Resolving Environmental Issues through Novel Forensic Geochemical Techniques

Dear Colleagues:

I am honored to have been invited to serve as the guest editor for the online journal Sustainability. The topic of forensic geochemistry, which applies new and novel approaches to resolving environmental issues, has been my prime focus since the late 1970s.  Times have changed, but environmental problems continue to become more relevant to the lives of all people throughout the world.

Not only is it imperative that we devise methods to study the fate, transport, and impact of contaminants, but it is often important to identify the party (or parties) responsible for causing the pollution.  This Special Issue of Sustainability will focus on case studies that employ forensic geochemical techniques in order to discern the nature of contamination, and when possible, apportion remediation costs among those responsible for contamination ecosystems.

Examples of topics include but are not limited to studies involving the fate, transport, and impact of contaminants such as:

• Hydrocarbons (crude oil, refined products)
• Nitrates from agricultural sources and domestic livestock waste
• Wastewater releases
• Coal-fired power plant ash
• Heavy metals (lead, arsenic, etc.)
• Atmospheric particulates and greenhouse gas emissions
• Age dating

This Special Issue of Sustainability is intended to alert geo- and environmental scientists to methods that may not be routinely used in remedial activities at sites where standard protocols have failed to resolve the issues at hand.

Prof. Dr. Richard W. Hurst
Guest Editor

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.

• Environmental forensics
• forensic geochemistry
• contaminant fate/transport
• age dating of contamination