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Mapping Soil Microplastic Risk Across Texas: A GIS-Based Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis
Summary
Researchers used mapping data (like farming activity, road traffic, and population) to predict which Texas counties likely have the most microplastic pollution in their soil, since no one has actually tested Texas soil for microplastics yet. Nine counties, including Cameron, Fort Bend, and Jefferson, consistently ranked as highest risk across different scoring methods, mostly clustered in eastern Texas near the Gulf Coast. This matters because microplastics in soil can end up in the crops we eat and the water we drink, and this low-cost mapping approach helps scientists figure out where to test first instead of guessing.
This poster presents a Texas Soil Microplastic Risk Index built with GIS-based multi-criteria decision analysis (GIS-MCDA). All 254 Texas counties were scored and ranked on five weighted environmental and land-use indicators (agricultural activity, road density, population density, biosolids application potential, and cropland distribution) to prioritize where soil microplastic field sampling should begin. The analysis classified 50 counties as high risk, 103 as moderate, and 101 as low, with high-risk counties clustered in eastern Texas toward the Gulf Coast. A sensitivity analysis across multiple weighting schemes showed the top-tier rankings are robust: nine counties (Cameron, Ellis, Fannin, Fort Bend, Grayson, Hidalgo, Hill, Hunt, and Jefferson) stayed highest-priority under every scheme. The index offers a low-cost, reproducible way to target field sampling in a state with no published soil microplastic measurements.