AKANoah Student Team experience: microplastics analysis technics on the Po River environment

AKANoah PoliTo is a student team from Politecnico di Torino which aims to design an environmental monitoring strategy for the urban river ecosystem and a plastic waste collection system. Data gathering and analysis are key for monitoring, mitigating, and preventing pollution of such a pivotal resource as the river environment, as pointed out by the 2030 Agenda. The urban context is a critical hotspot of pollution because its high-density population leads to multiple types of contamination, such as stormwater discharges, accidental releases, littering and irresponsible use of the river infrastructure by locals. Furthermore, surface watercourses collect different pollutants along their path, becoming a very important matrix to be monitored. The project focuses on developing and testing both the procedure and the proper instrumentation to carry out water quality assessment, microplastic sampling and macroplastic cleaning tasks, following the principles of efficiency, low environmental impact, and replicability. The monitoring and collection strategy proposed by AKANoah is a fast, efficient, and easily repeatable boat-based solution which combines macroplastic river cleaning and data acquisition on micro and macro pollutants. This strategy is intended to bring a positive impact on both the local community and the ecosystem. It also has the potential to open new opportunities for city businesses and to bring educational values not only to students directly involved in the project but also to the citizens who benefit from a healthy, thriving urban river environment and its related ecosystem services (leisure activities, urban parks, storm flows regulation).