Announcements

Following the pressing needs of the society to ensure a sustainable future, amidst human-influenced environmental changes, the theme of the meeting is “Aquatic Sciences for a Sustainable Future: Nurturing Cooperation”. Underdeveloped and developed societies face different levels of sustainability problems in aquatic resources and have contrasting capacities to address and adapt to upcoming changes and threats, which makes cooperation paramount for an efficient and increasing exchange of information to find long-term sustainable solutions. Dialogue among scientists, as well as the transfer of knowledge for the benefit of society, are very important in addressing sustainability challenges. To provide a venue for this exchange, we will incorporate the theme into the plenary sessions: The future of seafood resources and the role of cooperation; Restoration of aquatic ecosystems, in line with the United Nations Decade of Restoration; Carbon dynamics in lakes and rivers; Past and future of ocean circulation and its role for the climate system; Linking the health of the oceans to humans; Remote sensing and large scale detection; Integrated management of aquatic resources.

Water will be present online at ASLO 2021 Aquatic Sciences Meeting as an exhibitor. If you are attending this conference, please feel free to visit our page.

Besides Water, the following MDPI journals will be represented as well:

• Energies;
• Hydrology;
• JMSE;
• Resources;
• Ocean.

For more information about the conference, please visit https://aslo2021.secure-platform.com/a/page/newhomepage.

MDPI will be attending IGARSS 2021, to be held in virtual form from 12th to 16th of July 2021.

IGARSS 2021, which will take place from 12 to 16 July 2021, is a joint effort of the Low Countries, the Netherlands and Belgium, and they have chosen Crossing Borders as the overall theme of the conference:

• Between countries and research institutes;
• Between types of platforms (from satellites to drones);
• Between data sources;
• Between disciplines.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Remote Sensing
• Atmosphere
• Water
• Sustainability
• Data
• Soil Systems
• IJGI
• Drones

If you are attending this conference, please feel free to start an online conversation with us. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions you may have. For more information about the conference and our virtual booth, please visit: https://igarss2021.com/default.asp.

The Society for Freshwater Science (SFS) is an international scientific organization whose purpose is to promote further understanding of freshwater ecosystems (rivers, streams, lakes, reservoirs and estuaries) and ecosystems at the interface between aquatic and terrestrial habitats (wetlands, bogs, fens, riparian forests and grasslands).

In freshwater science, many of us study transformations that happen in nature, such as nutrient cycles, animal life histories, river channel geomorphology, and more. With all of the challenges in 2020, SFS as a society is clearly facing a time of dramatic transformations. The SFS 2021 Meeting Program Committee embraces and welcomes changes in our scientific society as we transform in ways that make our scientific society more inclusive, equitable, and better able to respond to the many freshwater challenges facing the world.

Water will be present online at the SFS 2021 Annual Meeting as an exhibitor. If you are attending this conference, please feel free to visit our page.

In addition to Water, Toxics will be represented as well. For more information about the conference, please visit https://sfsannualmeeting.org/.

MDPI Books recently released Book Builder, a new online tool to conveniently arrange, design and produce an eBook from any content published in MDPI journals. Book Builder offers two functions: on the one hand (1) Selections, available to every registered user of MDPI; on the other hand (2) Special Issue Reprints, which can be used exclusively by Guest Editors of Special Issues.

Selections

In just a matter of a few clicks, all users are now able to assemble books from MDPI articles and receive instantaneous feedback in the form of a fully produced and compiled book (PDF), which can be downloaded or ordered as print copy. Selections can include any paper published with MDPI, picking and combining content from different journals and special issues.

This way, the user may for example choose to compile an ebook focusing around a particular topic, or assemble articles from a group of others.

We invite you to make yourself familiar with the new tool! The Book Builder can be found here: https://www.mdpi.com/books/book_builder.

Special Issue Reprints

The Book Builder allows Guest Editors of MDPI journals to create a reprint from a successfully completed Special Issue or Topical Collection in book format. If you are a Guest Editor for an MDPI journal, you can use the new tool  to create an PDF document which includes all articles published in the Special Issue as well as a book cover and table of contents.

