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Marine litter pollution, exacerbated by climate change, impacts marine ecosystems and communities. The project’s methodologies enable the detection and mapping of marine litter, complementing in situ methods and optimising response capacity. Given the increasing frequency of climatic events that intensify litter accumulation, and considering that marine litter can act as a vector for invasive species—a process facilitated by climate change—timely monitoring is crucial.
The project aims to develop, optimise, and expand a standardised technological solution for remote detection and mapping of marine litter across the Macaronesian region, including Cabo Verde. This involves knowledge sharing through the training of local teams in drone piloting and image collection. A centralised service will be established for the standardised processing of imagery, producing accumulation maps to support local entities. The methodology will be integrated into international guidelines, with the goal of demonstrating its effectiveness, promoting scalability, and encouraging its adoption in environmental monitoring programmes.
| Project Designation: | MAC-DroneAI: Monitorização Inteligente de Lixo Marinho na Macaronésia com Drones e Inteligência Artificial | |
| Reference: | 2/MAC/3/6.1/0224_CAP | |
| Program: | CAPITALIZAÇÃO - MAC INTERREG 2021-2027 | |
| Start Date: | 16/10/2025 | |
| End Date: | 15/10/2027 | |
| Total Budget: | 641 174,80€ | |
| Funding: | 544 998,58€ | |
| ARDITI Budget: | 271 816,22€ | |
| ARDITI Funding: | 231 043,79€ | |
| Partners: |
ARDITI (Beneficiário Principal), Secretaria Regional do Mar e das Pescas Direção Regional de Políticas Marítimas (Açores) e Gobierno de Canarias Consejería de Transición Ecológica y Energía Viceconsejeria de Transición Ecológica, Lucha contra el Cambio climático y Energía (Canárias). |
This project is aligned with the following Sustainable Development Goal (SDG):
