Public Beach Research Articles

Leveraging integrated spatial planning for sustainable regulation of coastal tourism activities in Malindi town, Kenya

Unprecedented demand for both land and ocean space within the coastal zone to support tourism has continued to negatively impact the coastal marine environment leading to degradation. Poorly planned and regulated tourism activities on land and sea have led to degradation of environmentally sensitive marine areas, encroachment on public beaches, erosion of the shoreline and blockage of public access points to the beaches. These impacts transcend the land and ocean continuum necessitating the need for regulation. Spatial planning is one of the key tools that provides a pre-emptive strategic framework for regulating tourism uses so as to prevent harmful development and mitigate the impact of potentially polluting activities. However, spatial planning as applied in Kenya has focused on the regulation of physical developments on land such as the construction of hotels but not on the related tourism activities that emanate from such developments. In this case, activities that tourists engage in outside of the physical hotel structure such as swimming, leisure walks, sport fishing, souvenir collection, and snorkeling are not the subject of spatial planning leading to unsustainable use within the coastal zone. This study makes a case for adopting an integrated spatial planning approach as a lever for regulating tourism activities within this expanded lens, beyond just the buildings and activities that take place within the hotel establishments. The spatial planning approach would include a holistic regulation of coastal tourism activities within both terrestrial and marine spaces in order to attain sustainable management of the marine ecosystem.

Cigarette Butt Disposal Behavior: A Case Study of a Public Beach on Jekyll Island, Georgia, USA

Improperly discarded cigarette butts are a substantial environmental problem. This study explored factors influencing cigarette butt discarding behavior on a public beach on Jekyll Island, Georgia, USA. A mixed-mode design utilized quantitative and qualitative data to study improper cigarette butt disposal. We surveyed smokers regarding their place attachment, environmental attitudes, environmental awareness, and habit as predictors of improper cigarette butt disposal. Environmental attitudes, environmental awareness, and habits were significant predictors of improper cigarette butt disposal behavior. A qualitative inquiry further explored the phenomenon of cigarette butt disposal from the smokers’ perspectives. Interviews illustrated that “improper disposers” experienced themes involving uncertainty that cigarette butts are litter, a lack of knowledge, problems with cigarette butt receptacles currently in place, the requirement of a conscious choice about how and where to discard a butt, and statements that contradicted the behavior observed. Themes that emerged from interviews with “proper disposers” included cigarette butts are clearly litter, awareness of social constructs that disapprove of smokers and their behavior, awareness of the cumulative effects of cigarette butts on the beach, minimal obstacles to discarding properly, and feelings of personal responsibility. Implications of the study results are discussed.

Utilization of multiple microbial tools to evaluate efficacy of restoration strategies to improve recreational water quality at a Lake Michigan Beach (Racine, WI)

Hydro-meteorological conditions facilitate transport of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) to the nearshore environment, affecting recreational water quality. North Beach (Racine, Wisconsin, United States), is an exemplar public beach site along Lake Michigan, where precipitation-mediated surface runoff, wave encroachment, stormwater and tributary outflow were demonstrated to contribute to beach advisories. Multiple restoration actions, including installation of a stormwater retention wetland, were successfully deployed to improve recreational water quality. Implementation of molecular methods (e.g. human microbial source tracking markers and Escherichia coli (E. coli) qPCR) assisted in identifying potential pollution sources and improving public health response time. However, periodic water quality failures still occur. As local beach managers reassess restoration measures in response to climatic changes, use of expanded microbial methods (including bacterial community profiling) may contribute to a better understanding of these dynamic environments. In this 2-year study (2015 and 2019), nearshore/offshore Lake Michigan, stormwater, and tributary samples were collected to determine if, 1) the constructed wetland (~50 m from the shoreline) continued to provide stormwater separation/retention and 2) mixing between onshore sources, Root River and Lake Michigan, was increasing due to rising precipitation/lake levels. Monthly rainfall totals were 1.5× higher in 2019 than 2015, coinciding with a 0.63 m lake-level rise. The prevalence of more intense, onshore winds also increased, facilitating interaction between potential reservoirs of FIB with nearshore water through wind driven waves and lake intrusion, e.g. beach sands and the adjacent Root River. While a strong relationship existed between wet weather wetland and North Beach nearshore E. coli concentrations (all sites), bacterial communities were strikingly different. Conversely, bacterial community overlap existed between the Root River mouth and nearshore/offshore sites. These results suggest the constructed wetland can accommodate the climate-related changes observed in this study. Future restoration activities could be directed towards upstream tributary sources in order to minimize microbial contaminants entering Lake Michigan.

