Planning for Water Circular Territories: Drivers, Barriers and Best Practices to Foster Transition

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the Work Package 3 named “Integrated Water Management, Planning and Circular Economy” of the H2020 Project Ô: Demonstration of Planning and Technology Tools for a Circular, Integrated and Symbiotic Use of Water, I have the honor of inviting you to contribute to a Special Issue on “Planning for Water Circular Territories: Drivers, Barriers and Best Practices to Foster Transition” under the auspices of MDPI’s Resources journal. Resources (ISSN 2079-9276) is an international open access peer-reviewed journal of scientific studies related to resources, published monthly online by MDPI and indexed in both the Emerging Sources Citation Index and Scopus.

The purpose of this Special Issue, which is associated with a seminar of the same title promoted by the University of Aveiro, is to understand if and how WCE is considered in the actual spatial planning and water resources legal framework, as well as which barriers and drivers to its implementation are being addressed. Ultimately it aims to promote a debate within the scientific community on how we should plan for a water circular economy, in particular, using River Basin Management Plans and Spatial Plans. Is WCE being integrated into the regulatory context of the River Basin Management Plans and Spatial Planning systems? What types of barriers to the implementation of WCE can be found and what functional solutions are proposed? Spatial planning instruments have a role to play as regulatory drivers or barriers to WCE, as the zoning system and the land-use indicators may constrain its implementation. On the other hand, there are conceptual proposals and approaches for sustainability transitions, such as Resource Nexus Approaches and Nature-Based Solutions (NBS), which can be supportive to WCE, giving it an explicit territorial dimension. Do these approaches function as stepping stones into WCE solutions? Contributions are welcome on such issues as new approaches able to reinforce ties between spatial and water resources planning systems for the transition to water circular economy. This Special Issue invites academics and practitioners to present and discuss case studies of territories, cities, and projects that have addressed the challenge of integrating WCE into their instruments of water resources planning and spatial planning, institutional, and design practices. It suggests four major topics, namely: a) water resources planning for water circular economy; b) spatial planning for water circular economy; c) water circular economy and integrated water resources management; d) indicators in planning for water circular economy.

Prof. Dr. Teresa Fidélis
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. Resources is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 1600 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.

• water reuse
• spatial planning
• water resources planning
• transition to circular economy