BURA Collection:

Mapping per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances contamination in England's surface waterbodies: Urban water cycle pathways and governance challenges

2026-04-17T02:00:31Z

Title: Mapping per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances contamination in England's surface waterbodies: Urban water cycle pathways and governance challenges Authors: García Herrera, A; Iacovidou, E; Giakoumis, T Abstract: Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination has emerged as a major international environmental and regulatory challenge, with PFAS increasingly detected across freshwater systems worldwide. However, in countries with limited PFAS manufacturing, such as England, it remains unclear whether surface waterbodies contamination reflects diffuse consumer-driven pollution, sectoral pressures, or dominant point-source pathways of PFAS pollution, such as Wastewater Treatment Works (WWTWs). In this study, we address this gap by providing the first surface-waterbody-level characterisation of PFAS contamination across England, drawing on the Environment Agency 's 2024 national dataset. Linking PFAS detections with sectoral pressure classifications, the study makes the following contributions: 1) quantifies the associations between individual compounds and human activities, 2) assesses WWTWs as pathways for PFAS release, and 3) maps detected PFAS to sector-specific product applications. Our analysis reveals that 92% of monitored waterbodies contain at least one of thirty-four detected PFAS, with multiple compounds co-occurring (mean ∼ 6.5) and PFOS frequently exceeding its Environmental Quality Standard. Water Industry/Domestic/General Public pressures showed strong positive associations with 11 PFAS compounds, with effect sizes of 2.9–9.9 (FDR < 0.05). After adjusting for overlapping sectoral influences, significant positive associations remained for PFHxS.L, PFBS, PFHpA, PFOS..B, PFOS..L and PFOS_combined, with odds ratios between 2.0 and 3.0 (FDR < 0.05). PFAS were also routinely present in WWTWs effluents, where removal efficiencies were often low or negative, indicating that WWTWs function as chronic point sources. Persistent PFOS detections in WWTWs effluents long after its restriction reflect that PFAS are now deeply embedded within the built environment, recirculating through the urban water cycle. These findings underscore the necessity for a comprehensive, system-level governance approach for PFAS that transcends single-compound restrictions and advocates for a fair allocation of mitigation responsibilities. Description: Highlights: • PFAS contamination is widespread, detected in 92% of England's monitored waterbodies. • Water Industry/Domestic/General Public key pathways of PFAS leaching to waterbodies. • PFOS routinely present in Wastewater Treatment Works effluents despite regulatory ban. • Wastewater Treatment Works showed low or negative removal efficiencies for many PFAS. • Stronger source controls and polluter-pays governance are essential for protection.; Data availability: Data will be made available on request.; Supplementary data are available online at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969726004432?via%3Dihub#s0075 .

Controls on lag time in Philippine catchments identified using rainfall–runoff modelling and a generalized additive model (GAM)

2026-04-14T02:00:36Z

Title: Controls on lag time in Philippine catchments identified using rainfall–runoff modelling and a generalized additive model (GAM) Authors: Tolentino, PLM; Hurst, MD; Williams, RD; Hoey, TB; Boothroyd, RJ Abstract: Understanding the controls upon lag time, can improve river and flood management decision-making. This study investigates the relative importance of catchment characteristics in explaining lag time variability across the Philippines. Numerically simulated 5-year return period lag times for 291 catchments were analysed using a generalized additive model (GAM) to capture non-linear relationships with location, geology, climate, topography, and land use. The 5-year return period is representative of moderate flood response, as lag time varies little across return periods. Correlation analysis and recursive feature elimination guided variable selection, while bootstrapping assessed model stability and uncertainty. Ten significant controls on lag time were identified, with relief ratio, land cover index, and catchment area most influential. The GAM achieved an R² of 0.77 and explained 84% of deviance. Land cover emerged as the only anthropogenically modifiable control, highlighting a key management lever. National hydrological observations are needed to further support model calibration. Description: Data availability: Input data and R codes are available the University of Glasgow Enlighten data repository https://researchdata.gla.ac.uk/.; Supplementary material: Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.5525/gla.researchdata.2197

