Land-Use Impacts on Water Resources and Watershed Management
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 7
Special Issue Editors
Interests: water quality; water monitoring; water retention; hydromorphology; soil science
Interests: water recources; pollutants; heavy metals; sediments; GIS
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: water quality and water monitoring; water retention; water management; water elements in urban public space; green roof
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Land use plays a crucial role in the quality and quantity of water resources. Human activities, including urbanization, industry, agriculture and deforestation, significantly influence water hydrology, sediment transport, and pollutant loading in rivers, lakes, reservoirs, ponds and groundwater systems.
Additionally, land cover changes increase surface runoff, reduce groundwater recharge, and impact flood risk in urban and agricultural areas. Urbanization leads to a limit of water infiltration to soils, leading to higher peak flows and a heigthened erosion process. Agricultural activity, especially the use of fertilizers and pesticides, increases nutrient pollution and surface water eutrophication.
Effective watershed management aims to mitigate negative impacts by promoting sustainable land-use practices, maintaining vegetation cover and implementing buffer zones. Integrated watershed management approaches consider the interconnections between land use changes, hydrology, ecology, and human needs. Full understanding of the impact of land-use on water resources is essential for future water security, water ecosystems and human health, especially due to climate changes.
The main goal of this Special Issue is to collect papers (original research articles and review papers) to give insights about land use impacts on water resources in the watershed scale.
This Special Issue will welcome manuscripts that link the following themes:
- land-use changes in water catchments and impacts on hydrology;
- impact of agricultural activities on water and sediment quality;
- impact of land cover on the erosion process;
- urbanization effects on surface waters hydrology;
- role of relationship between land use, hydrology and human needs in effective watershed management.
We look forward to receiving your original research articles and reviews.
Dr. Łukasz Borek
Dr. Joanna Jaskuła
Dr. Věra Hubačíková
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. 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 changes
- water quality
- water monitoring
- hydromorphology
- water retention
- pollution source
- surface waters
- water management
- soil
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