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Drinking Water Quality: Monitoring, Assessment and Management

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Urban Water Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2026 | Viewed by 1107

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Thessaly, Gaiopolis Campus–Larissa-Trikala Ring Road, GR41500 Larissa, Greece
Interests: water resources; drinking water; water quality; ict and digital tools

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The provision of safe drinking water of good quality, one of the UN’s sustainable goals, directly affects human health, sustainable development, and social wealth. Drinking water quality is facing several challenges, particularly climate change, urbanization, human activities—including industrial and agricultural—and the occurrence of emerging contaminants and micro-plastics. To confront these increasing problems, innovative solutions in the monitoring, evaluation, and management of drinking water are needed to protect public health and the resilience of water supply systems.

This Special Issue provides a platform for academics, researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers to share state-of-the-art and innovative findings and practices to improve our ability to safeguard drinking water quality. Original research articles, reviews, and case studies highlighting technological innovations, inter-disciplinary approaches, and real-world implementation in diverse contexts are encouraged and welcome.

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

  • Innovative technologies for water quality monitoring (sensors, biosensors, IoT, AI-based systems);
  • Smart and real-time monitoring technologies;
  • Detection and control of emerging contaminants (PFAS, pharmaceuticals, microplastics, endocrine disruptors);
  • Pathogen monitoring and microbial risk assessment;
  • Application of big data, machine learning, and remote sensing in water quality management;
  • Urban water supply and distribution system integrity (leakage, corrosion, biofilms);
  • Water safety planning and risk-based management approaches;
  • Integrated water resource management and source water protection;
  • Water reuse and advanced treatment for drinking water production;
  • Socio-economic and policy dimensions of safe drinking water access;
  • Case studies of successful water safety plans and regulatory frameworks;
  • Climate resilience and adaptation strategies in drinking water systems.

Dr. Stavroula Tsitsifli
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

  • drinking water quality
  • water monitoring technologies
  • smart sensors and real-time monitoring
  • emerging contaminants
  • microbial risk assessment
  • water treatment and purification
  • water safety planning
  • water source protection
  • climate change and water resources
  • public health and water management
  • integrated water resource management
  • water governance and policy
  • sustainable water supply water resilience

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

29 pages, 2207 KB  
Review
Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances in Potential Drinking Water Sources Globally: Distributions, Monitoring Trends, and Risk Assessment
by Yangyuan Zhou, Yu Chang, Dawei Zhang and Weiying Li
Water 2025, 17(22), 3280; https://doi.org/10.3390/w17223280 - 17 Nov 2025
Viewed by 957
Abstract
Due to widespread industrial applications and increased discharges, concentrations of polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in potential drinking water sources have risen significantly, putting more people at risk of PFAS exposure. This study aimed to systematically clarify the occurrence characteristics (concentrations, detection frequencies, and temporal [...] Read more.
Due to widespread industrial applications and increased discharges, concentrations of polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in potential drinking water sources have risen significantly, putting more people at risk of PFAS exposure. This study aimed to systematically clarify the occurrence characteristics (concentrations, detection frequencies, and temporal trends) of PFAS in global potential drinking water sources over the past decade, assess their oral exposure risks, and identify key PFAS species with high detection frequencies, high contamination levels, or high toxicity risks, thereby providing scientific support for the development of targeted control technologies and management strategies. This study systematically searched and reviewed the relevant literature published between 2014 and 2024 on PFAS levels in global potential drinking water sources, extracting data on PFAS concentrations, detection information, and sampling characteristics. Using the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Reference Dose (RfD) for oral exposure as the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI), we evaluated the exposure risks of eight specific PFAS via the Risk Quotient for Specific Contaminants (RQRSC) model and analyzed the annual detection trends of the top thirty PFAS with the highest detection frequencies. Regarding total PFAS contamination, China, Brazil, Germany, South Africa, and the Danube River Basin exhibited particularly high levels, with China being the most severely contaminated. Risk assessment indicated that 45.6% of global potential drinking water sources were at high risk (RQRSC > 1), while 48.4% were at low risk (RQRSC < 0.2). Among the evaluated PFAS, PFOA, PFOS, PFDA, and GenX were associated with higher toxicity exposure risks. For the identified key concern PFAS, it is necessary to simplify detection techniques, promote targeted large-scale safe treatment technologies, and explore intelligent monitoring tools to reduce regulatory lag, thereby effectively monitoring, preventing, and controlling PFAS contamination. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drinking Water Quality: Monitoring, Assessment and Management)
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