Land Use and Management for Waste Disposal and Wastewater Treatment

A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Land, Soil and Water".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 459

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Agrochemistry and Environment, University Miguel Hernández of Elche, 03202 Elche, Spain
Interests: waste management; soil pollution; environmental pollution; water microorganisms; drinking water pollution; waste valorization; wastewater technologies; circular economy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Laboratory of Chemical Engineering and Engineering Sustainability, Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences, Open University of Cyprus, Giannou Kranidioti 89, Latsia, Nicosia 2231, Cyprus
Interests: key performance indicators; strategic planning development; zero-waste approach; waste prevention; waste minimization; monitoring and evaluation; sustainable development programs water footprint; environmental footprint; environmental impact and environmental risk assessment analysis; environmental multi criteria analysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Globally, environmental challenges related to waste production, its management, and its occupation of land have arisen. Handling waste and introducing it into the circular economy potentially requires occupying large swathes of land, generating significant impacts on the landscape and new problems associated with land management, mainly in periurban areas. Furthermore, waste treatment facilities can negatively affect the environment, such as through leachate from landfills resulting in soil and water contamination. Experts aim to promote the sustainable use and protection of natural resources by ensuring proper waste management and use; therefore, understanding the challenges we face is key to applying the best available technologies to minimize environmental impacts on land stemming from waste and waste management.

This Special Issue (SI) seeks to highlight the effects of land occupation associated with waste treatment and the consequent landscape transformations, including remediation and management strategies implemented to recover landscapes and land use.

This Special Issue aligns with the scope of the journal Land, which emphasizes the interplay between human activities and the environment, thanks to its focus on the disposal and treatment of waste, land degradation processes (including soil contamination from leachates), the spread of pollutants, the disruption of ecosystems, and sustainable land management.

The goal of this Special Issue is to gather together high-quality contributions—including original research articles, review papers, and case studies—that provide valuable insights into innovative strategies, advanced technologies, forward-looking policies, and integrated planning approaches aimed at minimizing the spatial footprint of waste management, reducing the associated environmental risks, and promoting sustainable and resilient land use practices.

This Special Issue will welcome manuscripts that link the following themes:

  • The assessment and monitoring of land degradation and soil contamination from waste disposal;
  • The impacts of waste and wastewater on soil health and biodiversity;
  • The ecohydrological impacts of landfills;
  • The impact of dumps on land occupation;
  • Land remediation and restoration technologies for waste-contaminated or degraded land;
  • Innovative land-based wastewater treatment systems;
  • Circular economy principles applied to land use for waste management.

We look forward to receiving your original research articles and reviews.

Dr. Ana Pérez-Gimeno
Dr. Irene Voukkali
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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. Land is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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.

Keywords

  • land use planning
  • dumping sites and conditions
  • land occupation in urban and periurban areas due to waste disposal
  • landscape transformation and recovery
  • land remediation strategies
  • environmental impact assessment in land planning for waste treatment and disposal
  • circular economy
  • land pollution and control

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

21 pages, 3832 KB  
Article
Restoration Potential of Vegetation: Soil Nutrient Responses and Heavy Metal Distribution in Coal Mine Tailings
by George Popescu, Cosmin Alin Popescu, Adina Horablaga, Florin Crista, Lucian Dragomir, Casiana Mihut, Adina Berbecea and Isidora Radulov
Land 2025, 14(11), 2274; https://doi.org/10.3390/land14112274 - 17 Nov 2025
Viewed by 284
Abstract
Coal mining leaves behind extensive tailing dumps that pose long-term ecological and soil degradation challenges. This study evaluates the restoration potential of vegetation on coal mine tailings in the Jiu Valley, Romania, focusing on soil nutrient dynamics and the heavy metal distribution. Field [...] Read more.
Coal mining leaves behind extensive tailing dumps that pose long-term ecological and soil degradation challenges. This study evaluates the restoration potential of vegetation on coal mine tailings in the Jiu Valley, Romania, focusing on soil nutrient dynamics and the heavy metal distribution. Field sampling was conducted across three vegetation types—unvegetated (UV), herbaceous (HV), and arboreal (AV, Robinia pseudoacacia)—at two intervals: three and six years post-plantation. Soil samples were analyzed for their pH, organic carbon, macronutrients, micronutrients, and heavy metals using standardized spectrometric and titrimetric methods. Between 2021 and 2024, AV plots showed a 9.5% increase in total nitrogen and a 5.2% rise in organic carbon, alongside a 6.9% reduction in soil pH. HV plots exhibited a 10.6% increase in magnesium availability and a 2.8% decrease in copper concentrations, indicating active nutrient cycling. In contrast, UV soils retained 68% higher total potassium and 24% more zinc than vegetated plots, likely due to limited biological uptake. Lead concentrations remained below the EU threshold of 60 mg kg−1, while nickel levels exceeded recommended limits across all variants, peaking at 76.08 mg kg−1. The vegetation type significantly influenced nutrient mobilization and metal stabilization, with arboreal cover demonstrating the most consistent ameliorative effects. These findings underscore the role of targeted revegetation—particularly with Robinia pseudoacacia—in improving soil quality and mitigating ecological risks in post-mining landscapes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Land Use and Management for Waste Disposal and Wastewater Treatment)
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