SFEI at California Water Boards Water Data Science Symposium
SFEI’s Diana Lin and Tony Hale will be presenting at the California Water Boards Water Data Science Symposium on July 1-2, 2019. Diana Lin will be sharing preliminary results from SFEI’s Microplastic Monitoring in San Francisco Bay and Adjacent National Marine Sanctuaries study, which is the first comprehensive regional study of microplastic pollution in the world. Tony Hale will be presenting on an innovative project in collaborating with SCCWRP (Southern California Coastal Water Research Project) to apply drones and machine learning to trash monitoring efforts.
This annual event aims to enhance how water quality monitoring generates meaningful data that informs water quality management decisions. The symposium features two days of presentations on water quality monitoring and data visualization. This year’s event also features two additional concurrent sessions:
- A Datathon concurrent sessions where data scientists will work alongside water quality scientists on specific Water Board projects.
- The second day hosts a Community Water Science concurrent session to increase civic engagement and provide training and information relating to community water science organization.
This is a free event, and is targeted for managers facing policy decisions and professional and citizen scientists working on water quality or resource management questions.
CalEPA Headquarters Building
Byron Sher Auditorium
1001 I Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
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Plastic pollution is gaining global recognition as a threat to the resilience and productivity of ocean ecosystems. However, we are only just beginning to understand the scope and impacts of microplastic particles (less than 5 mm) on coastal and ocean resources, and the San Francisco Bay Area is no exception. A preliminary study of nine water sites in San Francisco Bay, published in 2016, showed greater levels of microplastics than the Great Lakes or Chesapeake Bay.

The California Ocean Protection Council (OPC), in close partnership with the State Water Board, has recognized the importance of standard methods for trash monitoring and has funded this project. The Southern California Coastal Water Research Project (SCCWRP) and San Francisco Bay Estuary Institute (SFEI) have partnered up to test multiple trash monitoring methods with a goal of developing a library of methods with known levels of precision, accuracy, and cross-comparability of results, and linking these methods to specific management questions.