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Monday, December 15, 2025

New “river literacy” concept empowers communities to protect freshwaters

More than half of the world’s population lives close to rivers, and yet many people know surprisingly little about how rivers function or how human activity affects them.

Plastic Cup Society

A team of international researchers and educators created an educational framework called “River Literacy” to help communities better understand and protect their rivers. Inspired by the well-established framework of “Ocean Literacy,” this new approach highlights the vital roles rivers play in our daily lives, cultures, and ecosystems. Their study on this topic has just been published in the scientific journal Earth.

Why Rivers?

More than half of the world’s population lives close to rivers, and yet many people know surprisingly little about how rivers function or how human activity affects them. The world’s most international river, the Danube – stretching across 10 countries and collecting rain from 19 countries – has experienced floods, droughts, pollution, and dramatic losses of wetlands.

As a result, members of riverside communities have lost their daily and live connection to rivers. However, the river literacy framework can be helpful when trying to reconnect people with their waterways.

Seven Principles of River Literacy

During the adaptation of the ocean literacy framework, the researchers have distilled the complex scientific knowledge available about rivers into seven easy-to-grasp principles designed for schools, riverside communities, and the general public:

Everything that happens to the river affects the ocean.
The lives of rivers and people are closely connected.
Every river is vulnerable and deserves protection.
The river gives life, but it can also take it away.
The river is a shared heritage, not a commodity.
The river and its life shape the landscape, the weather and the climate.
The river and its creatures are largely unexplored.

From Theory to Action

The River Literacy framework has already been tested in classrooms and community programs across five Danube countries. Educational tools such as the Riversavers’ Handbook, playful workshops, and the mobile River Litter Lab exhibition have reached hundreds of students and teachers. A new Riversaver School Network now brings together schools working actively to protect their local waterways.

Podcast episode on the topic of River Literacy: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4JRBFZ3H7C1MyQZGrJOnxT?si=nyFJkXrzSC-7aAuF3jUbXg

More than Education

River Literacy is not just about learning facts. It also encourages hands-on water stewardship: from citizen science projects to river cleanup actions and “adopting” stretches of riverbanks. Participants might feel more motivated to protect rivers and less anxious about climate change, thanks to the beneficial effects of “blue therapy” and the sense of actively contributing to solutions.

“Water exists in various forms in our bodies and all around us. More than half of the human body is composed of water, and we can survive only 3–4 days without it. Despite water being vital for humanity, we often treat it as if it were worthless. The River Literacy concept aims to change this attitude by educating people,” emphasised last author Prof. Tímea Kiss (independent researcher, Hungary).

Global Relevance

The project supports the United Nations’ sustainable development goals and the EU Mission “Restore Our Ocean and Waters”. By strengthening knowledge, cultural ties, and community engagement, River Literacy aims to inspire a new generation of “river-literate” citizens ready to tackle pollution, climate challenges, and water scarcity.

“Our survival as a species is encoded into how we treat our waters. Being literate in fresh water issues is more important than ever. We hope that river literacy can transform how we understand and care for rivers just as ocean literacy changed the way people see the sea," noted first author Attila D. Molnár (Plastic Cup Initiative, Hungary).

Acknowledgement

This research was funded by the EU’s Erasmus programme under the projects “5 countries 1 river” (2020-1-HU01-KA201-078843) and “River Lit(t)eracy – Riversaver Schools” (2023-1-HU01-KA220-SCH-000166027). The river literacy framework was reviewed and teaching methodologies were tested and improved within the framework of the Danube Lighthouse project “DALIA” (101094070) and the Danube Interreg project “Aquatic Plastic” (DRP0200235).

VIDEOS:

Introduction of the Riversaver School Network (with subtitles):

https://youtu.be/LvViqEe8dHM?si=YFxhgAr9CT4BInke

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u519IjqK4oo

Podcast episode on the topic of River Literacy: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4JRBFZ3H7C1MyQZGrJOnxT?si=nyFJkXrzSC-7aAuF3jUbXg

Journal

Earth

DOI

10.3390/earth6040117

Article Title

A Fresh Look at Freshwaters—River Literacy Principles for the Environmental Education of Riverside Communities Affected by Water Scarcity, Desertification and Transboundary River Pollution

Engineered material uses light to destroy PFAS, other contaminants

Rice University

HOUSTON – (Dec. 15, 2025) – Materials scientists at Rice University and collaborators have developed a material that uses light to break down a range of pollutants in water, including per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, the “forever chemicals” that have garnered attention for their pervasiveness.