For Special Issues containing a minimum of 5 articles, the Guest Editor can request its publication on the MDPI Book platform. Published reprints are assigned an ISBN and DOI.

In addition to the PDF copy of the Reprint Book, as a token of our gratitude, MDPI offers every Guest Editor one (1) complimentary print copy (via print-on-demand). All contributors benefit from a discount on orders of any additional print copies, to share with colleagues or libraries or others.

Why choose MDPI Books?

In line with our organization's values, MDPI Books publishes all content in open access, promoting the exchange of ideas and knowledge in a globalized world. MDPI Books encompasses all the benefits of open access—high availability and visibility, as well as wide and rapid dissemination. MDPI Books are distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution License, meaning as an author you retain the copyright for your work. In addition, with MDPI Books you can complement the digital version of your work with a high-quality printed counterpart.

If you are interested in editing a book volume or series, or have a monograph manuscript to be considered for publication, please submit your proposal online and look at our Information for Authors.

Contact: Laura Wagner, MDPI Books Manager (email)

The EGU General Assembly 2021 will bring together geoscientists from all over the world to one meeting covering all disciplines of the Earth, planetary, and space sciences. The EGU aims to provide a forum where scientists, especially early career researchers, can present their work and discuss their ideas with experts in all fields of geoscience. The EGU is looking forward to cordially welcoming you at its General Assembly.

Water will be present online at the EGU General Assembly 2021 as an exhibitor. If you are attending this conference, please feel free to visit our page.

Besides Water, the following MDPI journals will be represented as well:

• Atmosphere
• Climate
• Drones
• Energies
• Hydrology
• IJGI
• Land
• Minerals
• Remote Sensing
• Soil Systems
• Sustainability
• Toxics

For more information about the conference, please visit https://www.egu21.eu/.

In June of this year, MDPI will celebrate the 25th anniversary of its foundation. To mark this significant milestone, we have created a 25th Anniversary page on our website that evokes the development of our company over the past quarter-century.

MDPI has been a pioneer of Open Access publishing ever since the concept was first created.

In a wide-ranging interview, our CEO Delia Mihaila reflects on the company’s 25th anniversary and its contribution to the world of scientific publishing.

Delia considers how MDPI has evolved since starting life in 1996 as a visionary ‘project’ run out of an apartment in Basel, Switzerland, by Dr. Shu-Kun Lin. A chemist who was passionate about the long-term preservation of rare chemical sample, Dr. Lin was determined to help scholars publish their findings as quickly as possible and make their research results available to as wide a readership as possible worldwide. That determination remains unchanged 25 years later.

Today, MDPI is an international organization with over 4,000 employees based on three continents and in ten countries, and ranks among the world's top four academic publishers.

MDPI's mission is to accelerate access to new scientific research, delivering insight faster for researchers worldwide. Read more here about the company's remarkable success story and what the Open Access publishing model can offer the global scientific community.

The portfolio of journals on offer for publishing the latest research in immediate open access has been further expanded. At the end of March, 24 titles released their inaugural issue, covering the physical, environmental and medical sciences, among others. We wish to thank the Editors-in-Chief, Associate Editors and Editorial Board Members involved who will be shaping the future course of these brand-new journals.

The new titles presented in the following were set up as a result of our market research, which showed there is a need for Gold Open Access journals in each of these areas of research. At MDPI, the same trusted, fast and reliable peer-review process is employed across journals and disciplines.

The editorial team would like to congratulate the winners of the “Water 2021 Best Paper Awards”, who were chosen by a Selection Committee chaired by the Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Jean-Luc Probst. Following a review process by the Evaluation Committee, six winners were selected. The recipients of the “Water 2021 Best Paper Awards” are as follows:

1^st Place Award: (800 CHF + one free publication)

• Water Quality Indices: Challenges and Application Limits in the Literature (doi: 10.3390/w11020361)
  By Moez Kachroud, Fabienne Trolard, Mohamed Kefi, Sihem Jebari and Guilhem Bourrié
  Link: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/11/2/361

2^nd Place Awards: (500 CHF + one free publication)

