Mapping seasonal marine debris patterns and potential hotspots in Banten Bay, Indonesia

Abstract

Banten Bay is a 150 km2 sea area which includes the waterfront of Serang City in Banten Province, Indonesia with several large rivers flowing into the Bay. The rapid development of industrial and commerce surrounds this bay added with population growth in Serang City have caused environmental problems. For instance, there has been a surge in the volume of domestic and industrial waste that has been dumped along several rivers and finally leaked into Banten Bay. This study aimed to spatially visualize the existing waste flow from residential area to the location of landfills in order to assist the local government in evaluating their waste management system, and to help prevent the waste leaking into Banten Bay and even further beyond. By using hydrodynamic modelling and ground truthing, we can predict the potential waste hotspots and the seasonal patterns of marine debris around Banten Bay and its surroundings. The results show that plastic litter originating from the Cibanten River will drift to the west during the east monsoon and will move to the east during the west monsoon. Based on this evidence, plastic litter from the Cibanten River estuary has the potential to spread further towards the Sunda Strait during the east monsoon and into Jakarta Bay during the west monsoon. We encourage cooperation among local governments in Banten and West Java throughout the watershed as well as with the Jakarta Provincial Government to establish an integrated waste management system to prevent the waste leakage.

River engage: Insights on plastic debris polluting the Aturukuku River in Uganda, the Ayung River in Indonesia, and the Connecticut River in the United States

“…Researching Pantai Indah Kapuk mangrove (Java) Hastuti et al (2014) note plastic is the most frequent item they sample (77.7%) followed by foamed plastic (18.1%) which is, of course, also plastic; the authors recommend restoration and widening of the mangrove ecosystem to improve conditions. Tracking outputs of local rivers into Banten Bay (Java) Rahmania et al (2021) find plastics originating in the Cibanten River drift west to the Sunda Strait in the east monsoon and east to Jarkarta Bay in the west monsoon. Their analysis leads to a recommendation of local governmental cooperation to control both unmanaged and managed solid waste sites (Rahmania et al, 2021).…”

“…Tracking outputs of local rivers into Banten Bay (Java) Rahmania et al (2021) find plastics originating in the Cibanten River drift west to the Sunda Strait in the east monsoon and east to Jarkarta Bay in the west monsoon. Their analysis leads to a recommendation of local governmental cooperation to control both unmanaged and managed solid waste sites (Rahmania et al, 2021). Bridge sampling emissions of macro-plastics on the Ciliwung, Pesanggrahan, Sunter, and Cakung rivers (Java) in Indonesia, van Emmerik et al (2019a) estimate that 2.1 × 10 3 tons of plastic waste travels via rivers and canals in Jakarta to oceans annually.…”

Forecasting the stranded area of marine debris in Indonesian coasts using mobidrift model and floating drifter

“…The plastic debris moved around from time to time in the ocean by forcing wind and current. Although there have been some study findings of marine plastic in Jakarta Bay [4,5,6,7], Banten [8,9,10,11] or other regions in Indonesia i.e Pangandaran [12] and Sawu [13]. It is important to have a numerical model that can predict the stranded location on a national level.…”