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Advance in Freshwater Conservation and Restoration in a Large River...
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Advance in Freshwater Conservation and Restoration in a Large River Basin

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Hydrology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 February 2024) | Viewed by 3778

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Xiaowen Li

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Interests: wetland restoration; landscape ecology; systematic conservation; ecohydrological processes; ecological risk and impact assessment; biodiversity and ecosystem service pattern
Dr. Manyin Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Beijing Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecological Function and Restoration, Institute of Wetland Research, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China
Interests: wetland restoration; wetland planning and management; landscape ecology; ecosystem assessment; heavy metal pollution
Dr. Ting Lei

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Ecology and Nature Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, 35 Qinghua Donglu, Haidian District, Beijing 100083, China
Interests: wetland restoration; vegetation ecology; wetland monitoring; wetland conservation and management; biogeomorphology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

A large river basin is usually a resource-rich, economically developed and densely populated area with a fragile ecological ecosystem sensitive to human disturbance and climate changes. The maintenance of the health of freshwater ecosystems plays an important role in safeguarding water resources and the ecological foundation for the sustainable development of large river basins. In a broad sense, freshwater ecosystems encompass all inland water bodies, including rivers, lakes, floodplains, marshes, underground water and estuaries, in which the riverine and nonriverine freshwater ecosystems are hydrologically connected within a river basin. Freshwater ecosystems are fundamentally different from terrestrial ecosystems with their longitudinal, lateral and vertical hydrological connectivities. Such inherent interconnections not only maintain ecological processes, biodiversity and ecosystem services of freshwater ecosystems, but also determine the propagation of threats to the ecosystem through freshwater networks within a river basin.  

Although freshwater ecosystems play a vital role in preserving global biodiversity and ecosystem services, they have become one of the most threatened ecosystems on Earth in the past century due to massive alterations to hydrological flow, soil erosion and deposition dynamics, land reclamation, chemical and nutrient pollution and invasive species, in which human-induced impacts have dominated and are coupled with climate change. Thus, there is an urgent need for prioritizing resources and effective actions to conserve and restore those freshwater ecosytems which are particularly interconnected within large river basins. Accordingly, the primary purpose of this Special Issue is to provide state-of-the-art conceptual, methodological, implementary and policy-related studies on the conservation and restoration of freshwater ecosystems in large river basin, where the underlying geo-physical and hydro-ecological processes that cause the degradation of freshwater ecosystems can be addressed at an appropriate scale.

The specific topics of interest in this Special Issue include, but are not limited to: (1) Quantifying anthropogenic drivers and impacts on the degradation and restoration of freshwater ecosystems (e.g., biodiversity and ecosystem services); (2) measuring and characterizing processes and extents of freshwater degradation and restoration; (3) exploring coupled human–climate effects on freshwater ecosystems; (4) identifying degradation thresholds and restorable targets and pathways; (5) integrating riverine and nonriverine wetlands in addressing their multi-directional connectivity in freshwater conservation and restoration planning; (6) assessing co-benefits of cross-realm conservation and restoration between freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems; (7) spatially explicit prioritization of implementary details and measures for freshwater conservation and restoration planning; (8) developing Nature-based solution (NbS) strategies and institutional tools in freshwater conservation and restoration; (9) ecological impact assessment and watershed management.

Dr. Xiaowen Li
Dr. Manyin Zhang
Dr. Ting Lei
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • conservation
  • restoration
  • degradation
  • climate change
  • freshwater ecosystems
  • riverine/nonriverine wetlands
  • human-induced impacts
  • large river basins

