OSPAR Beach Litter Monitoring in the Netherlands. Update 2023. Part II: Applied Methods

Beach litter monitoring started as a programme commissioned by Rijkswaterstaat (RWS) in 2002. Till 2007 beach litter monitoring was part of a pilot project in 9 EU countries, it then transferred in a regular OSPAR monitoring programme. The most important purpose it serves is that beach litter is one of the marine litter indicators under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), and has a descriptor status within OSPAR. DG10, or marine litter, is used to assess the ‘Good Environmental Status’ (GES) of the marine environment. The Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management (I&W), together with RWS, is responsible for implementing the MSFD and for taking the necessary measures to achieve or maintain good environmental status in their waters.

OSPAR and EU member states, including the Netherlands, are committed to monitoring and assessing this indicator for OSPAR and the MSFD. Beach litter (D10C1) is a primary criterium and aims to get the composition, amount and spatial distribution of litter on the coastline1 at levels that do not cause harm to the coastal and marine environment. For beach litter the level is set at a threshold value of 20 litter items per 100 meter coastline, agreed upon in 2020 (EU) and 2023 (OSPAR).

Beach litter monitoring data helps to understand the extent of the problem. And it can check whether existing policy measures are effective and whether additional measures are needed.

From 2023 onwards, RWS's information needs and the beach litter monitoring results, for easy reading by a broader public, are described in the annual report part l: Status and Trends (Maas & Hougee, 2024). This report, the separate methods report, is designed for the specialistic reader and provides an overview of all deviations and changes that have occurred in the applied methods (such as the software, survey sites) from the start of the beach litter monitoring programme to the last monitoring year.