Artificial Intelligence Techniques in Water and Wastewater Treatment
A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "New Sensors, New Technologies and Machine Learning in Water Sciences".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 January 2027 | Viewed by 30
Editor
Interests: artificial intelligence (AI); machine learning for water systems; smart water infrastructure; digital twins and predictive analytics; wastewater treatment and resource recovery; emerging contaminants (PFAS and microplastics); water reuse and circular economy; intelligent process monitoring and control
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The water sector is undergoing a profound digital transformation driven by advances in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, digital twins, smart sensing technologies, and real-time data analytics. These innovations are redefining how drinking water and wastewater systems are monitored, controlled, optimized, and managed, enabling more efficient, resilient, and sustainable water infrastructures.
Recent developments demonstrate that AI can significantly enhance water quality prediction, intelligent process control, contaminant monitoring, resource recovery, operational efficiency, and decision-making across the entire water cycle. Applications now extend from AI-enabled drinking water treatment and smart sensor networks to intelligent wastewater treatment plants, hybrid bioelectrochemical systems, decentralized treatment technologies, and agricultural water reuse. By integrating predictive analytics with physical process understanding, AI-driven solutions offer new opportunities to reduce energy consumption, optimize chemical usage, improve treatment performance, support circular economy objectives, and enhance environmental sustainability.
This Special Issue aims to showcase cutting-edge research and review articles addressing the role of AI in advancing water and wastewater treatment systems. Contributions are invited on emerging methodologies, intelligent control frameworks, digital water technologies, resource recovery strategies, and sustainable reuse applications that support the development of next-generation smart water infrastructures and circular water management systems.
This Special Issue welcomes original research articles, reviews, perspectives, and short communications related to the following:
- Artificial intelligence and machine learning for water and wastewater treatment;
- Digital twins and cyber–physical systems for water infrastructure;
- Smart sensors, IoT platforms, and real-time water quality monitoring;
- Intelligent drinking water treatment technologies;
- Smart wastewater treatment plants and autonomous operation;
- AI-driven membrane, adsorption, and advanced oxidation processes;
- Bioelectrochemical systems and intelligent electro-bioreactor networks;
- AI for emerging contaminants, PFAS, pharmaceuticals, and microplastics;
- Sustainable water reuse and agricultural irrigation systems;
- Explainable AI, trustworthy AI, and decision-support systems.
Dr. Melvin S. Samuel
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-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.
Keywords
- artificial intelligence (AI)
- machine learning
- digital twins
- smart water and wastewater systems
- resource recovery and circular economy
- water reuse and sustainability
- intelligent process monitoring and control
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