• A Brief Review of Random Forests for Water Scientists and Practitioners and Their Recent History in Water Resources (doi: 10.3390/w11050910)
  By Hristos Tyralis, Georgia Papacharalampous and Andreas Langousis
  Link: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/11/5/910

• The Use of Non-Conventional Water Resources as a Means of Adaptation to Drought and Climate Change in Semi-Arid Regions: South-Eastern Spain (doi: 10.3390/w11010093)
  By Álvaro-Francisco Morote, Jorge Olcina and María Hernández
  Link: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/11/1/93

3^rd Place Awards: (300 CHF + one free publication)

• Hydrological Effectiveness of an Extensive Green Roof in Mediterranean Climate (doi: 10.3390/w11071378)
  By Stefania Anna Palermo, Michele Turco, Francesca Principato and Patrizia Piro
  Link: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/11/7/1378

• Forecasting Groundwater Table in a Flood Prone Coastal City with Long Short-term Memory and Recurrent Neural Networks (doi: 10.3390/w11051098)
  By Benjamin D. Bowes, Jeffrey M. Sadler, Mohamed M. Morsy, Madhur Behl and Jonathan L. Goodall
  Link: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/11/5/1098

• Effectiveness of Rainwater Harvesting Systems for Flood Reduction in Residential Urban Areas (doi: 10.3390/w11071389)
  By Gabriele Frenib and Lorena Liuzzo
  Link: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/11/7/1389

The Water Editorial Team is pleased to announce the winners of the Water 2021 Travel Awards. The awards were granted to three outstanding postdoctoral researchers, namely:

Dr. Nnanake-Abasi Okon Offiong: Postdoctoral Researcher at International Centre for Energy and Environmental Sustainability Research (ICEESR), University of Uyo, Nigeria; Dr. Tonni Agustiono Kurniawan: Postdoctoral Researcher at Polytechnic of Health (Indonesia); Dr. Shawna Andrea Foo: Postdoctoral Researcher Scientist at Arizona State University, USA.

Each of the winners will receive 800 Swiss Francs for attending an academic conference in 2021.

The final decision was extremely difficult to make given the extraordinary number of high quality applications that were received. We would like to thank all the applicants for their submissions and congratulate the winners.

For more information about the Water journal awards, please check: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/water/awards.

We are pleased to announce the winners of the Best Poster Award and Oral Presentation Awards, sponsored by Water at the 6th IAHR Europe Congress Warsaw Poland 2020 Hydro-Environment Research and Engineering “No Frames No Borders” in Warsaw, Poland, on 15–18 February 2021.

The Editorial Team of Water would like to congratulate the winner of the Best Poster Award at the 6th IAHR Europe Congress Warsaw Poland 2020, Lisdey Verónica Herrera Gómez (Politecnico di Milano, Italy), for “Supercritical flow in curved tunnels”.

The Editorial Team of Water would like to congratulate the winners of the Best Oral Presentation Awards at the 6th IAHR Europe Congress Warsaw Poland 2020, Davide Vettori (Politecnico di Torino, Italy), for “Evaluating the performance of reconfiguration descriptors for submerged plants”, and Cosimo Peruzzi (Politecnico di Torino, Italy), for “Interaction Between Gravity Waves and Turbulent Currents over a Smooth-Bed”.

Davide Vettori is a research fellow in the Department of Environmental, Land and Infrastructure Engineering, Politecnico di Torino. His work focuses on environmental fluid mechanics and the interactions between flow and biota. He is an experimentalist at heart and conducts experiments both in laboratories and in the field, combining techniques developed in fluid mechanics and solid mechanics. His recent interests embrace several topics, with focus on turbulence and related phenomena, flow–biota interactions, hydrodynamics of deformable bodies, bio-morphodynamics of riverine and coastal environments, plant biomechanics and adaptation of biota in response to environmental stresses.

Cosimo Peruzzi is an environmental/hydraulic engineer. His research interests are based on the hydraulics of open-channel flows, both with software modeling and laboratory experiments or field campaign activities. The principal topics addressed are the following: hydraulic hazard, turbulence, wave–current interaction, rural channel network management, water quality.