Water Quality Assessments for Urban Water Environment
A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Urban Water Management".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2021) | Viewed by 119791
Special Issue Editor
Interests: hydrological modeling; urban water management; wastewater management; sustainable development goals
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Worldwide demand for freshwater resources is continuously increasing to satisfy the need for increasing population and growing economies. Further, both biophysical and social patterns and processes are interacting in ways that increase pressure on water and lead to water scarcity. About one-third of the world’s river basins attend their maximum capacity for exploitation, and more than half of the world’s population is directly/indirectly affected by water scarcity. In addition, rapid urbanization in developing countries of Asia, Africa, and South America is one of the prime causes for water quality deterioration in urban waterbodies and, hence, increasing health risk for urban dwellers. One of the main causes for this water scarcity is direct discharge of approximately 85% of all wastewater into water bodies without being properly treated and nonstructured/weak governance policies. It is predicted that with continuous rapid economic growth and urbanization, more than 3.5 billion people will live in cities by the year 2050, which will lead to massive increase in the need for land, food, and water. However, existing sanitation systems and land use management frameworks are inadequate, meaning that without transformational changes, these cities will fall well short in meeting the growing demands for resources. In addition, global changes (urbanization and climate change) will further aggravate the challenges for different entities involved in water planning and management. There are big gaps on scientific studies which report the current status of water quality/quantity and predict its future status based on ‘what-if’ scenarios as well as their best-fitting management options. Delivery of sustainable water supply and sanitation services in growing towns and cities has become a serious issue. Therefore, there is an urgent need for holistic research work which integrates biophysical and social aspects, looking at environmental and human contexts to solve the complex issue of water scarcity/security. Outcomes of such research work in terms of strategies based on scientific evidence, to reduce urban water pollution through better wastewater and land use management practices, will have substantial environmental and economic co-benefits for communities. Finally, how they can contribute to national adaptation plans, which can briefly sketch the appropriate local actions for addressing local climate change impacts.
Based on the aforementioned background information, this Special Issue strives to highlight the gaps, opportunities, and challenges, lessons learned from past experiences for estimating current status and future predictions of water resources in the context of urban spaces/cities, as well as up to what extent scientific innovations have contributed significantly to resolve these issues, and, finally, what the way forward is for the better science-policy we need to create to achieve global goals, e.g., SDGs at local level in a timely manner.
Prof. Pankaj Kumar
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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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.
Keywords
- urban water management
- urban water quality
- hydrological simulation
- science–policy interface
