Urban and Regional Nitrogen Cycle and Risk Management (2nd Edition)

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is a follow-up of the first Special Issue entitled “Urban and Regional Nitrogen Cycle and Risk Management” (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/atmosphere/special_issues/1V2W00M6BU) published in Atmosphere. We will dedicate this Special Issue to the urban and regional nitrogen cycle and urbanization, which should be addressed by risk management as anthropogenic interventions as they have globally altered the multi-scale distributions of  reactive nitrogen, resulting in the greenhouse effect, acid rain, eutrophication, and reductions in biodiversity. Therefore, the ‘nitrogen cascade’ effect induced by nitrogen cycle disruption has been recognized as the third most important global environmental problem after biodiversity loss and global warming. In China, the world's largest anthropogenic reactive nitrogen producer, significant progress has been made in recent decades in nitrogen pollution alleviation. Despite this, previous studies have revealed that insignificant reductions in national reactive nitrogen releasing, mainly contributed by agricultural production (62–69%), are still observed, and 55–59% reactive nitrogen was emitted to the atmosphere. However, based on most city-scale case studies, residential livelihood supposedly the main source of reactive nitrogen releases induced by a disrupted nitrogen cycle.

In agricultural, industrial, and residential activities, maintaining well-ordered nitrogen cycles with fewer negative environmental impacts is linked to correct and efficient risk-management of reactive nitrogen. Possible actions to reduce reactive nitrogen being released to the environment include proper nitrogen management within the production and consumption cycles of essential resources (e.g., food, energy, water), which could be supported by anthropogenic approaches (e.g., environmental pollution monitoring, environmentally friendly technology, and residents’ behavior) and natural-based approaches including nitrogen retention by green land, wetland, farmland, and bare land. Experimental approaches and modeling techniques can progress research in this respect. Different study methods can be adopted to address this Special Issue, depending on the scale of the urban and regional nitrogen cycles.

Authors are welcome to submit their contributions concerning the analysis of sources, sinks, and flows of nitrogen cycles and relevant risk management towards SDGs. Field and modeling studies concerning nitrogen pollution and driving factors, as well as the relationships between the nitrogen cycle and other cycles of water, carbon, phosphorus, sulfur, etc., are also encouraged.

Dr. Chaofan Xian
Dr. Yu-Sheng Shen
Dr. Cheng Gong
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• reactive nitrogen cycle
• air pollution/air pollutants
• environmental monitoring and assessment
• ecosystem service
• environmental footprint
• material flow analysis
• nitrogen source apportionment
• nitrogen and carbon coupling
• food, energy and water nexus
• urban and regional sustainability