Impacts of Human Activities and Engineering on Groundwater Hydrochemistry
A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Hydrogeology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 July 2026 | Viewed by 11
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Groundwater hydrochemistry is a critical indicator of aquifer health, reflecting natural geological processes, anthropogenic influences, and climate interactions. Human activities are constantly altering groundwater hydrochemistry, making it increasingly complex. Understanding its spatiotemporal variability is essential for sustainable water resource management, contamination remediation, and policy making. This Special Issue seeks to present cutting-edge research on groundwater hydrochemistry changes under human activities, advanced analytical methodologies, and their applications in addressing global water security challenges. It focuses on key areas: deciphering solute sources and evolution pathways (e.g., rock–water interactions, redox zones, water level fluctuation zones); the impacts of human activities and engineering facilities (e.g., agriculture, mining, urbanization, energy development); and innovations in monitoring, modeling, and purification technologies.
Scope of the Special Issue:
This Special Issue emphasizes human activities and engineering contexts. We invite contributions addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:
Hydrochemical Processes: Controls on groundwater composition, isotopic tracers for fingerprinting water and contaminant origins, and geochemical modeling to quantify reactions.
Deep Hydrochemistry: Geothermal water, oil/gas field water, formation brine, and water–rock interactions in deep environments.
Water Quality and Human Health: Emerging contaminants in groundwater systems, risk assessment of toxic elements, and remediation strategies for polluted aquifers.
Advanced Analytical and Computational Tools: Machine learning for predicting groundwater contamination, remote sensing/GIS for mapping hydrochemical facies, in situ sensors, and water quality monitoring.
Regional Case Studies: Arid zones with high-salinity groundwater, coastal aquifers with seawater intrusion, urbanized basins with strong human activities, irrigation areas with strong agricultural activities, industrial parks, and mining areas.
Dr. Xiaodong He
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 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. Water 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 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
- groundwater hydrochemistry
- human activities
- water quality
- water–rock interactions
- geochemical modeling
- iso-topic tracing
- deep hydrochemistry
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.
