Marine refuse accumulation on Hong Kong's shoreline has become a profound environmental nuisance that draws much public attention in recent years. President Xi Jinping emphasised in his speech at the 20th National Congress in 2022 the importance of prevention of environmental pollution, and “Building Beautiful Bays” is one of the main objectives identified in the “Greater Bay Area Plan”. To address this issue, EPD has implemented a shoreline cleanliness monitoring program that involves routine site inspections, photo taking and recording at over 190 coastal sites on a regular basis. The current monitoring program is manpower-intensive, and involves manual handling and processing of the massive data collected which are very time-consuming.
To enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of shoreline cleanliness monitoring, it is proposed to develop an AI-CCTV monitoring system, for the first time in marine refuse management applications in Hong Kong, that leverages on AI image recognition and machine learning technologies to automate data collection and analysis. The system will consist of a network of self-contained CCTV camera systems strategically installed at selected sites, equipped with AI algorithms, 5G telecommunication device and solar panel to enable real-time identification and classification of marine refuse in remote areas, operating round-the-clock to enhance the existing inspections using small unmanned aircraft (SUA).
The system will help detect the real-time situation of marine refuse at selected sites, thus providing quantitative data on the cleanliness of the shoreline, so that relevant authorities could be alerted of potential accumulation of refuse before it becomes a major nuisance, especially after adverse weather which could result in marine refuse surge at multiple sites over a wide area, and, in turn, reducing the reliance on manpower-intensive site inspections. The system will also provide a centralised database to store and manage data and information related to shoreline cleanliness, enabling easy retrieval and analysis.
Overall, the system will potentially greatly enhance the effectiveness of EPD’s monitoring and management of the shoreline cleanliness, and effectively optimise resources allocation by relevant authorities for timely clean-up of the most affected areas with minimal manpower input.
