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Water Reuse and Land Management: Strategies, Policies, and Integrated Land-Use Approaches

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 December 2026 | Viewed by 1684

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Fachgebiet Landmanagement, Fakultät Elektrotechnik, Medien und Informatik, Ostbayerische Technische Hochschule (OTH) Amberg-Weiden, 92224 Amberg, Germany
Interests: water-reuse concepts for urban; rural and industrial areas; sustainable spatial development; urban and infrastructure planning; water-reuse and water-saving potentials; water-reuse concepts for industrial parks; spatial analysis and geoinformation systems
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Water scarcity, climate change, and increasing pressure on land resources pose major challenges, especially in regions where water reuse and land management are closely interconnected. Thoughtful land-use planning can not only enhance the sustainability of water use but also strengthen the resilience of landscapes to droughts, floods, and ecosystem degradation.

While technological advances in water treatment are important, technical solutions alone are not sufficient. Sustainable water reuse requires holistic approaches that integrate water management with spatial planning, land-use strategies, governance frameworks, and socio-economic considerations. Such integrated concepts may include, for instance, the reuse of treated water in agriculture as well as urban or industrial applications, the restoration of landscapes, and water-sensitive urban development.

This Special Issue of Water aims to bring together research that focuses on the interaction between water reuse and land management. We invite researchers to submit studies that explore new pathways for managing urban, peri-urban, and rural land to support circular, efficient, and resilient water use.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Integrated land-use planning to support sustainable water reuse;
  • Agricultural applications of reclaimed water: concepts, models, and case studies;
  • Use of reused water in urban landscapes, parks, and green infrastructure;
  • Governance frameworks, policy instruments, and regulations for “fit-for-purpose” water reuse in land management;
  • Ecological restoration and nature-based solutions supported by water reuse;
  • Socio-economic dimensions of land management and water reuse;
  • Participatory planning and stakeholder engagement in land- and water-management projects;
  • Risk assessments, safety considerations, and public acceptance of water reuse in land-use contexts;
  • Monitoring, evaluation, and indicators for assessing land-management strategies and reuse practices.

Types of contributions:

We welcome the submission of original research articles, reviews, case studies, short communications, and conceptual papers. Interdisciplinary contributions combining spatial planning, hydrology, environmental policy, agricultural sciences, economics, or social sciences are particularly encouraged.

Target audience:

This Special Issue is intended for researchers, practitioners, planners, agricultural experts, policymakers, and all those working at the water–land nexus. By bringing land-management perspectives to the forefront, we aim to broaden the discussion on water reuse and promote sustainable and socially equitable strategies.

Prof. Dr. Sonja Bauer
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

  • water reuse
  • land management
  • integrated land-use planning
  • sustainable agriculture
  • urban water applications
  • water reuse

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

19 pages, 4029 KB  
Article
Smart Technological Urban Flood Management Strategies Are “Must-Do” Approaches: The Case of Chinese Coastal Megacity, Ningbo, East Coast of China
by Faith Ka Shun Chan, Weiwei Gu, Fang Zhang, Xiaolei Pei, Zilin Wang, Lingwen Lu, Ming Cheng, Yuhe Wang, Weiguo Zhang and Yutian Jiang
Water 2026, 18(3), 427; https://doi.org/10.3390/w18030427 - 6 Feb 2026
Viewed by 1203
Abstract
Ningbo (NGB), a major port city on China’s east coast, is defined by a network of over 100 rivers across three major catchments. From the 1970s to the 2000s, extensive engineering, including channelisation and embankment construction, was used to manage flood risk during [...] Read more.
Ningbo (NGB), a major port city on China’s east coast, is defined by a network of over 100 rivers across three major catchments. From the 1970s to the 2000s, extensive engineering, including channelisation and embankment construction, was used to manage flood risk during rapid urbanisation. Since the 2010s, however, the city has shifted towards smart flood management. The Ningbo government and Water Bureau have deployed digital twins and technologies like 3D flood mapping and real-time monitoring, significantly improving precision. Our study demonstrated that this smart technology performed effectively during recent extreme events, namely typhoons In-Fa (2021) and Muifa (2022), helping the Municipal Bureau to safeguard public safety. This success strengthens municipal and national commitments to climate resilience. Nevertheless, further advancement of the digital twin platform is required. Key priorities include boosting computational capacity, improving cross-departmental coordination, establishing open data sharing, and integrating artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance decision-making during future climate extremes. Full article
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