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NBS for Watershed Management: From Ecological Health Assessment to Ecosystem Restoration

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Water Resources Management, Policy and Governance".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2026 | Viewed by 4486

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Yingying Huang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China
Interests: cyanobacterial bloom; microcystin; nitrogen cycle; denitrification; freshwater-marine continuum
Prof. Dr. Chunhua Li

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Key Laboratory for Lake Pollution Control of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China
Interests: lake ecological restoration; lakeside buffer zone ecological restoration; environmental microbiology
Prof. Dr. Xuechu Chen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China
Interests: carbon and nitrogen biogeochemical cycles; wetland restoration; harmful algal control

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Lakes, wetlands, rivers, and other aquatic ecosystems play a crucial role in the sustainable development of watersheds as they collect runoff and provide essential ecosystem services such as water purification, flood regulation, and habitat provision. However, these water bodies are increasingly being threatened by intensified human activity and climate change, leading to widespread degradation on a global scale. All the components of a watershed—forests, farmlands, wetlands, rivers, and lakes—are closely interconnected. Therefore, sustainable watershed management requires a holistic, systematic approach.

In this context, Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) have emerged as a promising strategy for watersheds to ensure water safety, safeguard ecosystem health, and achieve sustainable management for watersheds. This Special Issue welcomes submissions covering a range of topics, including, but not limited to, the following:

  • Ecological health assessment;
  • Nonpoint source pollution control;
  • Ecosystem restoration.

This issue welcomes contributions that explore theories, methods, and practical applications of NBS within these areas. Submissions may include interdisciplinary studies that span hydrology, ecology, environmental engineering, and other related fields, particularly those considering the interactions among various water bodies and land uses within a watershed. By bringing together diverse research and case studies, this Special Issue aims to foster a deeper understanding of how NBS can be effectively applied to protect water resources, reduce nonpoint source pollution, and restore degraded ecosystems. Ultimately, this collection of studies seeks to provide new insights for sustainable watershed management in the face of global environmental change.

Dr. Yingying Huang
Prof. Dr. Chunhua Li
Prof. Dr. Xuechu Chen
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. 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

  • watershed management
  • nature-based solutions
  • ecological health assessment
  • nonpoint source pollution control
  • ecosystem restoration

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Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

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18 pages, 532 KB  
Article
Multi-Agentic Water Health Surveillance
by Vasileios Alevizos, Zongliang Yue, Sabrina Edralin, Clark Xu, Nikitas Gerolimos and George A. Papakostas
Water 2025, 17(17), 2653; https://doi.org/10.3390/w17172653 - 8 Sep 2025
Viewed by 399
Abstract
Clean water security demands autonomous systems that sense, reason, and act at scale. We introduce AquaSurveil, a unified multi-agent platform coupling mobile robots, fixed IoT nodes, and privacy-preserving machine learning for continent-scale water health surveillance. The architecture blends Gaussian-process mapping with distributed particle [...] Read more.
Clean water security demands autonomous systems that sense, reason, and act at scale. We introduce AquaSurveil, a unified multi-agent platform coupling mobile robots, fixed IoT nodes, and privacy-preserving machine learning for continent-scale water health surveillance. The architecture blends Gaussian-process mapping with distributed particle filtering, multi-agent deep-reinforcement Voronoi coverage, GAN/LSTM anomaly detection, and sheaf-theoretic data fusion; components are tuned by Bayesian optimization and governed by Age-of-Information-aware power control. Evaluated on a 2.82-million-record dataset (1940–2023; five countries), AquaSurveil achieves up to 96% spatial-coverage efficiency, an ROC-AUC of 0.96 for anomaly detection, ≈95% state-estimation accuracy, and reduced energy consumption versus randomized patrols. These results demonstrate scalable, robust, and energy-aware water quality surveillance that unifies robotics, the IoT, and modern AI. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue NBS for Watershed Management: From Ecological Health Assessment to Ecosystem Restoration)
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25 pages, 15090 KB  
Article
Climate Change Effects on Precipitation and Streamflow in the Mediterranean Region
by Abdulkadir Baycan, Osman Sonmez and Gamze Tuncer Evcil
Water 2025, 17(17), 2556; https://doi.org/10.3390/w17172556 - 28 Aug 2025
Viewed by 781
Abstract
This study investigates the impact of climate change on the Mudurnu Stream Basin in northwest Türkiye by analyzing climate parameters in the Mediterranean region. Historical data from EC-Earth2, HadGEM2-ES, and MPI-ESM-MR GCMs from the CMIP5 Euro-CORDEX archive were assessed, and future precipitation and [...] Read more.
This study investigates the impact of climate change on the Mudurnu Stream Basin in northwest Türkiye by analyzing climate parameters in the Mediterranean region. Historical data from EC-Earth2, HadGEM2-ES, and MPI-ESM-MR GCMs from the CMIP5 Euro-CORDEX archive were assessed, and future precipitation and temperature data were derived using five statistical bias correction methods for the selected EC-Earth2 model under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios. The SWAT model was employed to simulate future runoff amounts for the Mudurnu Stream Basin. The findings reveal notable changes in precipitation and temperature. The annual and seasonal variations of total precipitation and average, maximum, and minimum temperatures for the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios in the Sakarya and Mudurnu regions were analyzed and determined. The projections for future river flow indicate a significant increase in precipitation during the rainy seasons. The Mudurnu Stream mainstem will experience an increase in flow of between 70 and 140% under RCP4.5 and between 80 and 160% under RCP8.5. In the Dinsiz Stream tributary, a 32–55% increase is observed for the spring and summer months. In this context, the rainfall and runoff projections required for the estimation of potential drought and flood risks in the near and distant future were calculated. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue NBS for Watershed Management: From Ecological Health Assessment to Ecosystem Restoration)
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18 pages, 2333 KB  
Article
Evaluation of the Water Eco-Environmental Quality of a Typical Shallow Lake in the Middle and Lower Reaches of the Yangtze River Basin
by Qinghuan Zhang, Zishu Ye, Chun Ye, Chunhua Li, Yang Wang, Ye Zheng and Yongzhe Zhang
Water 2025, 17(16), 2421; https://doi.org/10.3390/w17162421 - 16 Aug 2025
Viewed by 452
Abstract
Intensified human activities in recent years, such as wastewater discharge and agricultural non-point source pollution have led to a decline in lake water quality, especially in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River Basin, which threaten the stability of lake water [...] Read more.
Intensified human activities in recent years, such as wastewater discharge and agricultural non-point source pollution have led to a decline in lake water quality, especially in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River Basin, which threaten the stability of lake water ecosystems. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct a scientific assessment of the water eco-environmental quality of shallow lakes and implement targeted management measures. Considering the characteristics of shallow lakes, major ecological and environmental issues, and current standards and guidelines, an indicator system method was employed to establish a water eco-environmental quality evaluation system tailored for typical shallow lakes in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River Basin. This evaluation system comprises three criteria layers (aquatic organism, habitat quality, and water quality) and 10 indicator layers. Using survey data from 2022 to 2024 for evaluation, the results showed that the water eco-environmental quality of Lake Gehu was rated as poor, with the lowest score for macrophyte coverage and the highest score for riparian vegetation coverage. This indicates that the shoreline restoration project in Lake Gehu was effective, while the lake water quality still needs improvement. Remedial measures include increasing aquatic vegetation coverage, reducing nitrogen and phosphorus pollution loads, and controlling the occurrence of algal blooms. This evaluation system combines field surveys with remote sensing monitoring data, fully considering historical and current conditions, and can guide local authorities in evaluating lake water environmental quality. The constructed evaluation system is applicable for the assessment of shallow lakes in the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River Basin. It provides a scientific basis for the continuous improvement of eco-environmental quality and the construction of Beautiful Lakes Initiative, contributing to the management and protection of lake ecosystems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue NBS for Watershed Management: From Ecological Health Assessment to Ecosystem Restoration)
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16 pages, 2020 KB  
Article
Environmental Drivers of Aquatic Community Structures in a Shallow Eutrophic Lake of the Taihu Lake Basin
by Zishu Ye, Qinghuan Zhang, Chunhua Li, Chun Ye and Yang Wang
Water 2025, 17(16), 2372; https://doi.org/10.3390/w17162372 - 10 Aug 2025
Viewed by 444
Abstract
Gehu Lake in the lower reaches of the Taihu Lake Basin has experienced water quality degradation due to increasing human activities, pollutant discharge, and non-point source pollution, which requires ecosystem restoration. Currently, the community structure of aquatic organisms and their influencing environmental factors [...] Read more.