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 10507 KiB  
Article
Unveiling the Dynamics of Cryptosporidium in Urban Surface Water: A Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment and Insights into Climatic and Seasonal Influences
by Hazrat Bilal, Xiaowen Li, Muhammad Shahid Iqbal, Roberto Xavier Supe Tulcan and Madan Thapa Chhetri
Water 2024, 16(10), 1352; https://doi.org/10.3390/w16101352 - 10 May 2024
Viewed by 534
Abstract
In response to global urbanization and economic development, urban surface water pollution has become a universal challenge and particularly affects densely populated megacities, and Dhaka is no exception. The discharge of 98% of untreated domestic sewage and massive volumes of industrial wastewater from [...] Read more.
In response to global urbanization and economic development, urban surface water pollution has become a universal challenge and particularly affects densely populated megacities, and Dhaka is no exception. The discharge of 98% of untreated domestic sewage and massive volumes of industrial wastewater from over 7000 industries escalate surface water crises. This study investigates microbial and fecal contamination with particular emphasis on Cryptosporidium in surface water, known for causing waterborne diseases, such as cryptosporidiosis. Findings reveal high Cryptosporidium oocyst concentrations and fecal contamination in various water bodies in Dhaka City. Among the investigated water bodies, the Buriganga River exhibits the highest Cryptosporidium oocyst concentration (46%), while the Balu River, Turag River, Shitalakkhya River, Dhanmondi Lake, Gulshan Lake, Banani Lake, Ramna Lake, and Crescent Lake also present high levels of oocyst concentrations ranging from 21–40%. This study also calculated infection risks and found that the infection risk of swimming is highest during the wet season and is (3.9 ± 2.2 (95% CI: 3.0–5.0)) × 10−2 per swimming event, whereas it is approximately (2.4 ± 1.9 (95% CI: 1.6–3.3)) × 10−2 during the dry season. Annual diving risks are approximately (1.2 ± 0.6 (95% CI: 0.9–1.4)) × 10−2, indicating considerably high risks. Most of the sampling sites generally show significantly higher risks than other study areas like the Mymensingh and Kushtia Districts. In light of these results, we strongly recommend immediate measures to address water quality issues and mitigate the risks associated with Cryptosporidium contamination in Dhaka’s surface water. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advance in Freshwater Conservation and Restoration in a Large River Basin)
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20 pages, 8361 KiB  
Article
Multi-Criteria Prioritization of Watersheds for Post-Fire Restoration Using GIS Tools and Google Earth Engine: A Case Study from the Department of Santa Cruz, Bolivia
by Jeanne Fernandez, Oswaldo Maillard, Gerson Uyuni, Mónica Guzmán-Rojo and Marisa Escobar
Water 2023, 15(20), 3545; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15203545 - 11 Oct 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1570
Abstract
The Santa Cruz department in Bolivia is characterized by a wide range of ecosystems and by its richness in water resources. In recent years, extended drought caused by climate change has led to extensive fire events. Combined with deforestation, this is resulting in [...] Read more.
The Santa Cruz department in Bolivia is characterized by a wide range of ecosystems and by its richness in water resources. In recent years, extended drought caused by climate change has led to extensive fire events. Combined with deforestation, this is resulting in the degradation of the region’s ecosystems and water resources. To address restoration needs from both a land- and water-management perspective, this study proposes to prioritize restoration areas by applying a multi-criteria analysis (MCA) based on two main principles: (1) using the watershed as the main study unit and (2) involving stakeholders in the definition of priority watersheds. Local stakeholders selected criteria representing water resources, biophysical characteristics, land management, productive areas, and fire disaster threats, and reclassified the spatial information based on perceived importance. Different prioritization scenarios were developed and compared in a Google Earth Engine (GEE) application. Priority restoration areas largely depend on the weighting scheme. Focusing solely on past fires leads to prioritizing the south-east basins, while the conservation of the western watersheds becomes more important when increasing the weight of the water resources criteria. This study represents the first step in developing a participatory MCA tool at the watershed scale in Santa Cruz. Highlighting the impact of different prioritization criteria can support collective decision-making around land and watershed restoration. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advance in Freshwater Conservation and Restoration in a Large River Basin)
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15 pages, 4621 KiB  
Article
Water-Level Fluctuations and Ungulate Community Dynamics in Central Uganda
by Camille H. Warbington and Mark S. Boyce
Water 2023, 15(15), 2765; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15152765 - 30 Jul 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1245
Abstract
Climate change has altered precipitation regimes with concomitant influences in hydrology. For a complex assemblage of ungulates, these water-level fluctuations might alter habitat partitioning thought to be crucial for coexistence in response to livestock introduction. We placed camera traps in three habitat types [...] Read more.
Climate change has altered precipitation regimes with concomitant influences in hydrology. For a complex assemblage of ungulates, these water-level fluctuations might alter habitat partitioning thought to be crucial for coexistence in response to livestock introduction. We placed camera traps in three habitat types along the Mayanja River in central Uganda to evaluate space use by native and domestic ungulates. For each species, we assessed the difference in the proportion of days with camera-trap detections during three water-level conditions (low in 2017, normal in 2015, and high in 2016). Sitatunga was the only species regularly using wetlands; their use of remote wetlands remained consistent regardless of water-level conditions, and their use of forest habitats decreased during the study. In the forest, warthogs showed no change in use, while proportion of days with detections increased over time for all other ungulates. Our results indicate that ungulate community space use appears to be independent of hydrologic condition, and that risk for competitive exclusion between native and domestic ungulates is tempered by dietary and habitat use differences. Adaptations to dynamic hydrology appears to buffer consequences for ungulate communities; more serious are habitat losses to agriculture and development. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advance in Freshwater Conservation and Restoration in a Large River Basin)
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