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Dr. Huai Li

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Guest Editor

Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Environment, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130102, China
Interests: wetland matter cycling; wetland pollution control; wetland engineering application

Prof. Dr. Zifang Chi

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Guest Editor

College of New Energy and Environment, Jilin University, Changchun 130021, China
Interests: constructed wetlands; degraded wetland restoration; wetland ecology; wetland biodiversity; groundwater; vadose; aquifer; landfill; membrane biofilm reactor; functional materials; heavy metals; organic matter; nutrients; micro pollutants; greenhouse gases

Dr. Jiuling Li

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Australian Centre for Water and Environmental Biotechnology, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
Interests: smart city; pollution control and engineering; urban water system; real-time control; optimization
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Natural wetlands are complex and critical ecosystems that can provide diverse ecological services, maintain regional ecological security, supplying unique habitats for microorganisms. However, multiple stresses from natural and anthropogenic disturbances pose serious threats to wetlands, leading to their degradation and loss of function. Therefore, wetland restoration and function enhancement have become a central pillar of wetland resource protection.

Unlike natural wetlands, constructed wetlands are ecological purification technologies under human intervention, which can effectively remove nutrients, heavy metals, organic pollutants, and other typical emerging pollutants in water bodies. However, some unconventional stresses may negatively affect its removal efficiency, such as nanomaterials, microplastics, high salinity, low temperature, etc. The application of constructed wetlands will face challenges from both environmental conditions and external pollutants.

This Special Issue aims to provide an interdisciplinary platform for researchers from different backgrounds to exchange their latest research progress on challenges and opportunities in the sustainable development of natural and constructed wetlands. Research on biogeochemical processes and microbial driving mechanisms in changing environments, as well as new constructed wetland purification technologies, carbon neutrality potential, etc.

The potential topics includes but not limited to:

Freshwater wetland protection and management;
Protection and management of saline-alkali wetlands (including coastal wetlands);
Restoration and functional enhancement of typical degraded wetlands;
Material circulation and pollution control in paddy wetlands;
Strengthening strategies for pollution purification of constructed wetlands;
Carbon neutrality potential of constructed wetlands;
The impact and mechanism of exogenous stress on constructed wetlands;
Engineering application of constructed wetlands.

Dr. Huai Li
Dr. Zifang Chi
Dr. Jiuling Li
Guest Editors

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Keywords

freshwater wetlands
saline-alkaline wetlands including coastal wetlands
degraded wetlands
constructed wetlands including paddy wetlands
other eco-treatment technologies

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 998 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Groundwater Risk Assessment Based on DRASTIC and Special Vulnerability of Solidified/Stabilized Heavy-Metal-Contaminated Sites

by Zhiyong Wei and Zifang Chi

Sustainability 2023, 15(4), 2997; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15042997 - 07 Feb 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1386

Abstract

Solidification/stabilization technology is commonly used in the remediation of heavy-metal-contaminated sites, which reduces the leaching capacity of heavy metals, but the total amount of heavy metals in the soil is not reduced, there is still a risk of heavy metal re-release and contamination of groundwater, and the risk of groundwater contamination of solidified/stabilized heavy-metal-contaminated sites needs to be assessed. Through the analysis of the system structure of solidified/stabilized heavy-metal-contaminated sites, combined with the integration method of pollution sources—the vadose zone-aquifer, based on the DRASTIC model and the special vulnerability of the solidification/stabilization site, a groundwater pollution risk assessment index system including 4 influencing factors such as site hazard, pollutant hazard, aquifer vulnerability, and natural conditions and a total of 18 evaluation indexes was constructed. Each evaluation index was graded and assigned a scoring value combined with the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to calculate index weights. The comprehensive weights of site hazard, contaminant stability, aquifer vulnerability, and natural conditions were 0.1894, 0.3508, 0.3508, and 0.1090, respectively. The isometric method was used to classify the pollution risk into five risk levels (very low risk [0, 2), low risk [2, 4), medium risk [4, 6), high risk [6, 8), and very high risk [8, 10]), and a groundwater comprehensive index pollution risk assessment model was established. The model was applied to the actual site. The results showed that under the scenario of direct landfill of remediated soil, the comprehensive indexes of groundwater pollution risk for As and Cd were 4.55 and 4.58, respectively, both of which were medium risk. When the surrounding protective measures were supplemented, the comprehensive indexes of groundwater pollution risk for As and Cd were 3.98 and 4.02, respectively. Cd remained as medium risk and As as low risk. In both scenarios, the combined groundwater contamination risk index of Cd was greater than that of As because the contaminant stability of As was higher than that of Cd. The average percentage of aquifer vulnerability score reached 45.50%, which was higher than the weight of site inherent vulnerability of 35.08%, indicating that the original site hydrogeological conditions are fragile, groundwater is vulnerable to contamination, and the in situ landfill solidification/stabilization of soil is at risk. In order to further reduce the risk, the topographic slope was increased, thereby increasing the surface drainage capacity, which reduced the combined groundwater contamination risk index for As and Cd to 3.94 and 3.90, both of which were low risk. This study provides a new method for assessing the risk of groundwater contamination at solidified/stabilized heavy-metal-contaminated sites. It also has reference significance for selecting solidification/stabilization remediation parameters Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Wetland Material Cycle, Pollution Control and Engineering Application)

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16 pages, 1943 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Identification and Assessment of Groundwater and Soil Contamination from an Informal Landfill Site

by Xinyang Liu and Yu Wang

Sustainability 2022, 14(24), 16948; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142416948 - 17 Dec 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1774

Abstract

Landfills are a potential source of local environmental pollution of all kinds, and the gradual destruction of seepage-proof structures in informal landfills will lead to contamination of the surrounding soil and groundwater environment. In this study, an informal landfill site in eastern China is used as the research object. Using technologies such as unmanned vessels and monitoring well imaging to delineate the amount and distribution of polluting media, sampling of the surrounding soil, sediment, groundwater, and surface water for testing, analysis, and evaluation is carried out visually and finely for heavy metals, petroleum hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs), and other indicators. The test results show that volatile phenols are the main contaminant species in the shallow groundwater, chlorinated hydrocarbons and benzene were prevalent in the deep groundwater, hexachlorobenzene and lead in the surface soil, and di(2-Ethylhexyl) phthalate in the deep soil (5.5 m), with a maximum exceedance of 1.24 times. Nearly 10 years have passed since the waste dumping incident at the landfill, but characteristic contaminants are still detected in the topsoil of the dumping area, which shows the long-term nature of the environmental impact of illegal dumping on the site. The study recommends that when developing a comprehensive remediation plan, the persistence of the environmental impact of the waste should be considered and appropriate remediation measures should be screened. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Wetland Material Cycle, Pollution Control and Engineering Application)

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