Gehu Lake in the lower reaches of the Taihu Lake Basin has experienced water quality degradation due to increasing human activities, pollutant discharge, and non-point source pollution, which requires ecosystem restoration. Currently, the community structure of aquatic organisms and their influencing environmental factors remain poorly understood. Thus, in this study, we conducted comprehensive fieldwork in June 2024 and analyzed the community structures of plankton (i.e., phytoplankton and zooplankton) and macroinvertebrates, and their influencing environmental factors in Gehu Lake and the inflowing river. The trophic level index (TLI) and biodiversity indices (Shannon–Wiener, Pielou, and Margalef) were utilized to assess water quality status. Pearson correlation analysis and redundancy analysis (RDA) were applied to identify key factors influencing plankton and macroinvertebrate community structures. The dominant phytoplankton species included Merismopedia tranquilla, Microcystis aeruginosa, Aphanizomenon flos-aquae, Aphanocapsa elachista, and Aulacoseira granulata. The dominant zooplankton species were mainly Brachionus diversicornis, Brachionus calyciflorus, and Asplanchna priodonta. The dominant macroinvertebrate species were Microchironomus tabarui and Chironomus flaviplumus. The findings suggest that Gehu Lake exhibited moderate pollution levels, while the diversity indices were significantly correlated with environmental factors. The Shannon–Wiener index of zooplankton displayed a markedly negative correlation with Chl-a (p < 0.05). The results from redundancy analysis showed that TP, TN, SD, CODMn, and Chl-a were key environmental factors shaping the aquatic community structure in the lake. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue NBS for Watershed Management: From Ecological Health Assessment to Ecosystem Restoration)
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19 pages, 4451 KB  
Article
Assessment of the Payments for Watershed Services Policy from a Perspective of Ecosystem Services: A Case Study of the Liaohe River Basin, China
by Manman Guo, Xu Lu and Qing Ma
Water 2025, 17(15), 2328; https://doi.org/10.3390/w17152328 - 5 Aug 2025
Viewed by 541
Abstract
Payments for Watershed services (PWSs) have been emerging as a critical tool for environmental governance in watershed, yet their comparative effectiveness across implementation models has remained poorly understood. Based on a comparative analysis of Eco-Compensation (EC) and Payments for Ecosystem Services (PESs) frameworks, [...] Read more.
Payments for Watershed services (PWSs) have been emerging as a critical tool for environmental governance in watershed, yet their comparative effectiveness across implementation models has remained poorly understood. Based on a comparative analysis of Eco-Compensation (EC) and Payments for Ecosystem Services (PESs) frameworks, examining both theoretical foundations and implementation practices, this study aims to quantitatively assess and compare the effectiveness of two dominant PWSs models—the EC-like model (Phase I: October 2008–April 2017) and the PESs-like model (Phase II: 2017–December 2021). Using the Liaohe River in China as a case study, utilizing ecosystem service value (ESV) as an indicator and employing the corrected unit-value transfer method, we compare the effectiveness of different PWSs models from October 2008 to December 2021. The results reveal the following: (1) Policy Efficiency: The PESs-like model demonstrated significantly greater effectiveness than the EC-like model, with annual average increases in ESV of 3.23 billion CNY (491 million USD) and 1.79 billion CNY (272 million USD). (2) Functional Drivers: Water regulation (45.1% of total ESV growth) and climate regulation (24.3%) were dominant services, with PESs-like interventions enhancing multifunctionality. (3) Stakeholder Impact: In the PESs-like model, the cities implementing inter-county direct payment showed higher growth efficiency than those without it. The operational efficiency of PWSs increases with the number of participating stakeholders, which explains why the PESs-like model demonstrates higher effectiveness than the EC-like model. Our findings offer empirical evidence and actionable policy implications for designing effective PWSs models across global watershed ecosystems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue NBS for Watershed Management: From Ecological Health Assessment to Ecosystem Restoration)
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15 pages, 2232 KB  
Article
A Multi-Objective Approach for Improving Ecosystem Services and Mitigating Environmental Externalities in Paddy Fields and Its Emergy Analysis
by Naven Ramdat, Hongshuo Zou, Shiwen Sheng, Min Fu, Yingying Huang, Yaonan Cui, Yiru Wang, Rui Ding, Ping Xu and Xuechu Chen
Water 2025, 17(15), 2244; https://doi.org/10.3390/w17152244 - 29 Jul 2025
Viewed by 497
Abstract
Traditional intensive agricultural system impedes ecological functions, such as nutrient cycling and biodiversity conservation, resulting in excessive nitrogen discharge, CH4 emission, and ecosystem service losses. To enhance critical ecosystem services and mitigate environmental externalities in paddy fields, we developed a multi-objective agricultural [...] Read more.
Traditional intensive agricultural system impedes ecological functions, such as nutrient cycling and biodiversity conservation, resulting in excessive nitrogen discharge, CH4 emission, and ecosystem service losses. To enhance critical ecosystem services and mitigate environmental externalities in paddy fields, we developed a multi-objective agricultural system (MIA system), which combines two eco-functional units: paddy wetlands and Beitang (irrigation water collection pond). Pilot study results demonstrated that the MIA system enhanced biodiversity and inhibited pest outbreak, with only a marginal reduction in rice production compared with the control. Additionally, the paddy wetland effectively removed nitrogen, with removal rates of total nitrogen and dissolved inorganic nitrogen ranging from 0.06 to 0.65 g N m−2 d−1 and from 0.02 to 0.22 g N m−2 d−1, respectively. Continuous water flow in the paddy wetland reduced the CH4 emission by 84.4% compared with the static water conditions. Furthermore, a simulation experiment indicated that tide flow was more effective in mitigating CH4 emission, with a 68.3% reduction compared with the drying–wetting cycle treatment. The emergy evaluation demonstrated that the MIA system outperformed the ordinary paddy field when considering both critical ecosystem services and environmental externalities. The MIA system exhibited higher emergy self-sufficiency ratio, emergy yield ratio, and emergy sustainable index, along with a lower environmental load ratio. Additionally, the system required minimal transformation, thus a modest investment. By presenting the case of the MIA system, we provide a theoretical foundation for comprehensive management and assessment of agricultural ecosystems, highlighting its significant potential for widespread application. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue NBS for Watershed Management: From Ecological Health Assessment to Ecosystem Restoration)
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Review

