Challenges in Environmental Geology and Hydrology

Dear Colleagues,

Geological settings and earth processes influence the occurrence of natural hazards like landslides, floods, or droughts, which have numerous impacts on humans and their environments. At the same time, human activities and dramatic population growth significantly increase the impact of climate and land use change on the physical environment, causing the deterioration of human health and ecosystem services, the pollution of water, soil, and air, the imbalance of biogeochemical cycles, and enormous waste production. In addition, the overexploitation of mineral resources deteriorates huge areas of land, produces enormous mine waste, and pollutes sensitive natural resources.

Over the last several decades, vulnerable areas such as fertile soils around rivers prone to flooding or coasts vulnerable to tropical cyclones were regularly affected by extreme events, having large socio-economic and environmental impacts affecting many sectors. These multi-faceted impacts occur both in arid and semi-arid regions, but also in regions where water availability has never before been a major concern. In addition, many water systems used for water supply and irrigation are already under substantial pressure from overexploitation or pollution, and the demand for water resources is increasing remarkably.

Improved knowledge on how to identify and mitigate environmental problems caused by natural hazards and humans and how to help land-use planners and policy makers to balance needs for land and resources with their availability is pivotal to achieve sustainable development. Although substantial scientific progress has been made over the last several decades on natural hazards preparedness, monitoring and forecasting, the environmental impact assessment of mining and mineral processing, and water resources management and planning under the changing climate, there are still research gaps in this area that need to be tackled. This Special Issue aims to contribute to advancing the scientific knowledge on the assessment of the environmental and socio-economic impacts of natural and anthropogenic hazards on soil and water. In particular, this Special Issue will focus on:

• Environmental and socio-economic impacts triggered by natural or anthropogenic hazards at different scales, taking into account economic, political, and social factors;
• Impact monitoring using ground and/or remotely sensed techniques;
• Impact of mining and mineral processing on environment and human health;
• Pollutant leaching through soil and unsaturated zone from different land-uses in both time and space, taking into account uncertainty in model prediction;
• Integrated decision-making and management modelling systems for sustainable water management strategies;
• Geological aspects of waste management; and
• Characterization and remediation of contaminated soil and groundwater.

Prof. Zoran Nakić
Dr. Alexandra Gemitzi
Guest Editors

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• Environmental geology
• Environmental sustainability
• Groundwater
• Soil and unsaturated zone
• Natural hazards
• Anthropogenic impacts
• Environmental risk assessment
• Socio-economic aspects of soil and water management
• Integrated decision making and management modelling systems
• Waste management
• Pollution leaching
• Uncertainty
• Remediation