Plastic Hotspot Mapping in Urban Water Systems

Geosciences, vol. 10, pp. 342

Abstract

Reducing plastic pollution in rivers, lakes, and oceans is beneficial to aquatic animals and human livelihood. To achieve this, reliable observations of the abundance, spatiotemporal variation, and composition of plastics in aquatic ecosystems are crucial. Current efforts mainly focus on collecting data on the open ocean, on beaches and coastlines, and in river systems. Urban areas are the main source of plastic leakage into the natural environment, yet data on plastic pollution in urban water systems are scarce. In this paper, we present a simple method for plastic hotspot mapping in urban water systems. Through visual observations, macroplastic abundance and polymer categories are determined. Due to its simplicity, this method is suitable for citizen science data collection. A first application in the Dutch cities of Leiden and Wageningen showed similar mean plastic densities (111–133 items/km canal) and composition (75–80% soft plastics), but different spatial distributions. These observations emphasize the importance of long-term data collection to further understand and quantify spatiotemporal variations of plastics in urban water systems. In turn, this will support improved estimates of the contribution of urban areas to the plastic pollution of rivers and oceans.

Authors 6

1. Paolo Francesco Tasseron

   Wageningen University & Research

   Affiliation as printed

   Hydrology and Quantitative Water Management Group, Wageningen University and Research, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands

2. Hestia Zinsmeister

   Wageningen University & Research

   Affiliation as printed

   Hydrology and Quantitative Water Management Group, Wageningen University and Research, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands

3. Liselotte Rambonnet Aachen Science Communication and Society

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   De Grachtwacht, Lange Mare 25, 2312 GP Leiden, The Netherlands

   Science Communication and Society, Leiden University, Rapenburg, 70, 2311 EZ Leiden, The Netherlands

4. Auke‐Florian Hiemstra Aachen Naturalis Biodiversity Center

   Naturalis Biodiversity Center

   Affiliation as printed

   De Grachtwacht, Lange Mare 25, 2312 GP Leiden, The Netherlands

   Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Darwinweg 2, 2333 CR Leiden, The Netherlands

5. Daniël Siepman
   Affiliation as printed

   De Grachtwacht, Lange Mare 25, 2312 GP Leiden, The Netherlands

6. Tim H. M. van Emmerik corresponding

   Wageningen University & Research

   Affiliation as printed

   Hydrology and Quantitative Water Management Group, Wageningen University and Research, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands