Legacy and Emerging Contaminants in the Water Environment Under Contemporary Global Changes

Dear Colleagues,

Water is essential to life, yet its safety and quality are increasingly threatened by the persistence of legacy pollutants and the spread of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs). In the context of a rapidly changing global environment, primarily characterized by climate variability, intensified urban expansion, the emergence of novel pollutants, and evolving industrial processes, aquatic ecosystems across the globe are increasingly exposed to new and complex threats. Many chemicals either have longstanding and historical effects or are newly introduced, and not all are effectively monitored, regulated, or remediated.

This Special Issue invites the submission of high‑quality original research, reviews, short communications, and perspectives exploring the identification, fate, health, ecological risks, transformation, control, and remediation of both legacy and emerging contaminants in aquatic environments. Featuring interdisciplinary approaches, this Special Issue aims to highlight the complex interplay of these pollutants in the context of global change.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Sources, spatial distribution, and monitoring of legacy contaminants (e.g., heavy metals, PCBs, PAHs, and dioxins).
• Identification and quantification of CECs, including PFAS, pharmaceuticals, personal care products, micro(nano)plastics, and endocrine-disrupting compounds.
• Nitrate, phosphate, and other nutrients/pollutants, particularly regarding their ecological impacts on water bodies.
• Development and advancement of analytical methods for sensitive and accurate detection.
• Environmental fate, transformation, transport modeling, and bioaccumulation in aquatic environments.
• Human and ecological health risk assessments, with emphasis on exposure pathways and cumulative effects.
• Influence of global drivers such as climate change, urbanization, land use change, and water scarcity.
• Innovative treatment and remediation technologies (e.g., advanced oxidation processes, MOF-based adsorption, membrane bioreactors, nature-based solutions).
• Application of remote sensing technologies in the monitoring of water quality and contaminant dynamics.
• Regulatory frameworks and science-informed policy approaches addressing contaminants across temporal and spatial scales.

Article Types Invited

• Research Articles: Original empirical or modeling studies.
• Review Articles: Comprehensive syntheses of current knowledge.
• Short Communications: Early findings of significance.
• Perspectives: Insightful reflections by specialists or Guest Editors.

Dr. Abdul Qadeer
Dr. Xia Jiang
Dr. Kelly Kirsten
Guest Editors

Dr. Qinghuan Zhang
Guest Editor Assistant

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-anonymized 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.