Data set represents the reported beach litter items on monitoring sites at the Baltic Sea area. Data includes the sum value of items per category for each monitoring site, as an average for the whole monitoring period. Categories include: Artificial polymer materials (plastic), rubber, cloth/textile, paper/cardboard, processed/worker wood, metal, glass/ceramics and unclassified. Number of items in the data set is always in relation to a 100 m strip of beach. In Map and data service the category "plastic" is visualised. Litter data is provided by HELCOM contracting parties in response to data call for State of the Baltic sea report.

NOTE: Spatial data set includes only categorised sum values of beach litter items. An excel file including the complete national data sets with all litter items, and all individual monitoring events, is available by downloading the data set. Download is available behind the link below. Please also note that countries have used different categorisation protocols for their data, and the spatial data set is a harmonisation of these protocols, on a category level. The excel file will provide further details on what protocols have been used.

NOTE: Please note that in Latvia monitoring is carried out only in the summer season and is not completely comparable with other countries that carry out monitoring seasonally.

Attribute information:

Country: country where the site is located

Monitoring site: Name of the monitoring site

Beach type: rural/urban/reference

Length: Length of monitored beach

Width: Width of monitored beach

HELCOM sub-basin National: National description of the sub-basin

HELCOM sub-basin: HELCOM sub-basin on assessment level 2

Litter categories: Artificial polymer material - unclassified: The sum of all material belonging to this category. Value is an average of all individual monitoring events.

sum: The sum of all categories. Value is an average of all individual monitoring events.

monitoring period: The first and last monitoring period of monitoring site