About the project
Coastal waters generate 75% of the ecosystem service benefits for Europe’s coastal zone estimated to have an equivalent value of €18 billion/annum. The 6584 km of the Spanish coastline, constitutes a fragile resource of great environmental value with a direct impact on quality of life, human health and the economic development. At present, plastics, new materials such as nanomaterials and the active ingredients of industrial and consumer products, are the main blocks of emerging pollution. These new environmental pressures require measures to ensure the sustainable development and protection of the environment and human health. However, a series of gaps of information about their occurrence, fate and behavior in the aquatic environment, and in particular in estuaries and coastal waters have been identified.
The main goal of INTEGRA-COAST is to perform an integrated study of the fate, behaviour, and the river transport of emerging contaminants, nanomaterials and microplastics in estuaries, wetlands and coastal waters.
INTEGRA-COAST will study microplastics, nanomaterials (fullerenes, silver and silicon nanoparticles), emerging organic contaminants (pharmaceuticals and personal care products, new pesticides, perfluoroalkyl substances and siloxanes) and marine biotoxins result of algae blooms in geographical areas where they are not endemic favoured by eutrophication processes, pollution and incresed water temperature. In addition, priority pollutants will also be assessed in conjunction with the emerging ones.
To carry out this goals a multidisplinary approach is required, and INTEGRA-COAST is composed by two subprojects:
- Assessment of emerging contaminants, micro-plastics and nanomaterials from sources to coastal environments (COAST-ASSESSMENT)
- Study of transformation of emerging contaminants in wastewater and receiving riverine and coastal ecosystems (TRANSFORM-COAST)
