VINIF.2022.DA00138 – Utilization of sedimentary footprints for forecasting the environmental impacts of industrial development in northern Vietnam

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Principle Investigator
Assoc.Prof. Duong Thi Thuy
Host Organization
Institute of Environmental Technology, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology

Urgency:

The fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) has been taking place rapidly, having a profound impact on all areas of social life, especially the impact on ecology and the environment. Environmental pollution in general, metal pollution and plastic waste in particular are hot global problems. In Vietnam, in recent years, the strong development of industries with new techniques, technologies and materials used has been causing negative impacts, challenges and pressures on the environment and human health. In aquatic ecosystems, sediment plays an important role in the absorption of pollutants by the deposition of suspended particles and related processes on the surface of inorganic and organic materials in sediment. The negative impacts of the future development of the industrial revolution can be predicted from analyzes of the “footprint” of pollutants accumulated in sediments in watersheds over time in the sediments. Analyzing sediment samples deposited in water bodies allows us to trace the history of pollutants caused by human activities during technological and industrial development. In Vietnam today, reconstruction of history (changes over time) and prediction of the future of pollutants (metals used in high-tech industries and microplastics) using information from sediments is quite limited. Therefore, the research proposal “Utilization of sedimentary footprints for forecasting the environmental impacts of industrial development in northern Vietnam” is very necessary and has scientific and practical significance.

Novelty:

  • Analysis of fluctuations in the concentration of high-tech metals and microplastics, typical pollutants of industrial development, stored in sediments in aquatic ecosystems. The study also recreates the socio-historical (cause and effect relationship), pollution level of metals (metals used in high technology), microplastics and their additives based on observation analysis of different and consecutive temporal fluctuations over many years from undisturbed sediment drill cores.
  • Develop scenarios to predict pollution, environmental impacts and pollution recovery capacity of water bodies. The target is to analyze the cause and effect relationship of industrial and environmental development since the beginning of the last century (corresponding to the last 100 years) to reconstruct the history of impacts from human activities on the ecosystem.

Specific goals:

  • Determine the concentration of substances capable of causing environmental pollution during the industrial development stage (including microplastics and metals used for high-tech production activities) over time recorded in sediments (in about 100 years);
  • Analyze impacts from human activities (for about 100 years) on the ecosystem;
  • Recreate the historical distribution of environmental pollutants recorded in sediments and build future pollution scenarios using machine learning tools and neutral networks.
project manager image
Principle Investigator
Assoc.Prof. Duong Thi Thuy
Host Organization
Institute of Environmental Technology, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology

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Expect Progress
01/12/2022
31/10/2023
Phase 1

– A set of sediment core samples from various water basins in northern Vietnam;
– A dataset describing the lithological characteristics of the sediment core samples;
– A dataset of high-resolution age determinations for the sediment core samples;
– A dataset on the occurrence and use of plastics in the socio-economic development and human life in the past.

30/11/2024
Phase 2

– A dataset on the characteristics of material components capable of containing/retaining plastic particles and metals in sediment cores;
– Submission of one Q1 journal article;
– Presentation of one paper at a reputable national or international conference, or publication of a paper in a reputable national specialized journal;
– Data on plastic waste based on published documents; data on the occurrence and use of metals in the socio-economic development and human life in the past;
– A dataset on the concentration and distribution of plastic particles and metals in sediment cores over time.

30/11/2025
Phase 3

– Basic data on less-polluting substances with limited documentation;
– Selection of time-series models based on the collected foundational data from published documents;
– Time-series descriptive algorithms, applying artificial neural networks to the database from the sediment core column conducted by the project;
– Models and scenarios forecasting variations in the concentrations of plastic particles and heavy metals concentrated in sediment cores in the future;
– Publication of 2 papers in Q1 journals (in the Project’s registered and agreed-upon category);
– Presentation of 1 paper at a reputable national or international conference, or publication of a paper in a reputable national specialized journal;
– Defense of theses by 1-2 master’s students on the research topic of the Project.

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