Kinetic Energy Estimation of IMU-Equipped Sediment Particles with Gaussian Process Regression and Conformal Prediction

2026-04-14T02:00:35Z

Title: Kinetic Energy Estimation of IMU-Equipped Sediment Particles with Gaussian Process Regression and Conformal Prediction Authors: Maniatis, G; Tuhtan, J; Toming, G; Curley, E; Gadd, C; Williams, R; Hoey, T Abstract: Direct particle-scale sediment measurements remain difficult in turbid, high-energy rivers where optical methods fail. We present an integration-free IMU workflow that maps short windows to projected speed and kinetic energy using physics-aware preprocessing, orientation-invariant Hankel embeddings, Gaussian process regression (GPR), and split conformal prediction. On event-disjoint hold-out tests, the selected GPR model (m = 10) achieves R² = 0.628, RMSE = 0.168ms⁻¹, and MAE = 0.096ms⁻¹. A four-model benchmark on identical event-grouped folds (GPR, LSTM, SVR-RBF, LSBoost) gives the lowest RMSE for LSBoost (0.158ms⁻¹); GPR is within 0.001ms⁻¹ of the strongest non-GPR comparator (LSBoost), and paired RMSE differences are non-significant (p = 0.812). Empirical conformal coverage is 87.6%/93.7%/97.9% for nominal 90%/95%/99% targets. River Calder deployments show peak kinetic energies up to 0.168 J. The framework provides uncertainty-aware kinematics and energetics for autonomous sediment-transport monitoring.

Guaiacol-enhanced laccase secretion by Trametes versicolor for lignin modification toward high-performance bamboo composites

2026-03-30T02:00:33Z

Title: Guaiacol-enhanced laccase secretion by Trametes versicolor for lignin modification toward high-performance bamboo composites Authors: Wang, Y; Qin, Y; Yang, J; Du, G; Fan, M; Xia, Y; Zhou, X; Zhou, Y; Liao, J Abstract: This study reports high-performance bamboo-based composites engineered through a biological eco-modification strategy involving targeted lignin depolymerisation. By leveraging guaiacol-enhanced Trametes versicolor pretreatment, we achieved substantial improvements in the mechanical properties and water resistance of bamboo-phenolic resin composites via efficient biological modification of Dendrocalamus sinicus. This targeted biological modification boosted laccase activity to 2566.28 U/L, selectively depolymerised lignin and hemicellulose (by 6.97% and 11.46%, respectively) while preserving the cell wall skeleton, increased the crystallinity of bamboo from 28.28% to 31.94%, and enhanced the surface reactivity of bamboo for subsequent resin bonding. This bioconversion enhanced bamboo's chemical reactivity via targeted lignin demethoxylation and β-O-4 bond cleavage, efficiently generating additional phenolic hydroxyl groups, while also improving surface wettability (contact angle reduced from 109.73° to 79.96°) to facilitate resin penetration. Consequently, the resulting composites exhibited superior fiber-resin interfacial bonding, leading to exceptional mechanical performance, with tensile strength reaching 286.65 MPa (40.2% higher than untreated controls) and bonding strength of 9.74 MPa (33.6% improvement). Furthermore, the composites demonstrated enhanced water resistance and interfacial stability, underscoring their suitability for load-bearing applications. This targeted lignin depolymerisation strategy directly optimises the bamboo-resin interface, offering a sustainable pathway for the industrial production of high-strength biocomposites and enabling the value-added utilisation of bamboo resources. Description: Highlights: • Guaiacol-induced metabolic targeting enables precise lignin modification. • Selective lignin removal increases bamboo crystallinity. • β-O-4 cleavage raises phenolic hydroxyls, improving interfacial bonding. • Improved bamboo properties yield high-performance biocomposites.; Data availability: Data will be made available on request.