Promoting Equity, Social Justice, and Saving Lives with Life Jacket and Clothing Policies.

Worldwide, diverse racial/ethnic groups have disproportionately higher drowning rates. Learning to swim and wearing life jackets decrease drowning risk. We evaluated aquatic facilities’ policies regarding use of life jackets, clothing, and diapers through a lens of social justice, equity, and inclusion to ensure they met the needs of the diverse high-risk groups they serve and changing aquatic activities and programs. Public recreational pools, beach and waterpark facilities in the US and international organizations were surveyed regarding their policies on life jacket use, clothing, and diapers between 2015 and 2016. A total of 562 facilities responded, mostly pools. Almost all facilities allowed wearing life jackets in the shallow end but less so in the deep end, and wearing of T-shirts, shorts, and clothes for modesty reasons. Policies varied most on wearing non-swim clothes. Almost universal requirement of diapers applied to infants only. Respondents’ reported themes included cost, access, safety, hygiene and equipment maintenance. Reviewed policies generally reflected facilities’ responsiveness to diverse populations’ specific needs. However, policy variations around wearing clothing and swim diapers could be costly, confusing, and impede participation in aquatic activities by vulnerable populations, specifically young children and racial and ethnic minorities. Standardization of these policies could assist aquatic facilities and their users. A best-practices-based policy is outlined.

How does weather affect the use of public transport in Berlin?

The effect of weather on public transport usage in Berlin is analysed. The number of single and day tickets sold is used as a proxy for the number of occasional public transport users. Analysing more than three years of hourly ticket sale data, it is shown that the most important factor influencing ticket sales is temperature. Temperatures below −5°C lead to an increase in ticket sales by up to 30% on working days, while on hot days (> 28°C) passenger numbers drop by up to 5%. Precipitation increases the number of sales on working days by up to 5%. On weekends, the lowest ticket-sale numbers are associated with wet and either very cold or very hot conditions. Another factor influencing ticket sales is sunshine duration, while wind and snowfall do not seem to play a role for ticket sales in Berlin. It is demonstrated that it is possible to predict ticket sales depending on date, time and weather conditions using a statistical model.On designated public transport routes the effect of weather on passenger numbers can be much stronger than the district average. This is shown for the example of a bus route to a public beach. With each degree of temperature increase, passenger numbers on this line go up by approximately 30%.

Cottage settlements in capital region of Ukraine

In this paper, the phenomenon of suburbanization in Ukraine is considered for the first time on the example of cottage settlements of the capital region. The issue of cottage settlements has not been studied specifically in Ukrainian human geography. A review of the achievements of foreign colleagues has revealed that they are mainly being studied as a new stage in the development of former summer cooperatives (dacha). In our opinion, it is rather one of the forms of pseudourbanization and imitation of Western European standards and forms of life. The cottage settlements have a higher quality of life than the surrounding villages and this causes social polarization within the urban agglomeration of the Ukrainian capital. It was revealed that the transport accessibility to Kyiv, the capital of the country, as well as the presence of natural attractors – the river, pond or forest plays an important role in their location. Conflicts have arisen over access to former public beaches and recreation areas. Currently, only residents of the respective cottage settlements have access to them, which causes social conflict with the local rural population. With the exception of four villages within the administrative boundaries of the capital, the rest are 10 to 30 kilometers away from the main motorways. The social stratification of cottage settlements has great importance. The most prestigious of them arose on the south direction 10 km from Kyiv. They are located in Koncha-Zaspa along the Dnieper river. Here their greatest concentration is revealed. Cottage settlements in the Koncha Zaspa area have become the main residence of the richest citizens of Ukraine. This led to the complete transformation of this settlement into a network of gated communities. Thus, a new structure of population distribution in the city agglomeration is gradually forming. It is presented on the map of accommodation of cottage settlements among traditional urban and rural settlements.

