Abstract
Marine debris coming from inlands has become a huge environmental issue in coastal areas recently. However, there is very little information of actual behavior of floating litters in rivers available. Thus, we examined Lagrangian behavior of floating litters in rivers using floats with GPS sensers and mobile phones. Field surveys were conducted in Edo and Mogami Rivers for flood events. The results indicated that the travel distance of floats during a flood increases with its magnitude. The results also indicated the positions of floats in the river were mainly in leeward side and outer bank in Edo and Mogami Rivers respectively. The different position of the floats is mainly due to the differences in flow and wind fields, which are appreciably influenced by the channel alignment and morphology respectively.
