PBE microplastic transport model: Population Balance Equations for microplastics transport in estuarine environments
Citable as data publication
Shettigar, N. A.; Bi, Q.; Toorman, E.; Hydraulics and Geotechnics Division, Department of Civil Engineering, KU Leuven: Belgium; Deltares: The Netherlands; (2025): Population Balance Equations for microplastics transport in estuarine environments. https://doi.org/10.14284/766
Contact:
Toorman, Erik Availability: The data can be made available upon request, please use contact information.
Description
Fortran codes for setting up depth-averaged (2DH) TELEMAC model to simulate microplastic transport, developed at Hydraulics and Geotechnics division of KU Leuven. Source code available at: https://gitlab.kuleuven.be/hwest/telemac/researchers/pluxin/pbe_largescale morePopulation Balance Equations (PBE) for microplastic (MP) transport in aquatic environment - applied to Scheldt Estuary. The codes and files provided here are examples of the TELEMAC (www.openTELEMAC.org) implementation of the PBE model in a 2D depth-averaged model. We utilise the one-node EQMOM to compute the settling velocity of the microplastics dynamically based on the dominant size of MP particles. 2 dimensional horizontal (depth-averaged) Scheldt Estuary model: 2DH model, has been set up for the Scheldt river/estuary and Belgian part of North Sea. The model couples TELEMAC-TOMAWAC-GAIA. The transport of two sediment fractions, sand and mud is also computed using GAIA in order to allow to account for hetero-aggregation of microplastic with the abundantly present cohesive sediment flocs in areas with significant turbidity. The model has been calibrated for water levels, flow velocity and sediment concentrations, and also waves in the coastal area. The MP size based PBE method has been used. Thereby evolution of MP sizes (therefore settling velocity) is tracked dynamically, in accounting for the source and sink terms. For further details on the PBE framework of MP transport, users are referred to the journal paper https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.4c02223. Scope Themes: Coastal studies (e.g. shores, estuaries), Environmental quality/pollution, Physical Keywords: Estuaries · Microplastics · Telemac · Belgian part of the North Sea · Scheldt Estuary Geographical coverage Belgian part of the North Sea [Marine Regions] Scheldt Estuary [Marine Regions] Temporal coverage
1 January 2023 - 1 January 2025 Parameters
Concentration of microplastics Flow velocity Free Surface Elevation Water depth Contributors
Project
PLASTFLOW: PLASTFLOW - Opvolgmeting in het kader van Doelstelling 9 van het Vlaams Actieplan Marien Zwerfvuil, more
Funding OVAM (Public Waste Agency of Flanders)
Publication
Based on this dataset
Shettigar, N.A. (2025). Numerical modelling of plastic dispersal in aquatic environments = Numerieke modellering van dispersie van plastic in aquatische milieus. PhD Thesis. Katholieke Universiteit Leuven: Leuven. , more
Shettigar, N.A. et al. (2025). Land-based solutions for plastics in the sea (LABPLAS): D7.3 Process-based river and sea dispersal models for plastic litter. Katholieke Universiteit Leuven: Leuven. 115 pp., more
Shettigar, N.A.; Bi, Q.L.; Toorman, E. (2024). Assimilating Size Diversity: Population Balance Equations Applied to the Modeling of Microplastic Transport. Environ. Sci. Technol. 58(36): 16112-16120. https://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.4c02223, more
Describing this dataset
Meyers, N. et al. (2025). PLASTFLOW Final Report: Quantifying plastic fluxes and identifying plastic hotspots in the Scheldt Estuary (Deliverable 1.2). Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ): Ostend. 87 pp. https://dx.doi.org/10.48470/128, more
Dataset status: In Progress
Data type: Software/models/scripts
Data origin: Literature research
Metadatarecord created: 2025-12-10
Information last updated: 2025-12-23
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