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21 pages, 1316 KB  
Review
Groundwater Markets at a Crossroads: A Review of Energy Transitions, Digital Innovations, and Policy Pathways
by Amar Razzaq, Hancheng Liu and Dan Yang
Water 2025, 17(14), 2079; https://doi.org/10.3390/w17142079 - 11 Jul 2025
Viewed by 732
Abstract
Informal groundwater markets, where farmers with wells sell surplus water to neighbors, are a widespread adaptive response to water scarcity, particularly in South Asia where they are most prevalent and well-documented. This review (1990–2025) examines the evolving patterns of these markets by synthesizing [...] Read more.
Informal groundwater markets, where farmers with wells sell surplus water to neighbors, are a widespread adaptive response to water scarcity, particularly in South Asia where they are most prevalent and well-documented. This review (1990–2025) examines the evolving patterns of these markets by synthesizing global literature and viewing them through the lens of three transformative trends: energy transition (especially solar pumps), digital innovations (e.g., blockchain and IoT), and new policy pathways. We synthesize literature to evaluate market structures, contract forms, efficiency and equity outcomes, environmental impacts, and the influence of energy policies and digital tools. The review assesses whether these informal trades fulfill their promise of enhancing water productivity and equity or if new challenges are creating pitfalls. Key objectives include documenting historical evolution, analyzing market performance, discussing externalities like aquifer depletion, examining policy interactions, reviewing digital pilots, exploring social inclusion, comparing governance frameworks, identifying research gaps linked to SDGs, and proposing a policy roadmap for harnessing benefits while ensuring sustainability. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue NBS for Watershed Management: From Ecological Health Assessment to Ecosystem Restoration)
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