Busan City Emerges as a Leader in Establishing Marine Debris Monitoring System
Selected as Final Consortium for 'Artificial Intelligence Data Construction Support Project'
Conceptual diagram of coastal litter monitoring using drone + big data + artificial intelligence model.
[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] There is no longer a need to search for marine debris with the naked eye. Busan City plans to entrust the mission of tracking and monitoring marine debris to ‘Robocop’ using drones, big data, and artificial intelligence.
On the 6th, Busan City announced that it will strengthen marine debris management by introducing a monitoring system based on information and communication technology (ICT) such as drones and artificial intelligence.
Earlier, in March, Busan City became a demand institution along with a consortium of AI and big data specialized companies in the Busan area, including Irem Technology Development, for the ‘2021 AI Learning Data Construction Support Project’ hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Information Society Agency (NIA).
As the consortium’s proposed project, ‘Construction of Marine Waste and Coastal Pollutant Data,’ was finally selected in the public contest, it will receive 1.9 billion KRW in national funding and proceed with the project until December.
Until now, most marine debris distribution surveys have been conducted visually, requiring a lot of time and manpower, making it difficult to accurately identify the diverse types and forms of marine debris.
This project aims to solve these problems by collecting more than 400,000 data images of pollution sources and pollutant types such as marine debris through drones and other means.
Additionally, an AI application model will be applied to automatically detect marine debris by type, such as plastics and glass, and quantify the amount generated.
In particular, objective video classification criteria will be established for accurate AI training using vast amounts of data.
Busan City plans to take the lead in applying the coastal pollutant dataset and AI application model to marine debris management as the demand institution for this project.
Moreover, it will enable ▲ prediction and cause analysis of marine debris generation ▲ minimizing damage through early response ▲ establishing administrative and financial support grounds necessary for prevention of recurrence and collection/management.
Currently, the consortium is conducting marine debris monitoring and data collection twice a month using drones at four coastal sites in Busan: Jinwudo, Sinjado, Dadaepo, and Taejongdae.
There are also plans for pilot use for emergency response in case of large-scale marine debris generation caused by natural disasters such as typhoons and heavy rains.
Park Hyung-jun, Mayor of Busan, said, “We have strived to proactively introduce an ICT-based marine debris monitoring system to reduce and efficiently manage marine debris,” adding, “This will be a significant advancement in creating a Green Smart City Busan.”
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