Soil Engineering for Improving Water, Solutes, and Heat Dynamics of Arid Lands
A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Land, Soil and Water".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2026 | Viewed by 18
Special Issue Editors
Interests: soil science; soil genesis and evolution; hydropedology; engineered soils; capillary barriers for water saving
Interests: soil microbiology, rhizosphere science, plant nutrition, soil phosphorus and sulfur, soil salinity
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: irrigation water conservation; crop water requirements; irrigation water quality; improving soil physical properties
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Recent advances in soil bioengineering offer promising strategies to optimize water use efficiency, improve solute transport control, and regulate heat and gas fluxes within the soil's porous media, which is critical for sustainable land and irrigation water management in arid and semi-arid landscapes. As climate variability, shallow water tables, and land degradation challenge conventional irrigation and soil practices, engineered soils and smart soil–water interfaces represent frontier technologies for integrated solutions to improve soil health in arid lands.
This Special Issue aims to bring together interdisciplinary research focused on the design, testing, and application of engineered soil systems to enhance soil–water–atmosphere interactions in harsh arid and semi-arid landscapes. Contributions may include innovations in soil structure modification, the use of amendments such as biochar and hydrogels, the use of smart capillary barriers, the management of salinity or waterlogging, and subsurface manipulation to improve irrigation water storage and use efficiency by crops. This topic fits well within the scope of the journal Land, with focus on soil–climate–hydrology linkages, sustainable agroecosystems, and agricultural land-use innovations.
The goal of this Special Issue is to collect papers (original research articles and review papers) to provide insights into advanced theoretical and practical knowledge in the domain of soil engineering for smart irrigated agriculture and land sustainability. Submissions linking technology, landscape-scale land planning, the modeling of water–solutes–heat–flow of modified soils, the effect of organic and inorganic amendment on soil quality and water–solute transport, rhizosphere engineering, and ecosystem resilience under harsh arid soil conditions are particularly encouraged.
This Special Issue welcomes manuscripts that link the following themes:
- Smart soil barriers for controlling water, salinity, or nutrient flows;
- Soil–water–atmosphere engineering for arid agriculture;
- Engineered rhizospheres for soil–water retention;
- Techniques for mitigating waterlogging via subsurface design;
- Thermal regulation and heat flow control in irrigated soil systems;
- Soil textural contrasts or the use of amendments with contrasting hydraulic properties, such as biochar, chemical polymers, clay deposit, or mulch layers;
- Solute transport modeling and management in modified soils;
- Innovations in smart irrigation technologies linked to soil design;
- Applications of AI, sensors, and remote sensing in engineered soil systems and irrigation water management;
- Effect of organic and inorganic amendments and biological treatments on hydraulic properties and solute transport characteristics of soil.
We look forward to receiving your original research articles and reviews.
Dr. Said Al-Ismaily
Dr. Daniel Menezes-Blackburn
Prof. Dr. Abdulrasoul Al-Omran
Prof. Dr. Ali Akbar Moosavi
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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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.
Keywords
- smart irrigation
- soil–water–atmosphere interactions
- engineered capillary barriers
- water retention efficiency
- solute transport control
- heat flow in soils
- waterlogging mitigation
- rhizosphere engineering
- soil amendments
- irrigation water quality
- ai for sustainable agricultural production
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