Dear Colleagues,

Groundwater contamination results from widely diverse human activities. Emerging contaminants (ECs) referred to compounds previously not considered or known to be significant to groundwater (in terms of distribution and/or concentration) which are now being more widely detected. 

During the last century, an increasing number of compounds originating from human activities have been introduced into the water cycle. Some of these are easily identified point sources (e.g., pharmaceuticals, illicit drugs, personal care products, engineered nanomaterials). These ECs are ubiquitous in the aquatic environment, mainly derived from the discharge of municipal wastewater effluents. Still, other types of groundwater contamination are associated with non-point sources activities (e.g. atmospheric deposition or from crop and animal production).

The emerging contaminants can have human or ecological health effects and there is a need for a better understanding of their fate in environmental systems.

Many emerging contaminants remain unregulated, but the number of regulated contaminants will continue to grow slowly over the next several decades.

Pesticides and their metabolites are probably the most studied group of emerging contaminants.

Persistence of other pollutants, particularly pharmaceuticals, is less-well characterised and these are assessed using new case studies to indicate the compounds which have been identified in groundwater and possible concentrations.

Most emerging pollutants are not regulated in environmental, water quality and wastewater discharge regulations. Hence, this special issue is aiming at understanding which are the relevant compounds that can be found in the aqueous environment, which are or could have the potential to become emerging contaminants and the pathway by which it travels from the source, e.g. fracture flow through an aquifer. This will allow the determination of the environmental occurrence of these potential contaminants, the characterisation of their sources and pathways that determine release to the aqueous environment and definition and quantification of the processes that determine their transport and fate through the environment. 

Therefore, we seek scientific findings and results in the above-mentioned areas, which can contribute to new knowledge to hydrogeology and applied hydrogeology.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• emerging contaminants: fate and behaviour in the water environment
• environmental impact;
• nanofiltration;
• toxicity;
• risk assessment, solid-solution interface;
• pesticides;
• metabolites;
• pharmaceuticals;
• Advanced wastewater treatment;

Prof. Dr. Maurizio Barbieri
Guest Editor

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