Spatial and temporal evaluation of the urban runoff water flowing into recreational areas of Guarujá, São Paulo State, Brazil

ABSTRACT This study evaluated the water quality of the urban runoff flowing into the public beaches and recreational waters of Guarujá, São Paulo State, Brazil. Monthly samples were obtained from October 2017 to August 2018 in four beaches: Tombo (Blue Flag certification), Enseada (high-used by tourist), Perequê (fishing community) and Iporanga (conservation unit). Twenty-eight environmental variables (physical, chemical and microbiological) were analysed using standard statistical tests, and different quality indexes were obtained. Data showed that urban drainage channels are the main responsible for pollutant transport to the Guarujá Sea, mainly during the rainy season. Moreover, the different occupations and land uses appear to interfere with the water quality of the urban runoff. The best water quality was recorded at Iporanga (environmental compliance over 90% according to the Brazilian law, with low total phosphorus enrichment, but medium aluminium toxicity). The quality ratings for the other beaches were classified as very bad (57%–66% compliance with current legislation). Moreover, these waters were eutrophic showing high aluminium toxicity. This study highlights the environmental and public health risks arising from the urban runoff flowing into the beaches of Guarujá. Better water management practices, improvement of basic sanitation and population awareness, is highly recommended to prevent potential socio-environmental risks in this tourist area.

Diel Dynamics of Freshwater Bacterial Communities at Beaches in Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair, Windsor, Ontario.

Bacteria play a key role in freshwater biogeochemical cycling as well as water safety, but short-term trends in freshwater bacterial community composition and dynamics are not yet well characterized. We sampled four public beaches in southern Ontario, Canada; in June, July, and August (2016) over a 24-h (diel) cycle at 2-h intervals. Using high-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA gene, we found substantial bi-hourly and day/night variation in the bacterial communities with considerable fluctuation in the relative abundance of Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria phyla. Moreover, relative abundance of Enterobacteriaceae (associated with potential health risk) was significantly high at night in some dial cycles. Diversity was significantly high at night across most of the diel sampling events. qPCR assays showed a substantial bi-hourly variation of Escherichia coli levels with a significant high level of E. coli at night hours in comparison with day hours and the lowest levels at noon and during the afternoon hours. Taken together, these findings highlighted a considerable short-term temporal variation of bacterial communities which helps better understanding of freshwater bacterial dynamics and their ecology. E. coli monitoring showed that multiple samples in different hours will provide more accurate picture of freshwater safety and human health risk. Graphical abstract.

Thalassoglobus polymorphus sp. nov., a novel Planctomycete isolated close to a public beach of Mallorca Island

Access to axenic cultures is crucial to extend the knowledge of the biology, lifestyle or metabolic capabilities of bacteria from different phyla. The phylum Planctomycetes is an excellent example since its members display an unusual cell biology and complex lifestyles. As a contribution to the current collection of axenic planctomycete cultures, here we describe strain Mal48T isolated from phytoplankton material sampled at the coast of S’Arenal close to Palma de Mallorca (Spain). The isolated strain shows optimal growth at pH 7.0–7.5 and 30 °C and exhibits typical features of Planctomycetes. Cells of the strain are spherical to pear-shaped, divide by polar budding with daughter cells showing the same shape as the mother cell, tend to aggregate, display a stalk and produce matrix or fimbriae. Strain Mal48T showed 95.8% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with the recently described Thalassoglobus neptunius KOR42T. The genome sequence of the novel isolate has a size of 6,357,355 bp with a G+C content of 50.3%. A total of 4874 protein-coding genes, 41 tRNA genes and 2 copies of the 16S rRNA gene are encoded in the genome. Based on phylogenetic, morphological and physiological analyses, we conclude that strain Mal48T (= DSM 100737T = LMG 29019T) should be classified as the type strain of a new species in the genus Thalassoglobus, for which the name Thalassoglobus polymorphus sp. nov. is proposed.

Presence of Colistin Resistance mcr-4 Gene and Clinically Relevant Antimicrobial Resistance Genes in Sand Samples from a Public Beach

The plasmid-borne mobilized colistin resistance genes (mcr-like) are related to resistance to polymyxins, which were reintroduced for the treatment of infections caused by multidrug-resistant pathogens. To analyze the presence of clinically relevant antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs), including mcr-like genes and plasmids in a beach, sand samples from a public beach were collected. Fifty-seven amplicons from 22 ARGs [mcr-4, blaVIM, blaCTX-M-Gp9, blaPER, blaCMY, qnrB, qnrS, oqxA, oqxB, sul1, sul2, sul3, floR, cmlA, tetA, tetB, tetC, aadA, ant(2″)-Ia, aph(3′)-Ib, aac(6′)-Ib, and mefAE] and 18 amplicons from seven plasmid families (IncFrepB, IncFIA, IncHI1, IncFIB, IncY, IncN, and ColE-like) were detected. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of the mcr-4 gene in Brazil and the first report in the world of mcr-4 gene in a recreation area. This study calls attention to the presence of mcr-4 gene and contribute to the surveillance studies about the mcr-like genes.

