EMODnet Chemistry aims to provide access to marine chemistry data sets and derived data products concerning eutrophication, ocean acidification, contaminants and litter. The chosen parameters are relevant for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), in particular for descriptors 5, 8, 9 and 10. The dataset contains standardized, harmonized and validated data collections from beach litter (official monitoring and other sources).

Datasets concerning beach and seafloor litter data are loaded in a central database after a semi-automated validation phase. Once loaded, a data assessment is performed in order to check data consistency and potential errors are corrected thanks to a feedback loop with data originators.

For beach litter, the harmonized datasets contain all unrestricted EMODnet Chemistry data on beach litter data, including 6503 CDI records, in which 6199 refer monitoring data and 304 to other sources (cleaning and research). The temporal range for monitoring data is from 2001-01-01 to 2018-07-26 and include data from 311 beaches. For data from other sources, the temporal range is from 2014-05-10 to 2017-05-12 and include 226 beaches.

EMODnet beach litter data and databases are hosted and maintained by ‘Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale, Division of Oceanography (OGS/NODC) from Italy.

Data are formatted following Guidelines and forms for gathering marine litter data, which can be found at: https://doi.org/10.6092/15c0d34c-a01a-4091-91ac-7c4f561ab508. The updated lists of admitted values are available in https://nodc.ogs.it/marinelitter/vocab.

The harmonized datasets can be downloaded as EMODnet Beach litter data format Version 1.0, which is a spreadsheet file composed of 4 sheets: beach metadata, survey metadata, animals and litter.

The original datasets can be searched and downloaded from EMODnet Chemistry Chemistry CDI Data and Discovery Access Service: https://emodnet-chemistry.maris.nl/search