Delta Futures Lab guest lecture

The Origin of the Plastic Soup

Plastic pollution of aquatic ecosystem is an emerging hazard due to its negative effect on ecosystem health and human livelihood. Rivers are a main pathway of land-based plastic waste into the ocean. However, recent observations suggest that most plastics never leave the river basin. In fact, they are hypothesized to accumulate on floodplains, around hydraulic infrastructure and within estuaries. In this seminar we will discuss sources, sinks and transport mechanisms of plastic pollution through river basins, and avenues to explore in future research.

Tim van Emmerik is Assistant Professor Hydrologic Sensing at Wageningen University (WU), the Netherlands. His work focuses on monitoring and modelling plastic pollution transport through river systems. Before joining WU he worked at Delft University of Technology, The Ocean Cleanup, and the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions.

Monitoring of plastics in the Red River Delta, Vietnam

he Red River Delta is the second largest delta in Vietnam, it was given the priority to install more water monitoring stations than other areas. This is an excellent data background for understanding the flow characteristics over time and space. Furthermore, this is also a good basis for starting a new research topic to know the relationship between water data and plastic data. This topic will open a good opportunity to discuss in the seminar about the plastic monitoring methods and the possibility of linking plastics to hydrological data.

Thi Van Le Khoa is a lecturer at the Hanoi University of Natural Resources and Environment, Vietnam. He is also doing his Ph.D at the Hydrology and Quantitative Water Management Group of Wageningen University & Research.