The Anacostia: protecting the watershed, its community, and the environment

• Other Authors: Deans, Grace (Author), The Catholic University of America (Degree granting institution), Davison, Jason (Thesis advisor), Massoudieh, Arash (Committee member), Kiriazes, Rebecca (Committee member)
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: unknown
• Published: The Catholic University of America 2024
• Subjects: bicycling; field work; hydrology; microplastics; water modeling; watershed; Arctic
• Online Access: https://cuislandora.wrlc.org/islandora/object/cuislandora%3A323353

Microplastics are a persistent global issue that can be found from disparate environments like remote Arctic glaciers and human blood. A common way microplastics enter the natural environment is through waste mismanagement in urban centers and waterways. Multi-pronged efforts to reduce their effects on health and the environment are needed. This dissertation presents a collection of novel methods for addressing microplastics in urban environments. First, I completed a carbon-neutral sampling campaign of the Sligo Creek subcatchment to better understand microplastics in the greater Washington, D.C. area. Twenty sampling sites were accessed solely by bicycle along the 14.6-km stretch of this urbanized creek. At each site, I pumped 20 liters of creek water through a series of 914 and 352 micron stainless steel mesh filters. Polyolefin fragments were found on each analyzed filter. Then, I explored the feasibility of similar carbon-neutral field work within the top 50 major population centers of the United States. Each urban center was analyzed for their access to adjacent rivers via greenways, as well as their local rivers' advocacy groups’ quality, area bike score, and research productivity. A comprehensive demographic analysis was completed to determine any significant differences between these regions and their researchers' ability to complete carbon-neutral sampling methods. I found that forty of the top fifty population centers studied could carry out similar carbon-neutral field work as demonstrated in this dissertation.Finally, I created a simple forward-transport particle tracking model and coupled it to a parameter estimation software. This coupled system, PARTI (PARticle-Tracking Inversion), is the first microplastic source-location prediction tool for watersheds and was tested using data from the Sligo Creek field campaign. The simplistic set-up allows users to apply it to their local watershed to predict microplastic hotspots and target effective strategies for reducing waste. My dissertation ties ...