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Potential Influence of Waterfront Green Space Morphology on Microplastic Abundance Variation in High-Density Urban Core Areas: A Case Study of the Jinjiang Ecological Zone in Chengdu.
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Researchers studying parks along a river in Chengdu, China found that the shape of waterfront green spaces (like how winding or irregular their edges are) is linked to how much microplastic pollution decreases in the river water flowing past them. Parks with more complex, less circular shapes seemed to reduce microplastic levels more effectively, suggesting that smart park design could be a simple tool for cutting down plastic pollution in city waterways, pollution that can eventually make its way into drinking water and the food chain.
Microplastics are widely distributed in urban aquatic environments, and urban waterfront green spaces may influence microplastics abundance variation. In this study, nine waterfront parks within the Jinjiang Ecological Belt in Chengdu were selected as study sites. By integrating spatial morphology indices of waterfront green spaces with riverine microplastics abundance variation data, the relationships between waterfront green space spatial morphology and microplastics abundance variation were investigated. The results showed that: (1) all waterfront green space reaches exhibited decreasing trends in microplastics abundance; (2) shape index and fractal dimension index were significantly positively correlated with microplastics abundance reduction, whereas circle index showed a significant negative correlation; and (3) a 0.1 increase in shape index was associated with a 12.64% increase in MPs abundance reduction, a 0.01 increase in fractal dimension index with a 6.47% increase, and a 0.1 decrease in circle index with a 10.85% increase. The results suggest that waterfront green space spatial morphology may exert potential impacts on microplastics abundance variation in urban rivers, providing references for waterfront green space optimization and urban microplastic pollution mitigation in planning and design practices.
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