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Sustainable strategies to treat urban runoff needed

Nature Sustainability volume 5, pages 366–369 (2022)Cite this article

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Most cities lack holistic monitoring and green infrastructure to mitigate pollution in urban runoff. We call for systematic characterization of runoff and more widespread treatment to protect biodiversity and human health. This challenge requires data-driven, adapted, low-cost and sustainable solutions for dense urban centres.

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Fig. 1: Mapping global anthropogenic pressures from conventional and emerging contaminants.

Audrey Desaulniers (Orceine).

Fig. 2: Solutions to treat runoff.

Audrey Desaulniers (Orceine).

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Acknowledgements

N.T. acknowledges the Canada Research Chairs Program, the McGill Sustainability Systems Initiative and the Killam Research Fellowship. M.L. was supported by a FRQNT Postdoctoral Fellowship. We also acknowledge B. Barbeau from Polytechnique Montreal for his helpful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Mathieu Lapointe & Nathalie Tufenkji

  2. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Chelsea M. Rochman

Authors
  1. Mathieu Lapointe
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  2. Chelsea M. Rochman
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  3. Nathalie Tufenkji
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Mathieu Lapointe or Nathalie Tufenkji.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Sustainability thanks Qilin Li and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Lapointe, M., Rochman, C.M. & Tufenkji, N. Sustainable strategies to treat urban runoff needed. Nat Sustain 5, 366–369 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-00853-4

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