About Frans Buschman

Frans Buschman is an expert in monitoring the dynamics in rivers and estuaries. Central theme in his work is the transport of litter and microplastics. Frans likes to solve problems by obtaining system understanding from both monitoring and numerical modelling. His PhD research aimed to understand the effect of increasing sediment load from a pristine catchment in Indonesia on coral reefs in the sea. Frans set up a measurement campaign and a model to obtain how sediment was transported from the catchment, via the river and the tidal network to the coral reefs in the sea.

“To reduce plastics pollution and its effects on aquatic life, we need to apply a source-to-sea approach. ”

Frans combines his background in monitoring and in hydrodynamics with a practical approach to best achieve project goals within a budget. With his experience in designing field campaigns, he can arrive at answers to the questions raised within a budget. With his extensive experience in monitoring, Frans has also contributed to the development and application of innovative measurement techniques. As an example, Frans has published on how plastics are distributed vertically in the water column and how this can be measured with an acoustic instrument. This knowledge is relevant, among other things, to optimally deploy plastic capture devices in rivers. In several projects Frans worked on where to install such a device in a river and how to design it to optimally collect litter.