*** Macroplastic deposition and flushing in the Meuse river following the July 2021 European floods ***
Authors: Rahel Hauk(1), Tim H.M. van Emmerik(1), Martine van der Ploeg(1), Winnie de Winter(2), Marijke Boonstra(3), Ansje J. Löhr(4), Ryan Teuling(1)

(1) Hydrology and Environmental Hydraulics, Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands
(2) The North Sea Foundation, Utrecht, the Netherlands
(3) Senior policy advisor Seawater quality, Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, The Hague, The Netherlands
(4) Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, Open Universiteit, Heerlen, the Netherlands

Corresponding authors: Rahel Hauk, Tim H.M. van Emmerik

Contact information: rahel.hauk@wur.nl, tim.vanemmerik@wur.nl

Wageningen University & Research
Hydrology and Environmental Hydraulics Group
P.O. Box 9101
6700 HB Wageningen
The Netherlands


*** General Introduction ***
Litter sampling on riverbanks along the Dutch Meuse river, between July 22, 2021 and August 4, 2021. Litter items on riverbanks covered by an ongoing montoring were sampled immediately after the July 2021 European floods. All litter items in the measurement area on each riverbank were counted and classified into the River-OSPAR categories (except wooden litter items). The article attached to this dataset is called "Macroplastic deposition and flushing in the Meuse river following the July 2021 European floods" and has the doi https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad0768. 


We realized after the fieldwork that some locations did not have enough data from average conditions for comparison, we decided to only use a subsample of the dataset for the article. We also only used data from the measured stripes and not the accumulation zones, and trees and shrubs outside of the stripes. Therefore 1_raw_dataset... contains the complete raw dataset and 2_dataset_underlying_publication... contains only the aggregated subset of dataset 1 that was actually used for the article. 

2_dataset_underlying_publication... contains only the sampled stripes of the 16 locations we used in the article and also all 1-3 stripes per location are aggregated into one sampling area. 


*** Purpose of the sampling campaign ***
Compare macroplastic on riverbanks after a severe flood event to macroplastic on the same riverbanks under average conditions. 

*** Sampling method ***
Counted and classified litter items on 27 riverbanks. On each riverbank litter was counted and classified in 1-3 stripes, as well as on some riverbanks litter in trees and shrubs outside of the stripes and zones of higher litter density than the surrounding areas. We sampled the stripes in 3 m wide sections perpendicular away from the water line, and each stripe was 2 m long parallel along the waterline. Accumulation zones were areas of higher litter density compared to the surrounding area.


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*** Explanation of the column headers of 1_raw_dataset_Macroplastic_deposition_and_flushing_in_the_Meuse_river_following_theJuly_2021_European_floods.csv ***

number of column  - 'name of column' - Explanation of column

1 - 'Location' - Identification of the locations. 1 - 16 correspond to the locations in the publication, locations A - K were not used for the publication. 

2 - 'Downstream_km' - The distance in kilometer from the monitoring location to location 1 (the most upstream location, indicated with 0), from upstream towards downstream.

3 - 'Latitude' - Latitude of the center of the monitoring location

4 - 'Longitude' - Longitude of the center of the monitoring location

5 - 'Date' - Date of the sampling, mm/dd/yyyy 

6 - 'Measurement Location' - indicates the measurement location in relation to the point coordinates ("SR Point") indicated in column 3+4

7 - 'stripe_tree_bush_acczone - indicates whether we measured a stripe of riverbank on the ground, litter in a tree or bush on the riverbank, or a zone of high litter density accumulation "acczone". _x_y indicates the number of e.g. the stripe 'x' and the total number of e.g. stripes on that riverbank 'y'. 

8 - 'Stripe_tree_bush2 - indicates only the type of measurement area without numbering

9 - 'On_ground_in_tree_in_bush' - indicates whether the litter items in this row were measured on the ground or entangled in higher vegetation i.e. trees and bushes.

10 - 'Distance_from_SR_Point_startpoint_m' - indicates the distance parallel along the river in m between the coordinates in columns 3+4 and the start of the measurement area. 

11 - 'Distance_from_SR_Point_endpoint_m' - indicates the distance parallel along the river between the coordinates in columns 3+4 and the end of the measurement area. 

12 - 'Section' - indicates the type of section of a row, stripe section are indicated alphabetically, section at the waterline is a

13 - 'Section_start_m_from_current_waterline' - indicates the distance in meter between the waterline at the time of measurement and the start of the section. 

14 - 'Section_end_m_from_current_waterline' - indicates the distance in meter between the waterline at the time of measurement and the end of the section. 

15 - 'Section_width_loodrecht_m' - width of the measured section in meter in the direction perpendicular away from the waterline. 

16 - 'Section_length_parallel_m' - length of the measured section in meter in the direction parallel along the river. 

17 - 'Area_of_section_m2' - area of the measured section in square meter. 

18 - 121 - River-OSPAR litter categories in the format material__item_description__OSPAR-ID, 
River-OSPAR categories developed by the North Sea Foundation, published in 
van Emmerik, T., Vriend, P., & Roebroek, J. (2020). An evaluation of the River-OSPAR method for quantifying macrolitter on Dutch riverbanks. Wageningen University. Report. 86 pp., https://doi.org/10.18174/519776
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*** Explanation of the column headers of 2_dataset_underlying_publication_Macroplastic_deposition_and_flushing_in_the_Meuse_river_following_theJuly_2021_European_floods.csv ***

number of column  - 'name of column' - Explanation of column

1 - 'Location' - Identification of the locations, corresponding to the article.  

2 - 'Downstream_distance_km' - The distance in kilometer from the monitoring location to location 1 (the most upstream location, indicated with 0), from upstream towards downstream.

3 - 'Latitude' - Latitude of the center of the monitoring location

4 - 'Longitude' - Longitude of the center of the monitoring location

5 - 'Date' - Date of the sampling, mm/dd/yyyy 

6 - 'Days' - Days since the last litter monitoring and litter removal at the location in number of days. 

7 - 'Section_width_perpendicular_m' - width of the measured section in meter in the direction perpendicular away from the waterline. If multiple stripes were measured their lengths were summed up and divided by the number of stripes, to aggregate the stripes to one sampling area.  

8 - 'Section_length_parallel_m' - length of the measured section in meter in the direction parallel along the river. If multiple stripes were measured at that location their length was summed up. 

9 - 'Area_of_section_m2' - area of the measured section in square meter. 

10 - 111 - River-OSPAR litter categories in the format material__item_description__OSPAR-ID, 
River-OSPAR categories developed by the North Sea Foundation, published in 
van Emmerik, T., Vriend, P., & Roebroek, J. (2020). An evaluation of the River-OSPAR method for quantifying macrolitter on Dutch riverbanks. Wageningen University. Report. 86 pp., https://doi.org/10.18174/519776
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