Monitoring of Contaminated Water and Soil, 2nd Edition

A special issue of Environments (ISSN 2076-3298).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026 | Viewed by 922

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Environment and Territory Research Unit, Construction Technologies Institute (CNR-ITC), Via Paolo Lembo, 38/B, 70124 Bari, Italy
Interests: big data analytics; pesticide and nitrate pollution; environmental protection; geographic information systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Construction Technologies Institute (CNR-ITC), Via Paolo Lembo, 38/B, 70124 Bari, Italy
Interests: microplastics pollution; additives; microplastic toxicity; environmental pollution; phytoremediation; nature-based solutions; soil remediation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Human activities can cause significant changes in the balances and interactions between water and soil matrices; intensive agriculture, industrialisation, urbanisation, and deforestation can alter the water balance and the cycle of nutrients, significantly modifying the state of environmental matrices, leading to problems such as the pollution of water resources, soil depletion, and the loss of biodiversity. Early understanding of these changes is essential to implement strategies to mitigate the negative impacts of human activities on the environment as soon as possible.

The sector of monitoring water and soil matrices is characterised by the high degree of innovation necessary to provide concrete and practical responses to these environmental challenges. The driving force of innovation is the need to implement monitoring methodologies that consider the complexity of environmental systems and provide concrete and practical responses to various levels of complexity aimed at restoring the excellent quality status of the matrices when compromised by the presence of pollutants.

Therefore, the purpose of this Special Issue is to collect the most significant contributions regarding the advancement of applied and theoretical research aimed at monitoring and characterising the state of water and soil matrices to obtain results that can be directly used to start actions to protect natural resources and restore them to an acceptable quality state.

The publications in the first volume, which we believe may be of interest to you, can be found here: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/environments/special_issues/713699C027.

Dr. Carmine Massarelli
Dr. Ilaria Savino
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • technologies and methodologies
  • pollution monitoring and prevention
  • environmental impacts and assessments
  • ecosystem conservation
  • decision support system

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

18 pages, 2276 KB  
Article
Eutrophication Risk Assessment vs. Trophic Status: Concordances and Discrepancies in the Trophic Characterization of Ebro Basin Reservoirs
by Juan Víctor Molner, Elena Arnau-López, Noelia Campillo-Tamarit, Rebeca Pérez-González, Manuel Muñoz-Colmenares, María José Rodríguez and Juan M. Soria
Environments 2026, 13(1), 39; https://doi.org/10.3390/environments13010039 - 8 Jan 2026
Viewed by 711
Abstract
The vulnerability of reservoirs in Mediterranean regions to eutrophication is attributable to two key factors: strong seasonal hydrological variability and intensive agricultural activity. The present study evaluated the trophic state of 47 reservoirs in the Ebro Basin in Spain using two complementary approaches: [...] Read more.
The vulnerability of reservoirs in Mediterranean regions to eutrophication is attributable to two key factors: strong seasonal hydrological variability and intensive agricultural activity. The present study evaluated the trophic state of 47 reservoirs in the Ebro Basin in Spain using two complementary approaches: the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) classification system and the criteria set out in Royal Decree (RD) 47/2022. Chlorophyll-a, total phosphorus and transparency data were monitored from 2023 to 2024. While most of reservoirs were classified as oligotrophic to mesotrophic under the OECD thresholds, the RD 47/2022 identified 87% as being at risk of eutrophication. A significant variation in transparency was observed among the different reservoir types (p < 0.05), with high-altitude systems showing higher levels of water transparency. However, chlorophyll-a and total phosphorus had a significant spatial variability, exhibiting only modest correlations. Chlorophyll-a was weakly but significantly correlated to transparency (r = −0.21), while total phosphorus was not significantly associated with either variable, suggesting a decoupling between nutrient availability and phytoplankton biomass. The observed discrepancy between the two classification frameworks is indicative of divergent conceptual approaches (ecological condition versus management risk). It underscores the requirement for integrated monitoring that incorporates chemical, biological and catchment-scale indicators. These findings offer new insight into the trophic dynamics of Mediterranean reservoirs and highlights the importance of adapting regulatory assessment methods to region-specific climatic and hydrological contexts. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Monitoring of Contaminated Water and Soil, 2nd Edition)
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