Project: DANUBINA
Topic: HORIZON-MISS-2025-03-OCEAN-02
Proposal title: Smart and Sustainable Governance for Plastic and Litter-Free River-to-Sea Ecosystems in the Danube Region
Duration: 2026-2030DANUBINA is developing and demonstrating a basin-scale, land-to-river-to-sea continuum “toolbox” tailored to the Danube River basin by integrating advanced set of analytical methods, monitoring and modelling algorithms and tools, software and hardware capable of tracing plastic pathways from diverse sources to accumulation zones, in the same time taking into consideration specific needs of public authorities in each country along the Danube river. This is achieved by combining a multidisciplinary set of tools: remote monitoring with satellites and drone-based remote sensing for macro-litter detection, AI-driven mapping and predictive modelling of plastic pathways, microfluidic samplers for microplastic collection, state-of-the art analytical methods for microplastic and additive fingerprinting. These technological components will be deployed alongside site-specific, low-impact removal solutions, including plastic barriers, phytoremediation, and compact treatment units tested under real operational conditions. A central decision-support system will merge environmental data, hydrodynamic modelling, and chemical risk assessments, enabling public authorities to identify priority intervention sites and evaluate mitigation strategies. The project encompasses 14 European countries, will be validated in four policy-relevant use cases, namely: Vienna (Austria), Bratislava (Slovak Republic), Danube river in Serbia, Siret river in Ukraine-Romania cross border, and replicated in a number of associated regions through FSTP.
EDENTIFY role
- Integration of data on the EMODnet (European Marine Observation and Data Network) and interoperability with the EU Digital Twin of the Ocean (EDITO) www.edito.eu
developing EO Super-resolution service for plastic debris monitoring. The tool combines Sentinel-2 imagery with a convolutional neural network (CNN) super-resolution framework to enhance spatial resolution from 10 m to 2–3 m, enabling detection of plastic debris previously below the threshold of satellite observation. The CNN-based super-resolution tool has previously reached TRL 5, demonstrating feasibility of enhancing medium-resolution satellite imagery for object detection. Technology will be adapted to aquatic environments, validated with UAV and in situ observations from the Danube. By TRL 7, the service will operate in a pre-demonstration setting, generating georeferenced plastic debris maps and integrating outputs into the for policy-relevant monitoring (EF)