Groins, sand retention, and the future of Southern California’s beaches

Beaches form a significant component of the economy, history, and culture of southern California. Yet both the construction of dams and debris basins in coastal watersheds and the armoring of eroding coastal cliffs and bluffs have reduced sand supply. Ultimately, most of this beach sand is permanently lost to the submarine canyons that intercept littoral drift moving along this intensively used shoreline. Each decade the volume of lost sand is enough to build a beach 100 feet wide, 10 feet deep and 20 miles long, or a continuous beach extending from Newport Bay to San Clemente. Sea-level rise will negatively impact the beaches of southern California further, specifically those with back beach barriers such as seawalls, revetments, homes, businesses, highways, or railroads. Over 75% of the beaches in southern California are retained by structures, whether natural or artificial, and groin fields built decades ago have been important for local beach growth and stabilization efforts. While groins have been generally discouraged in recent decades in California, and there are important engineering and environmental considerations involved prior to any groin construction, the potential benefits are quite large for the intensively used beaches and growing population of southern California, particularly in light of predicted sea-level rise and public beach loss. All things considered, in many areas groins or groin fields may well meet the objectives of the California Coastal Act, which governs coastal land-use decisions. There are a number of shoreline areas in southern California where sand is in short supply, beaches are narrow, beach usage is high, and where sand retention structures could be used to widen or stabilize local beaches before sand is funneled offshore by submarine canyons intercepting littoral drift. Stabilizing and widening the beaches would add valuable recreational area, support beach ecology, provide a buffer for back beach infrastructure or development, and slow the impacts of a rising sea level.

Peranan Camat Moro Dalam Menertibkan Pembangunan Rumah Di Pesisir Pantai Kabupaten Karimun Provinsi Kepulauan Riau

Governments have an obligation to make the arrangement and control of the coastal areas as mentioned in the Act - Act No. 1 of 2014 About the Management of Coastal and Island - Small Island in Article 17 paragraph (4), which permits the location can not be given to the core area in the conservation area, sea lanes, the port area and the public beach. Then described in Law - Law No. 1 of 2014 About the Management of Coastal and Island - Small Island, namely monitoring, utilization, control, planning. Nor has the district head in this case must be able to supervise, utilize, control, and planning for development of existing dikawasannya seashores. Riau Island Province is one of the provinces in Indonesia with thousands of islands. One is that many districts Moro coastal areas so that the sub-district should be able to reduce the number of existing development dikecamatan Moro seashores. Berdaarkan where such rules are found to be indicators of control, utilization, control and planning. But in practice there are still many problems that can be seen in the field, namely the construction of the District Moro seashores are still many and such left alone, and if camat in this case as a sub-district leader was silent and no enforcement does. The purpose of this study was to mengetaui extent of camat role in the discipline of existing buildings on the seashores have been implemented or not. The focus of this research is the Moro East Village and Village Pauh, with quantitative methods. Where after conducting the research and data processing and analysis found the conclusion that the role of district head in the discipline construction of houses on the seashores in the district Moro is in the category of "less Acting", because the Head is not doing demolition on the building located on the seashores dikecamatan Moro it is because camat not do monitoring, utilization, control, and planning on coastal areas in the district Moro Karimun Regency of Riau Islands province.

Microplastics occurrence and spatial distribution in seawater and sediment of Haikou Bay in the northern South China Sea

This study investigated microplastics (MPs) pollution in Haikou Bay in the northern South China Sea (SCS). Eight sampling sites were selected on the basis of their functions as hotel-intensive areas, public beaches, harbors, municipal discharge sites, and public waters. A total of 1053 putative plastic particles of which 1019 were from seawater and 34 from sediment were collected using 333 μm nylon Neuston nets and a bottom collector, respectively. The results showed that the abundance of MPs ranged from 0.26 to 0.84 items/m3 (hereafter defined as n/m3) in the surface water and 0.66 ± 0.58 n/50 g (d.w.)–17.00 ± 6.56 n/50 g (d.w.) in the sediment of Haikou Bay. For the surface seawater samples, the predominant MPs were fibers (83.12%) in rayon (52.73%). For the sediment samples, MPs were predominantly in fibers (67.65%), while PE (28.41%), polyolefin (25.50%), rayon (23.53%) were frequently detected. MPs are widely found in coastal seawater and sediment, but with different abundance in different functional areas. A higher abundance of MPs was found in the seawaters of public beaches and sediments of sewage discharge ditches. Our results highlight the occurrence of MPs in Haikou Bay, and we also offer field study results for the evaluation of environmental risks posed by MPs in the northern SCS.

