Pollution in Urban Water and Soils

Dear Colleagues,

The quality of the environment plays a key role in public health. A global problem is the contamination of urban areas. Nowadays, over 50% of the population lives in urban areas, and in Europe it is around 70% of inhabitants. It is also estimated that in developing countries, currently with millions of inhabitants, the population will grow even more rapidly in the coming years. As the urban population grows, people`s quality of life will depend on sustainable management. The multi-functional use of urban space (e.g., residential, industrial, recreational, and even agricultural) combined with environmental pollution may pose a serious threat to human health and has become a serious environmental challenge for local goverments.

Rapid and unsustainable urbanization negatively affects all elements of the environment, including surface and groundwater as well as the soil. In this regard, it is crucial to develop effective methods for studying the migration pathways of hazardous pollutants and techniques useful for the mitigation of pollution risk, and the mapping and quality control of the large areas subjected to anthropopressure. Methods for creating a comprehensive data package may support remediation processes, planning, and management, and ensure an adequate level of environmental protection.

As Guest Editors of this Special Issue of Sustainability, entitled "Pollution in Urban Water and Soils", we have the pleasure of inviting you to submit papers to this Special Issue focused on advanced analytical and statistical methods of water and soil quality assessment, identification of pollution sources, and monitoring of urban areas. We welcome all submissions, i.e., original research papers and case studies, as well as reviews. We also encourage authors to share their experiences with regard to trends in environmental analysis.

Dr. Anna Turek
Prof. Dr. Małgorzata Szczesio
Ms. Kinga Wieczorek
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. Sustainability 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 2400 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.

• chemical pollutants in urban areas
• surface and groundwater quality
• soil quality
• pollution sources; migration of contaminants
• environmental samples preparation and analysis
• GIS spatial analysis
• analytical and statistical methods
• monitoring
• sustainable management