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Participatory Geographic-Information-System-Based Citizen Science: Highland Trails Contamination due to Mountaineering Tourism in the Dolomites
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A citizen science project had university students map litter along three hiking trails in the Dolomites mountains using GPS apps, finding widespread littering dominated by cigarette butts, wet wipes, and discarded mountain equipment. While the study focuses on macroscopic litter rather than microplastics, cigarette butts and synthetic wipes are known microplastic sources, and the data highlight how even remote, protected landscapes accumulate plastic waste that eventually fragments into smaller particles.
Environmental pollution is a persistent problem in terrestrial ecosystems, including remote mountain areas. This study investigates the extent and patterns of littering on three popular hiking trails among mountaineers and tourists in the Dolomites range located in northeastern Italy. The data was collected adopting a citizen science approach with the participation of university students surveying the trails and recording the macroscopic waste items through a GPS-based offline platform. The waste items were categorized according to their material type, usage, and geographical location, and the sorted data was applied to Esri GIS ArcMapTM 10.8.1. Even though littering is found to be widespread all along the trails, the outcomes of the study reveal diverse patterns based on density (cigarette butts, napkins and wet wipes, and mountain equipment littering) while highlighting the prevalence of plastic pollution. The other patterns include voluntary and involuntary littering and different hot spots of contamination, with lodge, barn, and cableway effects. The implications of littering patterns for alpine environment sustainability are discussed, and recommendations are drawn indicating the need for increased supervision for waste management and maintenance on-site, GIS tech-based participatory awareness raising, and zippered clothing and equipment design for sustainable practices of mountaineering in the area.
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