The process involves the use of a class of materials known as covalent organic frameworks, or COFs, whose porous structure ⎯ and hence high surface area ⎯ make them useful in light-driven, or photocatalytic, reactions. When they interact with light, some of the electrons in COF molecules get displaced, forming holes, and this bifurcation of charges is what makes COFs good photocatalysts.

According to a study published in Materials Today, the Rice team grew a COF material directly onto a two-dimensional film of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), giving rise to a hybrid supercleansing surface that needs only light in order to cut through tough pollutants, including pharmaceutical waste, dyes and PFAS.

“By combining two safe, lightweight materials in a new way, we built a powerful pollution-fighting surface that works quickly, works on many different pollutants and does not rely on metals that could harm the environment,” said Yifan Zhu, a postdoctoral researcher in Rice’s Department of Materials Science and Nanoengineering and a first author on the study. “This matters because it offers a cleaner, cheaper and more sustainable way to protect our water.”

To construct this surface, the researchers had to find a way to combine the two materials, which are usually difficult to attach to one another. They did so using defect engineering, a technique that deliberately embeds defects or imperfections into a material in order to engender new properties or behaviors. In this case, the team etched microscopic “scratches” into the hBN surface. The imperfections served as reactive sites anchoring the COF to the hBN film and enabling it to grow directly on top. The resulting interface directs the light-energized electrons and holes in different directions, creating the cleansing effect.

“By growing them directly together rather than simply mixing them, we created a connected structure where charges could travel easily without getting trapped,” Zhu said. “This approach had not been done before with this pair of materials, especially because hBN is usually very hard to modify.”

To examine performance under practical conditions, the team tested the material in vertical and horizontal flowing-water reactors ⎯ mirroring equivalent setups in water treatment facilities. The material performed consistently over repeated cleansing cycles, maintaining structure and stability.

“These findings show that a single, metal-free material can tackle multiple hard-to-remove pollutants,” said Jun Lou, a corresponding author on the study who is Rice’s Karl F. Hasselmann Professor of Materials Science and Nanoengineering. “This moves us closer to practical, low-cost solutions for cleaner water.”

Qilin Li, Rice’s Karl F. Hasselmann Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, is also a corresponding on the study, alongside Mingjie Liu, an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Florida. Other contributors from Rice are Yuren Feng, Xiang Zhang, Qing Ai, Tianyou Xie, Xintong Weng, Lixin Zhou, Tianshu Zhai, Yifeng Liu, Xiaochuan Huang, Chen-yang Lin, Sarah Glass, Bongki Shin, Yimo Han, Angel Martí and Pulickel Ajayan. The work was a collaboration between Rice and University of Florida collaborators.

The research was supported by the National Science Foundation (2113882, 1449500, 2404270); the Air Force Research Laboratory International Research, Innovation and Science in Nanotechnology (RISING) Center at Rice; and the Welch Foundation (C-2248, C-2065). The content in this press release is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of funding organizations and institutions.

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This news release can be found online at news.rice.edu.

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.

Peer-reviewed paper:

Covalent organic framework/hexagonal boron nitride heterostructure photocatalysts for efficient degradation of emerging contaminants | Materials Today | DOI: 10.1016/j.mattod.2025.11.004

Authors: Yifan Zhu, Yuren Feng, Yunrui Yan, Zhiyu Wang, Xiang Zhang, Somayeh Faraji, Qing Ai, Tianyou Xie, Xintong Weng, Lixin Zhou, Tianshu Zhai, Yifeng Liu, Xiaochuan Huang, Chen-yang Lin, Sarah Glass, Bongki Shin, Yimo Han, Angel Martí, Pulickel Ajayan, Mingjie Liu, Qilin Li and Jun Lou

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mattod.2025.11.004

About Rice:

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Texas, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of architecture, business, continuing studies, engineering and computing, humanities, music, natural sciences and social sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. Internationally, the university maintains the Rice Global Paris Center, a hub for innovative collaboration, research and inspired teaching located in the heart of Paris. With 4,776 undergraduates and 4,104 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction and No. 7 for best-run colleges by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by the Wall Street Journal and is included on Forbes’ exclusive list of “New Ivies.”

