00:44, 19 October 2025

AI Takes Aim at Coastal Pollution in Russia

The nationwide “Clean Coast” project unites satellites, drones, and neural networks to protect Russia’s most fragile shorelines.

A large-scale environmental initiative called “Clean Coast” has launched in Russia, harnessing artificial intelligence to detect and combat marine litter along the country’s coastlines.

The technology analyzes satellite imagery and drone footage to locate waste accumulations, identify material types, and estimate volumes with high precision. It also assesses environmental damage — helping scientists and conservationists develop more targeted cleanup strategies.

“Pollution is the most dangerous threat to nature, followed by poaching. That’s why this project is vital for achieving our main goal — preserving biodiversity. We’re grateful to our partners for their active participation in this work,” said Vsevolod Yakovlev, acting director of the Kronotsky Nature Reserve.

A Smarter Way to Protect Nature

The system replaces labor-intensive field surveys with automated digital maps of pollution hotspots, giving volunteers and park rangers actionable data.

The Clean Coast initiative was created as a joint project between Yandex Cloud’s Center for Social Technologies, Far Eastern Federal University, and the Kronotsky Reserve. The neural network is trained to recognize various types of waste — from plastic bottles to discarded fishing gear — along kilometers of shoreline.

“In the 21st century, pollution of rivers, seas, and oceans has reached a catastrophic level — and it’s only getting worse. That’s why the Nature Conservation Fund, together with its partners, launched the Clean Coast project. The goal isn’t just to clean up protected areas but to create an entire methodology that simplifies and lowers the cost of shoreline cleanup,” said Pyotr Shpilenok, director of the Nature Conservation Fund.

Expanding Nationwide

An educational program is now teaching activists and volunteers across Russia how to use the new tools. The first field trials proved highly effective — around three tons of waste were collected this year along the South Kamchatka Nature Reserve coast.

With its early success, Clean Coast is expanding from Kamchatka and the Far Eastern Marine Reserve to Primorsky Krai, Kaliningrad, and Dagestan, setting a model for how AI can power environmental restoration at a national scale.

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