Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Eficiencia de los pavimentos permeables para la retención de microplásticos de la escorrentía urbana

Researchers evaluated the effectiveness of permeable pavements as sustainable urban drainage systems for retaining microplastics from urban stormwater runoff, testing their performance under controlled laboratory conditions calibrated to average rainfall patterns in Valencia, Spain. Results showed a significant reduction in microplastic particle counts in water passing through the permeable pavement layers.

2024
Article Tier 2

Permeable pavement blocks as a sustainable solution for managing microplastic pollution in urban stormwater

Researchers tested whether permeable pavement, the kind of pavement that lets water drain through it, can filter out microplastics from urban stormwater runoff. They found it can trap microplastic particles effectively, suggesting permeable pavement could be a practical tool for reducing the amount of microplastics that wash into rivers and oceans from city streets.

2025 The Science of The Total Environment 12 citations
Article Tier 2

Long-term environmental performance of precast slabs in permeable pavements: hydraulic functionality and pollutant retention in a real-life installation

Researchers assessed the long-term environmental performance of precast permeable pavement slabs in a real-world installation, finding that accumulated contaminants including microplastics build up within the porous structure over time. The study highlights the dual role of permeable pavements as both stormwater management infrastructure and a potential reservoir for pollutants requiring periodic maintenance.

2025
Article Tier 2

Removal and fate of microplastics in permeable pavements: An experimental layer-by-layer analysis

Researchers tested permeable pavements as a way to capture microplastics from urban stormwater runoff and found they retained 89% to over 99% of microplastic particles. The microplastics accumulated mainly on the pavement surface and in geotextile filter layers, preventing them from reaching natural waterways. This type of sustainable urban drainage could be an effective tool for reducing the amount of microplastics that wash off roads and into the water sources people depend on.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 15 citations
Article Tier 2

Pavement wear generates microplastics in stormwater runoff

Researchers conducted a two-year field study showing that pavement wear is a distinct and previously underappreciated source of microplastics in urban stormwater, separate from tire wear. They found that asphalt pavement was most susceptible to degradation in the field, while recycled rubber pavers released the most microplastics in lab testing. The study emphasizes the need to consider microplastic generation during pavement material selection and urban infrastructure planning.

2024 Journal of Hazardous Materials 16 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics Characterization in Stormwater: Pavement Source Evaluation and Treatment Efficiency of a Bioretention Cell

Researchers characterised microplastics in stormwater from pavement sources and evaluated the treatment efficiency of a bioretention cell, finding that pavement surfaces contribute substantially to microplastic loading and that bioretention can reduce particle concentrations.

2024 TSpace
Article Tier 2

Plastic pollution risks in bioretention systems: a case study

Researchers investigated plastic pollution in urban stormwater bioretention systems and found these green infrastructure features both accumulate microplastics from road runoff and risk leaching plastic particles into groundwater, raising concerns about their role as pollution pathways.

2022 Environmental Technology 20 citations
Article Tier 2

Application of Porous Concrete Infiltration Techniques to Street Stormwater Inlets That Simultaneously Mitigate against Non-Point Heavy Metal Pollution and Stormwater Runoff Reduction in Urban Areas: Catchment-Scale Evaluation of the Potential of Discrete and Small-Scale Techniques

This is a civil engineering review on using porous concrete in stormwater inlets to reduce runoff and filter heavy metals in urban areas; it is not a microplastics research paper.

2023 Water 9 citations
Article Tier 2

Distribution of microplastics in rainfall and their control by a permeable pavement in low-impact development facility

A low-impact development permeable pavement system in South Korea captured approximately 98% of microplastics present in rainfall runoff, with polyethylene fragments under 100 µm being the most common particle type. The study shows that green infrastructure designed for stormwater management can double as an effective barrier against microplastic entry into freshwater systems, an important finding for urban water quality planning.

2023 Journal of Environmental Management 12 citations
Article Tier 2

Understanding the dynamics of microplastics transport in urban stormwater runoff: Implications for pollution control and management

Researchers modeled how microplastics travel through urban stormwater runoff into water bodies. They found that a microplastic's shape, size, and density strongly influence whether it settles or floats during transport, and that local factors like street slope and surface friction significantly affect how quickly particles reach storm drains. The findings could help cities design better stormwater management strategies to capture microplastics.

2024 Environmental Pollution 21 citations
Article Tier 2

Caractérisation des microplastiques présents dans les sédiments des bassins de retenue des eaux pluviales.

This French-language study characterizes microplastics found in the sediments of stormwater retention basins, which collect runoff from urban and agricultural areas. The findings show that these basins accumulate significant microplastic loads, making them potential hotspots of concentrated plastic pollution.

