I am a doctoral student working in the domain of microplastics in stormwater and their implications in urban ecosystems as a part of the MSCA CLEAR-Doc project “City of Tomorrow”. Specifically, my work is related to anthropogenic microplastics, microfibres and tirewear particles in stormwaters of selected sites in France and the United States. Comparing of the contamination levels and impact of stormwater management practices between France and USA is also a part of my thesis.

Background of my study:

With microplastics being currently considered a major threat to the present Anthropocene, it is essential that all the domains related to it are explored in order to understand how it will affect the future of the planet and humans. While microplastics in the marine and freshwater environments are being explored to a seemingly good extent, there remains a huge gap in the amount of literature that is available with respect to microplastics in stormwater that reach different environmental domains through runoff (which may include tire wear, road wear, plastic litter, artificial turf, paints, building materials, footwear, pre-production pellets and powders, industrial waste, spills from trash collection, and landfill leachate).

In the past, urban stormwater runoff received little to no intentional treatment before discharging. It has been found that by replacing the traditional stormwater management paradigm, green infrastructures are being advanced as an innovative and complementary strategy to reduce pressure on stormwater systems along with securing cleaner runoff to water bodies. However, the benefices of green infrastructures in microplastic mitigation in comparison to the other stormwater water management practice remains unknown. This knowledge is presently of prime importance to both identify the microplastic pathways, as well as to design and elaborate appropriate mitigation strategies at various levels of decision making.

Overall objective of Thesis:

My main objectives are to investigate and compare the microplastics, microfibers and tire wear particles in urban stormwater and assess in-depth the impact of different stormwater strategies (traditional stormwater control systems vs. green infrastructure, and between different green infrastructures such as stormwater ponds, bioretention cells, etc.).

Supervisors:

Dr Johnny Gasperi, DR, GERS-EE, Université Gustave Eiffel

Dr Elodie Passeport, Department of Environmental Sciences, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Rutgers University

Dr Rachid Dris, LEESU, Université Paris-Est Créteil

If my work interests you and you have any questions about it or want to discuss microplastics, please feel free to email me at: sampriti.roy@univ-eiffel.fr