The Cantabria Environmental Hydraulic Institute Foundation is developing a project to identify the areas with the greatest accumulation of waste on the Cantabrian coast.

With the aim of identifying the areas with the greatest accumulation of waste on the Cantabrian coast, the Cantabria Environmental Hydraulic Institute Foundation (FIHAC) is carrying out, with the support of the Biodiversity Foundation, the project “Modelling of the areas of accumulation of marine litter in Sites of Community Importance (SCI) on the coast of Cantabria”.

This initiative is one of the beneficiaries of the call for aid for the fight against marine litter managed by the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment in collaboration with Ecoembes.

During the first phase of the project, a calculation will be made of the possible accumulation of waste, depending on the river course, in three areas of the Natura 2000 Network on the coast of Cantabria: the dunes of Puntal, the Miera estuary and the marshes of Santoña, Victoria and Joyel. These estimates will be checked in situ by a network of volunteers to finally analyse the results according to the type of rubbish accumulated and the areas most affected.

FIHAC seeks to achieve a series of environmental and social benefits with this project, including the optimization of coastal cleanliness by relocating efforts to the areas that accumulate the greatest amount of waste. Another of its objectives is to raise awareness among citizens about the problem, involving them in volunteer activities. In addition, this predictive model can be transferred for the analysis of the state of conservation of other coasts.

Likewise, based on the results, FIHAC will present a proposal for specific measures for the management plans of the three Natura 2000 Network sites that are currently in the final phase of regulatory approval.