Water Use Efficiency for Resilient Economies: Innovative Experimental Approaches Based on the Soil Conditioners—Series II

Dear Colleagues,

Based on the interest in the first Special Issue of Agronomy entitled “Water Use Efficiency for Resilient Economies: Innovative Experimental Approaches Based on the Soil Conditioners”, we are pleased to announce the launch of the second edition of this Special Issue, in which the same subject, editorial team, and submission process will be maintained.

It is well known that climate changes will cause climatic variability and rainfall will be increasingly uncertain and variable in the future. Consequently, the focus on water use efficiency (WUE) optimization will be more and more central in many environmental sectors, including open field agriculture, protected agriculture, and urban green areas. In this context, the efforts of the scientific community should be aimed at increasing the resilience of the most sensitive agro-environments and green areas.

Overall, the recent increase in using alternative water resources such as saline water, sewage effluents, and treated wastewater offers several advantages, such as the availability of a large amount of water for irrigation, the opportunity to reserve better-quality water for human consumption, and a way to protect the environment from wastewater’s direct disposal into water bodies. Regardless of the nature of the water supply (natural precipitation, irrigation, or alternative water resources), however, a key factor that deserves to be further investigated is soil water retention optimization using soil conditioners.

Soil conditioners, both traditional (i.e., manure, compost, vermicompost) and innovative (i.e., biochar, hydrogel), are generally applied to save agricultural water, especially in arid and semi-arid environments, where specific agronomic practices for dry farms (i.e., irrigation deficit, partial root-zone drying) represent the only economically sustainable options. However, soil conditioners are often applied using approximate rates, because although the mineral contributions are considered, the impact on the physical and hydraulic properties of the soil, namely the optimal balance of air/water in the soil, is often overlooked. In addition, some of them are still not very widespread (i.e., hydrogel) or, alternatively, they are widely used (i.e., biochar) to reduce water evaporation from the soil but their effects on greenhouse gas emissions need to be further investigated, because there remains much to be investigated this issue.

On the other hand, the use and/or reuse of alternative water resources, organic wastes, and organic soil conditioners in agriculture could produce unwanted effects including, for example, significant changes in chemical and biochemical properties and pollution of water tables. Therefore, studies on such effects should be thorough, evaluate pros and cons, and establish their effective environmental impact.

The main objective of this Special Issue is to gather high-quality papers related to innovative water management strategies and the rational use of soil conditioners, aimed to maximize WUE and yields, improve the soil properties, and mitigate global warming. Specific applications in urban areas, i.e., parks, tree-lined avenues, urban gardens, green roofs, will be welcome.

This Special Issue welcomes original research articles, reviews, mini-reviews, perspective articles, and meta-analysis studies.

Dr. Mirko Castellini
Dr. Rita Leogrande
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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