sustainability-logo

Journal Browser

Journal Browser

Drinking Water, Water Management and Environment

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Water Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 July 2025 | Viewed by 560

Special Issue Editor

College of Management and Economics, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
Interests: management science and systems engineering; ecosystem and public resources management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Today, water shortage caused by environmental pollution is increasingly becoming a global problem. Consequently, protecting the environment and ensuring the sustainability of water resources have become important issue. Some methods have been undertaken to help solve the problem of drinking water, including recycled water utilisation, desalination, water infrastructure building, appropriate water pricing, etc.

Of these, recycled water utilisation is notably effective. After treatment, wastewater can be used again for various purposes, such as irrigation and in other industries. Equivalently, seawater desalination refers to the process of removing excess salt and minerals from seawater to obtain fresh water. This process is mainly used to provide drinking water and agricultural water—and sometimes edible salt as a by-product. Seawater desalination is very popular in areas where there is an extreme lack of rainfall. In addition to these, building and maintaining water infrastructure is important for distributing clean drinking water and managing wastewater. Effective infrastructure ensures safe water delivery and helps prevent loss and contamination. Lastly, setting appropriate water prices can also help avoid the accumulation of unnecessary waste.

Given this background, we welcome the contribution of research articles, case studies, and review articles to this Special Issue. The topic of this Issue is related to the above-mentioned methods that help solve the drinking water shortage and help balance the needs of people and ecosystems, ensuring sustainable water use while protecting the environment.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Gang Liu
Guest Editor

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.

Keywords

  • recycled water utilisation
  • desalination
  • water infrastructure
  • water price
  • sustainable development

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

22 pages, 2204 KiB  
Article
Study on the Distortionary Effects of Water Resources Allocation in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, China
by Jinping Tong, Jiawen Cao, Teng Qin, Guodong Qin and Jianfeng Ma
Sustainability 2025, 17(4), 1722; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17041722 - 19 Feb 2025
Viewed by 361
Abstract
As one of the most dynamic natural elements, water resources play a vital role in both ecological and economic activities. The rational allocation of water resources is essential for the sustainable development of human society. Using data from prefecture-level cities in the Yangtze [...] Read more.
As one of the most dynamic natural elements, water resources play a vital role in both ecological and economic activities. The rational allocation of water resources is essential for the sustainable development of human society. Using data from prefecture-level cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2013 to 2022, this study employs the Cobb–Douglas (C-D) production function to measure the degree of water resource allocation distortion across provinces and cities. Additionally, a panel data model is applied to analyze the influencing factors. The key findings are as follows: The issue of excessive water resource allocation is widespread in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, with the highest degree of distortion observed in the middle reaches, where the average distortion index reaches 1.43—significantly higher than that in the upstream (1.15) and downstream (1.20) regions. Water resource endowment, the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, and rising water prices contribute significantly to improving water resource allocation, whereas increased industrial water use efficiency and excessive government intervention exacerbate allocation distortions. Regionally, the influencing factors exhibit broadly similar effects across provinces. In sectoral analysis, only the estimated coefficients of water resource policies show directional differences, whereas other factors have no significant impact on allocation distortion. By identifying the extent and causes of water resource misallocation, this study provides empirical evidence to support region-specific water management strategies, aiming to enhance resource efficiency and promote sustainable development. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drinking Water, Water Management and Environment)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop