Transnational Exchange Lab #5 - Hull, UK

IMMERSE organised the fifth Transnational Estuary Exchange Lab (TEEL) on 22-23 March 2023, which was hold in person in Hull, UK. This was the fifth in a series of region-wide events organised by the IMMERSE project.
The main theme of this final exchange lab was emerging pollutants, relating to the additional activities as part of the IMMERSE extension on microplastics and sediment bound pollutants.
The sessions introduced the topics, provided information about the status in North Sea Region estuaries, explored solutions to mitigate the effects, gave examples of such solutions and allowed for discussion: 

Introductory session: 'Welcome & Setting the Scene'

Sediment-bound Pollutants in the North Sea Region – Posing a threat to estuarine functions

Prof. Jeanette Rotchell and Dr Samantha Richardson, University of Hull

Preventing Plastic Pollution

Kim Goonesekera, UK Environment Agency

 

Session I: 'Mapping and Managing Sediment-bound Pollutants in Estuaries & Coastal Waters'

State of knowledge and mapping of sediment-bound pollutants in the Elbe estuary

Victoria Ortiz, German Federal Waterways Engineering and Research Institute

Pascal Richtarski, Helmholtz-Zentrum hereon

Legacy wastes in coastal zones

Prof. William Mayes, University of Hull

Monitoring and managing sediment-bound pollutants – a practical case for the Scheldt Estuary

Jürgen Suffis, Flemish Department of Mobility and Public Works

 

Session II: 'Building on the Overview of Microplastics Occurrences in NSR Estuaries'

About plastics and how they pollute

Clare Collins, University of Hull

State of knowledge of the effects and distribution of microplastics in estuarine environments

Julie Hope, St. Andrews University

Microplastics monitoring in the Flemish Sea Scheldt

Mathilde Falcou-Préfol, Universities of Antwerpen and Ghent

 

Session III: 'Understanding the Interactions between Biota and Pollutants'

Where does the plastic go - can benthic animals remove plastics from the environment?

Felicitas ten Brink, University of Hull

Growing native oysters in the Tees Estuary

Ben Lamb & Henry Short, Tees Rivers Trust

 

Session IV: 'Designing and Testing Solutions Tackling Microplastics from Source to Estuary'

Managing plastic pollution

Clare Collins, University of Hull

Innovative rain gardens to filter microplastics from stormwater

Karin Karlfeldt Fedje, Chalmers University of Technology & Renova AB

The role of biofilms in filtering microplastics

Julie Hope, St. Andrews University

 

Closing session

Outstrays to Skeffling Managed Realignment Scheme

Andrew Gee, UK Environment Agency

An introduction to Managed Realignment on the Humber estuary

Dan Normandale, UK Environment Agency

 

All sessions aim to provide stakeholders with relevant information regarding habitat creation and/or ecological restoration following the IMMERSE objectives; knowledge transfer and acceleration of measure implementation, whilst increasing cost-efficiency and enhancing stakeholder commitment.

Download the full report of the event here.

For questions, please contact Frederick Bruce.