Water Safety, Ecological Risk and Public Health

Dear Colleagues,

Water resources are fundamental to ecosystem stability and human well-being, yet they face unprecedented threats from climate change, pollution, waterborne pathogens, and population growth. Addressing the tripartite nexus of water safety, ecological resilience, and public health necessitates interdisciplinary innovation in environmental science and engineering. Critical challenges include the proliferation of emerging contaminants (e.g., nanoplastics, antibiotic resistance genes, PFAS), cumulative ecosystem stressors, and inequitable exposure pathways threatening vulnerable populations. This Special Issue presents rigorous investigations at the molecular-to-landscape scale to elucidate contamination dynamics, exposure mechanisms, and risk mitigation paradigms. Priority domains encompass public health biomarkers (e.g., epigenetic, genotoxic, or endocrine-disrupting agents) in waterborne disease etiology; wastewater-based epidemiology for the spatiotemporal surveillance of viral variants and chemical co-exposure; mechanistic ecological risk models integrating bioavailability, trophic transfer, and climate-driven perturbation scenarios; and advanced remediation technologies targeting high-risk contaminants (e.g., engineered nanomaterials, halogenated organics). Submissions must articulate quantitative risk frameworks, policy-relevant monitoring protocols, or scalable engineering solutions aligned with sustainable development targets. In this Special Issue, we invite the submission of original research, meta-analyses, reviews and viewpoints, and methodological advances that transcend disciplinary silos, fostering actionable science for water security and planetary health.

Dr. Qiuda Zheng
Dr. Peng Du
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 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.