~ 476 ~ 1011 items/year ~ 173657 ~ 369068

Average for all rivers - Items/hour

Main rivers - Variability and averages

Main rivers - Variability and averages Variability (temporal) in rivers SD 5.6 - 29.6

Temporal variability

Temporal variability – total items High peak concentrations No seasonal pattern observed Background concentration with peaks

Riverine Top Items Top 20 are 97% of all items Identifiable plastic objects: (MSFD Litter Category Master List) Bottles Packaging Bags Plastic containers Rope 82 % Plastic

Fragments in rivers Sum of fragments 47 % Fragments 53 % Objects Plastic pieces > 50cm Plastic pieces 2.5cm - 50cm Polystyrene pieces > 50 cm Polystyrene pieces 2.5 cm - 50cm 47 % Fragments 53 % Objects

Fragments in rivers Fragmentation occurrs Sum of fragments Plastic pieces > 50cm Plastic pieces 2.5cm - 50cm Polystyrene pieces > 50 cm Polystyrene pieces 2.5 cm - 50cm 47 % Fragments 53 % Objects Fragmentation occurrs in river systems (formation of meso- + microplastic)

Littercam (under development) Camera system Data system Off-line image recognition analysis Automated long term autonomous monitoring camera system with image recognition

Recommendations Facilitate information exchange on approaches at EU level, including local and national projects Use and expand existing networks Combine observation and collection methods with modelling approaches Provide guidance for monitoring and related measures in river basins at EU scale Start EU-wide identification of input hotspots Provide a policy frame for monitoring and assessments, linked to measures Link Freshwater and Marine Assessments