Backshore nourishment of a beach degraded by off-road vehicles: Ecological impacts and benefits

Worldwide, spoil from maintenance dredging of navigation channels is increasingly used to opportunistically nourish beaches. This is often justified on the presumption that nourishment will improve public beach amenity and restore sandy beach habitat. However, this is not necessarily the case, especially for beaches that do not have an immediate threat of significant erosion. We addressed the ecological impacts and benefits of a backshore sand nourishment project conducted along an off-road vehicle (ORV) damaged section of Blacksmiths Beach, New South Wales, Australia. Sediment, sourced from dredging the inlet of nearby Lake Macquarie, was placed on the foredune, ORVs were excluded and low-density vegetation was planted. Sampling before and after the management interventions, at the Impact (nourished) site, two Control sites (with ORVs), and two Reference sites (without ORVs), assessed ecological impacts of nourishment and the efficacy of the interventions in rehabilitating vegetation and invertebrate communities degraded by ORVs. Nourishment initially had large negative impacts on vegetation cover, as well as on invertebrate abundance and richness. Recovery to a pre-nourished state was, however, observed for vegetation cover after 9 months and invertebrate communities after 21 months. Nevertheless, by the end of our study that extended 21 months post-nourishment and ORV exclusion, there was no evidence of change in the nourished site towards the state of Reference sites. Overall, our study suggests that small-scale backshore sand nourishments of ocean beaches may have only short-term negative impacts on foredune ecosystems when accompanied with some replanting. Nevertheless, where the frequency of sand disposals is greater than the required recovery time, or cumulative effects amass, longer-term or sustained impacts may occur. Our study does not support the efficacy of sand nourishment as a tool for ecological restoration, at least in the short term, without sustained replanting and weeding efforts aimed at reinstating the vegetation community.

Spatial and temporal distribution of E. coli contamination on three inland lake and recreational beach systems in the upper Midwestern United States

Swimming advisories are commonly posted at public beaches across the United States every year. In Iowa, weekly monitoring of public swimming areas at state and county beaches have resulted in the impairment of numerous lakes for fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) contamination, as detected by E. coli. An extensive study was established to assess the relationships between E. coli contamination of nearshore beach water environments, open lake conditions and beach sands in three recreational beach/lake systems currently impaired for FIB contamination across Iowa. A transect/grab sample based sampling design was implemented across the systems with collections spanning from April through October of 2015 and 2016. Collections of E. coli along water transects identified strong near to far shore gradients of decreasing concentrations in all systems. Results indicate that concentrations of E. coli observed in swimming waters consistently disassociate with concentrations in the broader lake environment. Swimming water E. coli concentrations correlated with elevated beach sand E. coli, samples collected from beach sands uncovered concentrations up to 86,500 times higher than adjacent swimming waters. Results from this study indicate that foreshore beach sands and other beach proximate FIB sources serve as the major contributing source for swimming zone advisories. The current methodology used by state and federal officials includes impairing entire lake waterbodies for FIB contamination of the swimming area. These impairment listings do not accurately reflect the condition(s) of the larger lake environment outside the swimming area and fail to account for beach proximate conditions in the assessment process. Further, this approach provides potentially misleading information to the public and may undermine implementation strategies deployed by resource managers aimed at addressing FIB contamination at recreational swimming areas.Views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

Effects of Repeated Sand Replenishment Projects on Runs of a Beach-Spawning Fish, the California Grunion

Beach habitats are diminishing globally, particularly in urban areas, as sea-level rise, erosion, and shoreline hardening, along with reduced sediment inputs, combine to squeeze the coast. In California, USA an endemic marine fish, the California grunion, spawns on sandy beaches during late-night spring tides. Its unique recreational fishery is managed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The City of Oceanside, CA contracts for annual harbor dredging and, after testing, places the sandy sediment on its public beach. The effects on local beach wildlife from this annual sand replenishment are not known. We examined the effect of this repeated activity as a case study over three years on the spawning runs of the California grunion. Some spawning runs occurred in all three years, but the fish avoided areas with high scarps in the intertidal zone that developed following sand placement activity. Grunion spawning runs have declined in the habitat range as a whole over the past two decades, and those in Oceanside have declined to an even greater extent. Increasing sandy beach habitat can be beneficial to wildlife, but the method of placement, timing of the project, and fate of the beach afterward can modulate or prevent beneficial effects. Frequent repetition of sand placement may accumulate impacts without allowing sufficient time for the ecosystem to recover. Rather than improving the habitat, these repeated projects in Oceanside may degrade the spawning habitat for the grunion. Alternative discharge methods and locations, slope and elevation designs, sediment volumes, and greater care in beach fill practices should be implemented to reduce future impacts.