Journal

Materials Today

DOI

10.1016/j.mattod.2025.11.004

Method of Research

Experimental study

Article Title

Covalent organic framework/hexagonal boron nitride heterostructure photocatalysts for efficient degradation of emerging contaminants

Strengthening asphalt roads with a unique green ingredient: Algae

American Chemical Society

Snow and ice can damage paved surfaces, leading to frost heaves and potholes. These become potential hazards for drivers and pedestrians and are expensive to fix. Now, researchers propose in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering a figurative and literal green solution to improve the durability of roads and sidewalks: an algae-derived asphalt binder. For temperatures below freezing, results indicated that the algae binder reduced asphalt cracks when compared to a conventional, petroleum-based binder.

“Algae-derived compounds can improve moisture resistance, flexibility and self-healing behavior in asphalt, potentially extending pavement life and reducing maintenance costs,” says research team lead Elham Fini. “In the long term, algae asphalt could help create more sustainable, resilient and environmentally responsive roadways.”

Currently, asphalt is held together with bitumen: a thick, glue-like substance made from crude oil. Bitumen binds the sand and rocks that make up paved surfaces and allows the asphalt to expand and contract in hot and cold conditions, respectively. However, when the temperature rapidly drops below freezing, the binder becomes brittle and can crack, leading to roadway damage. To improve asphalt’s flexibility and durability at subzero temperatures, Fini and colleagues developed a sustainable and rubbery binder from algae oil.

Fini’s previous studies showed that oil extracted from algae can make a bitumen-like product that is particularly durable at low temperatures. Continuing this work, Fini and colleagues used computer models to evaluate oils from four algae species for their abilities to produce bitumen-like products that mixed well with asphalt solids and retained functionality in freezing temps. Of the four algal species, oil from the freshwater green microalga Haematococcus pluvialis appeared to impart the most resistance to permanent deformation under simulated traffic-induced stress, as well as enhanced resistance to moisture-induced damage.

In laboratory demonstrations that mimicked road traffic and freezing cycles, H. pluvialis algae-asphalt samples created by the researchers showed up to a 70% improvement in deformation recovery compared to pavement made with a crude oil-based binder. In addition to strengthening roads, the team estimates that substituting 1% of the petroleum-based binder with algae-based binder would cut net carbon emissions from asphalt by 4.5%. At around 22% algae-based binder, asphalt could potentially become carbon neutral. The researchers say this approach paves the way toward high-performance, cost-effective and sustainable pavement infrastructure.

The authors acknowledge funding from the U.S. Department of Energy.

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The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1876 and chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS is committed to improving all lives through the transforming power of chemistry. Its mission is to advance scientific knowledge, empower a global community and champion scientific integrity, and its vision is a world built on science. The Society is a global leader in promoting excellence in science education and providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple research solutions, peer-reviewed journals, scientific conferences, e-books and weekly news periodical Chemical & Engineering News. ACS journals are among the most cited, most trusted and most read within the scientific literature; however, ACS itself does not conduct chemical research. As a leader in scientific information solutions, its CAS division partners with global innovators to accelerate breakthroughs by curating, connecting and analyzing the world’s scientific knowledge. ACS’ main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

Registered journalists can subscribe to the ACS journalist news portal on EurekAlert! to access embargoed and public science press releases. For media inquiries, contact newsroom@acs.org.

Note: ACS does not conduct research but publishes and publicizes peer-reviewed scientific studies.

Journal

ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering

DOI

10.1021/acssuschemeng.5c03860

Article Title

“Algae Asphalt to Enhance Pavement Sustainability and Performance at Subzero Temperatures”