Water Quality Examination: The Investigation of Heavy Metal Contamination, Nutrients, and Organic Pollutants in Aquatic Environments for an Enhanced Prevention and Purification Process

Dear Colleagues,

The condition of both surface and groundwater echoes the human influence on the environment, with heavy metals, nutrients, and organic compounds altering water ecosystems. Environmental pollution stems from anthropogenic activities, industrial processes, and metal utilization. This Special Issue primarily focuses on the occurrence, distribution, migration, and transformation of emerging pollutants. It explores factors influencing their evolution in various media (e.g., sediment, water, aquatic organisms). The issue involves a monitoring and analyzing of heavy metals, nutrients, and organic pollutants in aquatic environments, identifying sources, assessing temporal and spatial distribution, speciation, and associated environmental risks. Evaluation includes pollution indices, exposure, bioaccumulation, toxic effects, and human health risk assessment linked to water-associated heavy metals pollution or water-associated organic pollutants. The core theme revolves around the development of advanced treatment technologies, combining physicochemical, membrane separation, advanced oxidation, and biological processes for sustainable water treatment. Contributions such as research papers, reviews, case reports, and conference papers are invited, especially those maintaining a high academic standard while addressing pollution sources, effects, control, and management in aquatic environments. Water pollution by heavy metals often coincides with contamination by nutrients and organic pollutants. Some, like antibiotics, drugs, steroids, endocrine disruptors, hormones, industrial additives, chemicals, and microplastics, are emerging pollutants identified as hazardous to the environment, ecosystems, and human health. Research on the levels of these pollutants in water, whether associated with heavy metals pollution or not, is highly encouraged. In summary, the presence of organic pollutants in water provides a favorable environment for bacterial growth. This interaction between bacteria and organic pollutants is a critical aspect of water quality, with implications for ecosystem health, human health, and the overall balance of aquatic environments. Hence, papers addressing the bacteriological contamination of water bodies in conjunction with organic pollutants are also encouraged for submission.

This Special Issue delves into a broad spectrum of subject, including but not limited to the following:

• The exploration of groundwater resources and movement patterns;
• Implementation of novel detection methods for emerging contaminants;
• The impact of groundwater pollution on human health;
• Strategies for preventing and restoring groundwater pollution in situ;
• Measures to safeguard the quality of groundwater;
• Assessment of human health risks linked to contaminated water, along with response strategies for both ground and surface water resources;
• Pollution assessment tools (indices, diagrams, modeling);
• Technologies for the prevention of groundwater pollution and restoration of groundwater quality, such as photocatalysis, adsorption, bio-degradation, and membrane separation;
• Analysis of risks and response strategies for the sustainable management of both surface and groundwater sources;
• Study of heavy metals and nutrients in drinking, surface and groundwater, and their effects on various living organisms;
• Examination of the impact on biota in surface water and the transfer of pollutants from aquatic environments to biota;
• An economic analysis of pollutant removal processes and technologies;
• Application of innovative non-toxic materials (e.g. hydroxyapatite) in the decontamination of water;
• Water decontamination through various techniques (e.g. photocatalysis, adsorption, etc.);
• Computational and theoretical studies on reaction mechanisms, kinetics, and thermodynamics of water remediation pathways;
• An evaluation of metal contents in different water bodies coupled with the effects on living organisms;
• Environmental assessment concerning the trace metals content in water ecosystems coupled with a possible health influence in relation to drinking sources;
• The evaluation of nutrients, organic pollutants, and microplastics in water;
• A comprehensive evaluation of bacterial contamination, its monitoring and remediation;

Dr. Thomas Dippong
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. Water 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 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.

• water pollution
• contamination of groundwater
• aquatic ecosystems
• monitoring of water resources
• management for sustainability
• removal of heavy metals
• eutrophication
• bioremediation
• chemical or biological technologies
• aquatic environments
• risk assessment
• phytoremediation of water
• microplastics in water
• nutrients in water
• heavy metal in water
• organic pollutants in water
• bacterial contamination of water