A histopathological study on the Caucasian dwarf goby from an anthropogenically loaded site in Hungary using multiple tissues analyses

AbstractThe present study aimed to investigate for the first time the health status of the Caucasian dwarf goby Knipowitschia caucasica (Berg, 1916, Fishes of freshwaters of Russian Empire, p. 563, Moscow, Russia: Dep. Zemledeliya) (Teleostei: Gobiidae) from an anthropogenically loaded site in Hungary using histopathological analyses on multiple tissues. For that purpose, fish were collected from the public beach at Tiszafüred near the River Tisza. Gills, liver and kidney were subjected to histopathological analyses, and the results showed different alterations in each organ, which also differed in their extent and severity. In addition, we also found lesions in the reproductive organs of both, male and female fish which, overall, we hypothesized could be due to untreated municipal wastewaters, most likely contaminated with endocrine‐disrupting chemicals. The multi‐organ histopathological analyses of Caucasian dwarf gobies revealed different lesions, prevalence and severity in each target organ, as follows: liver>gills>kidney>gonad (testes and ovaries). These histopathological lesions can be assessed as good indicators of contamination by endocrine‐disrupting chemicals of freshwater ecosystems.

Radiological Impact and Environmental Monitoring of Gamma Radiations Along the Public Beach of Port Said, Egypt

Port Said is an Egyptian coastal city, laying on Mediterranean Sea. The city is a world-renowned international harbor and a free-trade zone. Therefore, it is one of the most popular shopping destinations in Egypt, where people can buy duty-free goods and enjoy the city’s free public beaches in summer vacations. Recent radiological hazards studies had located several high radioactive lenses along the Nile Delta coastline, resulted from accumulations of black sand deposits. Concerns had been raised regarding the safety of individuals who might be exposed to high doses of radiations due to the presence of black sand deposits along Port Said beach, especially when the beach is characterized by positive accretion rates. Detailed ground radioactivity surveys were conducted at the beach aiming to measure the activity concentrations of the naturally occurring radioelements (238U, 232Th and 40K). Spatial distributions of the three elements were mapped. Dose Rate (DR) and Annual Effective Dose Rates (AEDR) were calculated. Although the results of AEDR revealed that the radiations levels are fallen within the allowed limits, the Excess Lifetime Cancer Risk (ELCR) factor exceeded the world’s average of 0.25. For public awareness, high-risk areas were delineated on a risk map, showing the locations where gamma radiation emissions exceeded the allowed exposure limits for humans. It is recommended to apply the same surveying procedures at all of the public beaches along Sinai coasts, where larger quantities of Black Sands had been detected along its shoreline.

Ekonomik, Siyasi, Toplumsal Çekişme Alanı ve Kamusal Bir Olgu Olarak (Kamusal) Mekan: “Halk Plajı”ndan “Millet Bahçesi”ne Ataköy Kıyı Alanı

Ekonomik, Siyasi, Toplumsal Çekişme Alanı ve Kamusal Bir Olgu Olarak (Kamusal) Mekan: “Halk Plajı”ndan “Millet Bahçesi”ne Ataköy Kıyı Alanı

A preliminary experiment combining marine robotics and citizenship engagement using imitation learning

In this paper, we describe a preliminary experiment of citizenship engagement in the context of marine robotics using imitation learning to train a controller that mimics human behavior. The experiment has been carried out during the Festival della Comunicazione in Camogli, Italy, in September 2019. In more detail, citizens have been asked to pilot a small, light, and safe autonomous surface vehicle in front of a crowded public beach with the goal of performing an S-shaped path. The trajectories and controls performed by non-expert human operators have been recorded with the aim of training an imitation system that, after collecting a sufficient number of trajectory-control pairs, has been able to drive the vehicle without human intervention. To learn the human behavior, echo state networks have been employed as approximating architectures. The resulting controller turned out to be very effective in successfully performing the considered experiment with a reduced amount of training trajectories by imitating the human behavior also in unknown situations. The success of this experiment may pave the way to new research processes where citizens are actively engaged.