The Impact of Urbanization on Water Resources and the Water Environments

Dear Colleagues,

It has been projected that human migration from rural to urban areas will contribute to more than two-thirds of the world’s population living in urban areas by 2050. This important trend already has increased urban pressure on, and the degradation of, nearby aquatic ecosystems and the living communities in water bodies, which include rivers, estuaries, and lakes.

The aforementioned pressure mechanisms affect the rivers’ flow variations during dry and rainy seasons, the bodies’ water quality, as well as natural aquifer recharging. In order to face this reality, the United Nations has included the sustainable management of freshwater systems as one of its Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 6) as part of its 2030 Agenda to promote prosperity and address inequalities while protecting the environment.

This Special Issue seeks contributions that report on the current conditions of water bodies passing through urban areas in developed and developing regions. Research may include (but is not limited to) the impact of cities in the following topics: water quality and quantity, and ecological status of water bodies. This also covers effects on the quality of groundwater and its level changes in urban area aquifers.  

This Special Issue will contribute to identifying the state of the art as well as the strategies and solutions needed to face and manage the impact of urbanization on water resources and the water environment while finding and identifying gaps in the relevant knowledge.

We invite authors to submit their original research and review articles that will showcase contemporary developments within this field.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Rubén Jerves-Cobo
Dr. Wout Van Echelpoel
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.

• urban river water quality
• stormwater management
• integrated ecological models
• wastewater discharges
• urban aquatic ecosystems
• sustainable urban drainage systems
• nature-based solutions for water management in urban areas
• integrated water quality assessment
• water table variation in urban areas