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Aquatic Ecosystem Risk Assessment Generated by Accidental Silver Nanoparticle Spills in Groundwater
Rosember Ramirez1,2, Vicenç Martí1, R M Darbra1
1Resource Recovery and Environmental Management (R2EM), Department of Chemical Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya-Barcelona Tech, Diagonal 647, 08028 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
Toxics
|August 25, 2023
Summary
A new model assesses ecosystem risk from accidental silver nanoparticle (AgNP) spills in soil and groundwater. The model indicates high risk for wetlands and medium risk for rivers, highlighting the need for better risk assessment tools.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Science
- Ecotoxicology
- Risk Assessment
Background:
- Accidental spills of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) pose ecological risks to aquatic ecosystems.
- Assessing these risks is challenging due to uncertainties in modeling inputs.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and test a novel model for assessing ecosystem risk from AgNP soil spills impacting rivers and wetlands.
- To evaluate the model's performance using hypothetical spill scenarios in the Llobregat River basin.
Main Methods:
- Combined Monte Carlo and fuzzy logic methodologies for risk assessment.
- Evaluated two hypothetical AgNP soil spill scenarios reaching groundwater, one discharging to a river, the other to a wetland.
- Conducted sensitivity analysis on concentration and risk.
Main Results:
- The river scenario resulted in a medium-risk assessment (83% of cases), with 10% exceeding future legal thresholds.
- The wetland scenario yielded a high-risk assessment (84% of cases), with no cases meeting threshold values.
- The model effectively handled uncertain and variable data.
Conclusions:
- The developed model provides a robust tool for assessing ecosystem risk from AgNP contamination in aquatic environments.
- Wetlands are identified as particularly vulnerable to AgNP spills, requiring stringent protective measures.
- The model offers an improvement over existing methodologies for risk assessment with data uncertainty.
