When we first read about the challenge "A new perspective", which deals with the analysis of how human traffic impacts the protected areas, the first thing that rang a bell was to talk about the beaches and the amount of trash incorrectly dumped there. After some research, we realized the amount of collected garbage on the beaches around the world has been drastically decreasing, and this impacts directly the beach's ecosystem. Because of that, we started to analyze the data to confirm our research.
The first used data has been taken from JAXA Himawari Monitor, software recommended by NASA, which provides multi-satellites products and releases the geostationary satellite Himawari Standard Data provided by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) as well as the geophysical parameter data produced by JAXA using the Himawari Standard Data. On this software, we studied the levels of chlorophyll-a on the shores before and after the COVID-19. The images are presented on the link below.
Satellite image of the Australian north coast in May 2019, showing the presence of chlorophyll-a in red.
Satellite image of the Australian north coast in May 2020, showing the presence of chlorophyll-a in red.
By the images, the increase of the chlorophyll-a amount is totally notable when comparing a pre-COVID period with a post-COVID one. The reason for this is probably the social isolation and the consequent decrease in human traffic. This fact allowed the beaches’ ecosystems to heal and come back to normal.
Besides that, we based our analysis on news around the world that approached discussions about the situation of the shores before and after the pandemic. Almost immediately, we came across America and Brazilian news, respectively from Flórida, Texas and Rio de Janeiro, presenting researches pointing to the decrease of the trash amount dumped on beaches after the beginning of the pandemic. The researches also point to a significant increase in the garbage when people tend to break social isolation or where the social distancing is not adopted. One can read parts of the news below:
“The Florida-based non-profit said it's seen an influx of trash since the city's beaches reopened the first weekend in May. Two weekends ago, teams collected 297 bags of trash -- at 40 pounds a bag, that's almost 12,000 pounds, Bobbitt said. He estimates the weight was higher, as tent poles, beach chairs and other heavy items were left on beaches. This weekend was close to that number with 305 bags of trash, he said. On average, crews collect 30 to 40 bags on a day during this time of year, he said.” -  CNN travel

“SOUTHWEST, Fla. - While the coronavirus pandemic has devastated the local economy, experts said it has helped the environment. Dr. Win Everham, ecology professor at Florida Gulf Coast University, said over the past month, the beach has been spared a significant amount of litter like cigarette butts, cans and a variety of plastics. "People could just be better about what we should have learned in kindergarten, which is, clean up your own mess,"  Everham said.” - NBC-2

“Some islanders reported disgust over the weekend about heaps of trash left on beaches and streets after the Memorial Day holiday. The laments prompted a brief social-media skirmish between leaders about litter-control spending.” - galvnews

"With so many people staying at home, the amount of garbage collected on Rio's beaches has drastically dropped. Nowadays, the decrease during the week is up to 91%. According to Comlurb, the urban cleaning company of the capital used to collect 120 tons of garbage from monday through friday during the summer and 341 tons on weekends, being 146 on saturdays and 195 on sundays. Now, those numbers have been reduced to 10 tons a day on the entire shore during the week and 15 tons on weekends, according to the company." - G1

All of that information has led to our choice of solution, which will be useful for a world post-pandemic and social distancing, a world where going to beaches will return to be a normal activity to all of us. This way, our approach fits the challenge because after observing that the decrease of the human traffic had a positive impact on the beaches, we chose this solution that seeks to keep this positive impact when the pandemic meets its end and everything goes back to normal.