The first field study in the pilot area on the Caspian Sea coast of Neftchala region has been launched within the CRIPTIC project, a partnership of the Institute of Geography of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) with the general sponsorship of BP.

CRIPTIC - Cleaning Riverine Plastic from a Transboundary Inflow to the Caspian is a Norwegian-Azerbaijani joint research project funded by the Handelens Miljofund Environmental Foundation. The CRIPTIC project is also supported by ESRI, At-Geotech, Azercosmos, MONT Group, SPECTRA, Az-Green, Caspian Geomatics and Quintessence C&S.

The main partners of the project from Norway are Aquaplan-Niva, Norwegian Institute for Water Research NIVA, SALT, Terra Nor, and from Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan Geographical Society, Institute of Geography, Caspian Integrated Research Network (CASPISNET), Water The Union of Specialists is represented by Sukanal Research and Design Institute of Azersu OJSC.

The field study, organized with the support of the Caspian Integrated Research Network (CASPISNET), a CRIPTIC partner of the project, involved ecology, hydrology, and more than fifteen organizations from various universities (UFAZ, Baku Engineering University, Baku State University), public and private sectors. Students and engineers studying and working in the field of oceanography, climatology, geophysics, geography, geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing.

The CRIPTIC team began online registration and cleaning of each plastic waste collected through special software after drone shooting in a 1,200 km long and 140 m wide strip in the pilot zone. This method, applied for the first time in Azerbaijan, will help many specialists and relevant organizations to use the modern world experience to combat plastic waste in the most effective way. The collected plastic waste was handed over to a plant for recycling plastic waste in Baku with the support of AZGREEN.

Elnur Safarov, head of the CRIPTIC project in Azerbaijan, senior researcher at the Department of Caspian Sea Level Problems of the Institute of Geography, said that the main goal of the project is to develop modern satellite, drone observations, programming languages, machine learning, artificial intelligence geographic information technologies. Modeling with a complex application on the GIS platform and teaching this experience to Azerbaijani specialists.

Noting that the project consists of three work packages, the organizer said that they include the cleaning of river banks and the classification of plastic pollutants in the Kura River, the implementation of cartography for cleaning operations, public involvement. According to Safarov, a preliminary agreement on cooperation within the CRIPTIC has already been reached with the US company ESRI, a world giant in the field of GIS. ESRI will soon begin work on maximizing the project.

In addition, high-resolution satellite imagery, which detects the location of relatively large plastic waste in larger areas in the pilot zone, will be provided by Azersky, a joint venture operated by Azercosmos and a remote sensing satellite.

The identification of smaller wastes began on August 8 with the shooting of drones by AT-Geotech in cooperation.