Comparative Analysis of Riverine Plastic Pollution Combining Citizen Science, Remote Sensing and Water Quality Monitoring Techniques

Attila Dávid Molnár, Kristóf Málnás, Sára Bőhm, Miklós Gyalai-Korpos, Máté Cserép and Tímea Kiss ()
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Attila Dávid Molnár: River Monitoring & Citizen Science Unit, Plastic Cup Society, Gutenberg Square 2. V/3, 5000 Szolnok, Hungary
Kristóf Málnás: River Monitoring & Citizen Science Unit, Plastic Cup Society, Gutenberg Square 2. V/3, 5000 Szolnok, Hungary
Sára Bőhm: River Monitoring & Citizen Science Unit, Plastic Cup Society, Gutenberg Square 2. V/3, 5000 Szolnok, Hungary
Miklós Gyalai-Korpos: River Monitoring & Citizen Science Unit, Plastic Cup Society, Gutenberg Square 2. V/3, 5000 Szolnok, Hungary
Máté Cserép: ELTE Geoinformatics Laboratory, Faculty of Informatics, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány Péter Str. 1/C, 1117 Budapest, Hungary
Tímea Kiss: Independent Researcher, Horváth Gy. Str. 80, 6630 Mindszent, Hungary

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 12, 1-15

Abstract: The Tisza River is the longest tributary of the Danube, draining the eastern part of the Carpathian Basin (Central Europe). Five countries share its catchment with different waste production and management practices. Large amounts of waste, including macroplastics (MaPs), are washed into the river. Some of the litter is trapped by the riparian vegetation forming litter accumulations. The study aimed to map the amount of litter by a citizen science program and remote sensing data and to compare the MaP data to the amount of microplastic fragments in sediments. Volunteers reported 3216 riverine litter accumulations from five countries along the entire length of the Tisza (2016–2022). The results suggest that low flow conditions (e.g., impoundment by dams) support litter and MaP trapping. The volume of large accumulations registered by the citizens showed a good correlation with the area of drifting litter revealed on Sentinel-2 images (2016–2022) using machine learning algorithms. Though the MaPs probably fragmentate during their fluvial transport, no clear connection was found between the volume of litter accumulations and the mean microplastic fragment content of sediments (2019–2022). The “Clean Tisza Map“ reveals the high degree of stranded pollutants along rivers and supports public cleanup activities.

Keywords: plastic waste; pollution monitoring; citizen science; remote sensing; microplastic degradation; microplastic fragments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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