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Unveiling the Performance of Nature-Based Solutions with Soil and Plant Indicators

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainability, Biodiversity and Conservation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2023) | Viewed by 3637

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
The BEAM Research Centre, School of Computing, Engineering and Built Environment, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow G4 0BA, UK
Interests: applied ecology and soil and water bioengineering; plant-soil-atmosphere interactions applied to civil and agricultural engineering; vegetation-based nature-based solutions against hydro-meteorological hazards (landslides and erosion); development of decision-support systems focused on plant selection and geolocation of nature-based solutions; community-based action to build resilience to climate change through the use of NBS

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Guest Editor
Built Environment Asset Management Centre, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow G4 0BA, UK
Interests: nature-based solutions; ecological engineering; geoenvironmental engineering; environmental civil engineering
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Nature-based solutions (NBS) have a promising potential to address present and future environmental and societal challenges caused by climate change. In many cases, NBS combine living and inert components, such as plants, soil, and timber, following well-established engineering principles to deliver functions and co-benefits in the form of ecosystem services. Problems such as soil and water pollution, erosion, landslides, and floods can be sustainably managed with effective plant and soil interactions. Even though the concept of NBS is easy to understand by the layperson, e.g., to solve a given problem with the use of vegetation, the uptake of NBS is still low and the full potential of NBS is far from being realised. The latter is partially due to the lack of robust evidence showing the performance of NBS against the problems they are designed for. Substantial work has been carried out over the last decade to define frameworks that help monitor the performance of NBS, but it is still unclear which indicators should be measured and monitored as well as how to assess the performance of a given NBS. This Special Issue aims to collect a series of original contributions including, but not limited to, novel research, critical reviews, perspectives, frameworks, decision support tools, case studies, etc., focusing on soil and plant indicators that are able to convey practical information on the performance of NBS against both environmental and societal problems.

Dr. Alejandro Gonzalez-Ollauri
Prof. Dr. Slobodan Mickovski
Guest Editors

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. Sustainability 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 2400 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

  • nature-based solutions
  • plant-soil interactions
  • performance
  • indicator
  • KPI
  • ecosystem services
  • co-benefits
  • natural hazards
  • risk reduction
  • co-design
  • stakeholders engagement
  • climate change

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

19 pages, 4761 KiB  
Article
Application of Circular Economy in Oil and Gas Produced Water Treatment
by Marwa M. Waly, Slobodan B. Mickovski and Craig Thomson
Sustainability 2023, 15(3), 2132; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15032132 - 23 Jan 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3149
Abstract
The circular economy (CE) is a promising model in industrial waste management, offering viable long-term resource sustainability. The rising costs of the oil and gas industry make circularity a reliable approach for saving materials, money, and energy. In recent years, attention has risen [...] Read more.
The circular economy (CE) is a promising model in industrial waste management, offering viable long-term resource sustainability. The rising costs of the oil and gas industry make circularity a reliable approach for saving materials, money, and energy. In recent years, attention has risen to the need to apply CE within oil and gas produced water (PW) treatment. The most common treatment practice for PW is based on mechanical treatment, with optional disposal of treated water into deep wells. However, this procedure consumes a lot of energy, increases operational costs, and causes environmental risks. This research aims to propose sustainable treatment technology promoting circularity by introducing a novel nature-based solution to treat PW. The main research objective is to develop a circular model for PW treatment by investigating the treatment of PW using constructed wetlands (CWs) to sustainably reduce the amount of waste in oil and gas fields. Additionally, investigate the use of industrial wastes as filtration materials for CW systems. In this study, eight different laboratory-scale CWs models were designed and tested. The CWS operated in two different types of flow directions: vertical (VF) and horizontal flow (HF). The main filter media for the CW system included aggregates, activated carbons, plastic, and shredded tires. The study investigated the removal rates of Total suspended solids (TSS), Total dissolved solids (TDS), Oil and Grease (OG), and Total Petroleum Hydrocarbon (TPH) from the PW. Testing the CWs, it was found that the results of the PW treatment were promising, with the potential for more future shredded tires and plastic applications. All systems were effective at removing contaminants from produced water, with the highest recorded removal efficiencies of 94.8% TSS, 33.7% TDS, 90.2% OG, and 98.4% TPH. The research results were efficient and promoted the circular use of CW in PW treatment in addition to the possibility of reusing the treated effluent in agriculture and irrigation. Full article
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