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Project properties |
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| Title | River pollution assessment: sources, trends and solutions |
| Group | Water Systems and Global Change |
| Project type | thesis |
| Credits | 36 |
| Supervisor(s) | Maryna Strokal
Carolien Kroeze Mengru Wang Nynke Hofstra |
| Examiner(s) | Carolien Kroeze |
| Contact info | Wouter Smolenaars (wouter.smolenaars@wur.nl) MIL
Maria del Pozo (maria.delpozogarcia@wur.nl) MCL, MES and MUE |
| Begin date | 2024/01/01 |
| End date | |
| Description | Theme introduction
The availability of clean water is essential for nature as well as for people. It is a key issue in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals. In many world regions the availability of clean water is at risk as a result of population growth and economic developments. Meanwhile, the availability of water will change as a result of, for instance, climate change. Moreover, there are water quality issues in many world regions. Many rivers in the world are polluted by increasing amounts of nutrients used in agriculture and urbanization (e.g., nitrogen and phosphorus) and export them to coastal waters. This results in coastal water pollution such as eutrophication and harmful algal blooms. Pollutants like plastics, pathogens, and chemicals can cause additional harm. Given these issues the need for sound tools, to assess future risks, enabling societies to mitigate these or to prepare for adaptation, is growing. Projects and possibilities for students WSG is working on river pollutant assessments with different models and from different angles. We currently use the MARINA models for analyses of river export by nutrients and other pollutants (plastics, antibiotics, chemicals) for China and the world. In addition, we use the GlowPa model for assessments of pathogens in rivers. We are interested in studies on the source (e.g. How do human activities (e.g., agriculture cities) affect water pollution in rivers and seas under global change. Students can contribute to this research through small parts of model development, data analysis and scenario analysis, (sub-basin) case study analysis and by linking model data to policy questions and the sustainable development goals. |
| Used skills | Possible methods used in the thesis:
- Model conceptualization & development - Indicator development & analysis - Sensitivity analysis - Scenario analysis - Data processing & analysis - Field studies & experiments - GIS - Case study analysis - Systematic literature review - Policy document analysis - Interviews, surveys & focus groups - Mixed methods |
| Requirements | |