An important event for INFORDATA SISTEMI took place in Lisbon, where from June 27th to July 1st, the UN Conference: The Ocean Conference is being held to discuss the future of the planet and oceans, with political delegations (John Kerry representing the USA) and scientific representatives from around the world. This event, covered by international newspapers and television, is dedicated to Sustainable Development Goal 14 of the United Nations’ Agenda 2030.
Infordata, the technological partner of the MAELSTROM_H2020 project, presented, along with VLPF (Venice Lagoon Plastic Free) and the Portuguese research institute CIIMAS, the Maelstrom app for monitoring and cleaning plastic waste on beaches, surfaces, and seabeds. Marko Petelin emphasized that the app is designed to map the waste status on beaches in detail and allows sharing with the scientific community through the European EMODnet portal. The collected data (photos and GPS location) are displayed on interactive maps, enabling a detailed analysis of where waste is most prevalent and what types are present. Frequent and repeated monitoring over time provides a “timelapse” function on maps to observe how waste evolves.
Such information is crucial for political institutions to support decisions and to raise awareness among global citizens about environmental issues and the importance of ocean health. The situation is indeed serious; for example, monitoring in Venice and Portugal using Infordata’s app reveals an average quantity of plastic waste on beaches at 700 pieces compared to a normal value of 20 pieces!
Infordata’s presentation was followed by a debate, and the entire conference was broadcast live on national news channels in Portugal.
