Abstract
Plastic pollution in rivers negatively impacts human livelihood and aquatic ecosystems. Monitoring data are crucial for a better understanding of sources, sinks and transport mechanisms of riverine macroplastics. In turn, such understanding is key to develop effective plastic pollution prevention, mitigation and removal strategies. Riverine plastic is mostly studied through the monitoring of floating plastic and through the quantification of plastic deposited on riverbanks. Existing riverbank plastic measurement methods vary greatly, which complicates direct comparison of data collected with different monitoring strategies. We present a framework to better compare and to aid the design of riverbank plastic monitoring methods, which is based on four common elements distilled from riverbank (plastic) litter monitoring methods currently in use. This framework can be used by scientists and practitioners to find the right trade-offs between the data required to answer specific research questions, and the available resources. Subsequently, we use the framework to suggest effective monitoring strategies for three frequently asked research questions. With this paper, we aim to provide a first step towards harmonization of riverbank plastic litter monitoring efforts.
Highlights
Plastic pollution in the riverine environment has been a topic of rising concern, due to its associated negative effects
Reliable and frequent plastic litter observations can aid the development of effective policy measures and mitigation strategies (Owens and Kamil, 2020; Vriend et al, 2020)
The goal of this study is to provide a framework that can be used to (1) effectively compare monitoring programs, and (2) act as a tool that can support researchers, governments and other organizations with developing and optimizing riverbank macroplastic monitoring strategies that fit local conditions and ambitions
Summary
Plastic pollution in the riverine environment has been a topic of rising concern, due to its associated negative effects. These effects include increased mortality rates of fauna through ingestion or entanglement, damage to property, a reduction of livelihoods of those dependent on rivers, increased flood risk through the blockage of urban drainage systems, and transport of plastic into the world’s oceans (Honingh et al, 2020; van Emmerik and Schwarz, 2020). Despite the clear negative consequences of riverine macroplastics, a fundamental understanding of its sources, sinks, and transport mechanisms has not yet been achieved. Long-term observation of beach litter has already shown that monitoring can be used to determine fundamental characteristics of plastic transport in aquatic environments. van Emmerik et al (2019)
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