Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain As rain falls, lurking within stormwater runoff are hidden microplastics, polluting the water sources they drain into. Even though microplastics originate in urban environments such as cities, existing data sets focus on marine and coastal areas. Without data sources on microplastics in cities, scientists are unable to develop models for predicting stormwater runoff that deal with this pollution. In a multi-institutional study featuring the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, researchers compiled numerous data sources to develop the Dataset of Urban RUnoff Microplastics (DURUM), a standardized data set compiling research on microplastics in urban stormwater from around the globe. The research, which was published in Scientific Data , enables comparisons across studies and supports drainage infrastructure, urban planning, and environmental policy and regulation. "Plastic pollution creates issues in the environment and human health.…