Enhancing Environmental Protection Through HCI: Insights from a Coastal Litter Cleanup Initiative in Norway

Norway’s long coastline, industrial activities and harsh weather conditions expose it to the global environmental challenge of Marine Plastic Pollution (MPP). Ambitious grassroots coastal cleanup initiatives have been taking place across the country since 2013. The project that is the object of this case study aimed to create a unified visualization tool to enhance data-driven decision-making at local and regional levels. This involved categorizing litter to guide policy making and strengthen environmental protection efforts. However, the research team encountered significant challenge: effectively classifying litter and encouraging the decision-makers to use the tools for decision-making. A visualization tool may not be enough to foster data-driven decision-making but it may bring about the necessary collaboration among various stakeholders by providing a tangible basis and an arena to discuss this poorly-legislated problem. While the field of human-computer interaction (HCI) offers many effective practices for using technology to support environmental protection, we present a case study of an unsuccessful attempt and reflect on the lessons learnt. We focus on designing interactions for often-neglected domains, such as MPP, and reflect on adapting and developing new practices to extend HCI’s research, ensuring it can accommodate the unique demands of a diverse stakeholder group and the constraints of real-world projects.