2023 SPIRE - Sciences Po Institutional REpository
Article Tier 2

Permeable Asphalt Pavements (PAP): Benefits, Clogging Factors and Methods for Evaluation and Maintenance—A Review

This review examines permeable asphalt pavements as a stormwater management solution that allows water to infiltrate rather than run off urban surfaces. Researchers found that while these pavements effectively filter pollutants including microplastics from stormwater, their performance degrades over time due to sediment clogging. The study evaluates methods for assessing and maintaining pavement permeability to sustain their environmental benefits.

2024 Materials 11 citations
Article Tier 2

Design of model microplastics to study their transport in urban waters

Researchers designed model microplastic particles with controlled physical properties to systematically study their transport behavior in urban water systems. The work provides a foundation for understanding how microplastic size, density, and shape influence fate and transport in stormwater and urban drainage networks.

2025 SPIRE - Sciences Po Institutional REpository
Article Tier 2

Rening av dagvatten med en kompakt reningsanläggning

Researchers investigated compact underground stormwater treatment systems as a space-efficient alternative to conventional stormwater ponds in dense urban environments, evaluating their performance in removing pollutants including microplastics from urban runoff.

2025 KTH Publication Database DiVA (KTH Royal Institute of Technology)
Article Tier 2

Environmental Performance of the Stormpav Permeable Pavement Using the Stormwater Management Model (SWMM)

This paper is not about microplastics; it models the performance of permeable pavement systems in reducing urban stormwater runoff and associated pollutants such as suspended solids and phosphorus.

2023 International Journal of Integrated Engineering
Article Tier 2

Microplastics retained in stormwater control measures: Where do they come from and where do they go?

Stormwater control measures were found to retain and accumulate microplastics from both episodic stormwater loading and continuous atmospheric deposition, raising concern that they may serve as long-term microplastic sources to groundwater through downward particle migration.

2021 Water Research 65 citations
Article Tier 2

Analysis and study of the migration pattern of microplastic particles in saturated porous media pavement

This study modeled how microplastic particles migrate through porous pavement during stormwater runoff, providing insights for designing urban road surfaces that could reduce microplastic transport into groundwater and waterways.

2022 The Science of The Total Environment 6 citations
Article Tier 2

Occurrence and Pathways of Microplastics in Bioretention Filters

Researchers found eleven microplastic polymer types in bioretention filter soil and stormwater samples in an urban setting, characterizing the occurrence and pathways of microplastics entering these green infrastructure systems from contaminated impervious surface runoff.

2025 Environmental Management
Article Tier 2

Porous Asphalt Mixture with Improved Fatigue Resistance and Stormwater Pollutant Reduction in Urban Road Pavement

Not a microplastics paper — this study evaluates a highly modified porous asphalt mixture designed to improve road fatigue resistance and reduce stormwater runoff and associated pollutants in urban environments.

2023 Water 12 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic pollution in sediments of urban rainwater drainage system

Researchers found microplastics in all sediment samples from a university campus rainwater drainage system, with abundances ranging from 80 to 2,610 particles/kg and the highest concentrations in student living areas, suggesting that land use patterns and management practices influence microplastic accumulation in urban stormwater infrastructure.

2023 The Science of The Total Environment 13 citations
Article Tier 2

The role of different sustainable urban drainage systems in removing microplastics from urban runoff: A review

Researchers reviewed how nature-based drainage systems like wetlands, bioretention gardens, and permeable pavements can filter microplastics from urban stormwater runoff. These systems capture a significant portion of plastic particles, though smaller fibers remain the hardest to remove, and standardizing detection methods is still needed to compare results globally.

2023 Journal of Cleaner Production 41 citations
Article Tier 2

Permeable pavements: A possible sink for tyre wear particles and other microplastics?

Researchers sampled approximately 100 kg of particulate material from seven roads and parking lots to analyze microplastic content including tire wear particles. The study found that tire wear constituted the dominant fraction of microplastics at 0.09% of dry mass, with polypropylene as the most common non-tire plastic type, and that permeable pavements may act as sinks trapping these particles before they reach waterways.

2023 The Science of The Total Environment 70 citations
Article Tier 2

Unveiling the Potential: Selecting Optimal Materials for Physical Pools in a Pavement-Runoff-Integrated Treatment System

This paper is not about microplastics; it tests different gravel sizes and activated carbon types as filtration and adsorption materials for removing petroleum and heavy metals from pavement stormwater runoff.

2023 Water 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic sampling strategies in urban drainage systems for quantification of urban emissions based on transport pathways

Researchers developed and applied microplastic sampling strategies across an entire urban municipal catchment under both dry and wet weather conditions, finding that wastewater treatment plants remove over 96% of microplastics but still emit 189 kg per year, while wet-weather emissions from high-traffic subcatchments reached 1,952 grams per population equivalent per year, far exceeding dry-weather levels.

2023 Applied Research 4 citations