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Flooding as a driver of emerging contaminants, pathogens, and microplastics in environmental systems: A systematic review of mechanisms, transport pathways, and exposure risks
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This review of 82 studies finds that floods act like a delivery system, washing germs, drug residues, pesticides, and microplastics from land into water supplies. As climate change brings more frequent flooding, this matters because contaminated floodwaters raise real risks of infections and chemical exposure, especially in areas with limited monitoring.
Climate change and urbanization are increasing the frequency and impact of flood events and intensifying contaminant transport across environmental systems. Despite growing evidence, the available literature remains fragmented across contaminant groups and environmental pathways, and data from arid and semi-arid regions where episodic flooding follows prolonged dry periods are largely absent. This systematic review examined how flooding drives the mobilization of pathogens, emerging contaminants, and microplastics across environmental pathways. Following PRISMA guidelines, searches were conducted in Scopus, Web of Science, and Ovid up to February 2026. Studies addressing flooding and extreme rainfall in relation to emerging contaminants, microplastics, pathogens, climate change, and public health were included. After screening 892 records, 82 studies met the inclusion criteria. The protocol was registered in PROSPERO (CRD420261298977). The evidence identified hydrological transport, including surface runoff, overland flow, and infrastructure exceedance, as the main mobilization pathway. Pathogens were the most frequently investigated contaminant group (41%), followed by studies assessing multiple contaminant classes within the same event (28%). Microplastics, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and antibiotic resistance genes were less frequently studied. Reported risks were dominated by microbial contamination and infectious disease exposure, whereas chemical toxicity and microplastic-related ecological effects were mostly examined within single-contaminant studies. The evidence base was concentrated in high-income regions, with limited data from arid and semi-arid settings. Findings indicate that flooding enhances contaminant transport by increasing hydrological connectivity across environmental systems. Future research should prioritise longer-term monitoring, integrated assessment of contaminant mixtures, and broader geographic coverage.
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This review examines how flooding events affect the movement and accumulation of microplastics in freshwater environments. Researchers found that floods can mobilize microplastics from soil and urban surfaces, redistributing them across rivers, floodplains, and sediments. The study highlights that extreme weather events, which are becoming more frequent, may play a significant role in spreading microplastic contamination that is often overlooked.
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This review examines how floods move and deposit plastic pollution across landscapes, including through rivers and into oceans. Different flood types, from heavy rainfall to coastal surges, each spread plastic waste in distinct ways, and major flood events can release enormous amounts of plastic into waterways at once. The findings are important because floods break down larger plastics into microplastics and spread them into drinking water sources and agricultural land, increasing human exposure during and after extreme weather events.
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