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Impacts of Anthropogenic Activities on Water Resources and Ecosystem Health:...
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Impacts of Anthropogenic Activities on Water Resources and Ecosystem Health: How to Minimize These Impacts?

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Water Quality and Contamination".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 July 2022) | Viewed by 7061

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Jonathan Y.S. Leung

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide 5005, Australia
Interests: ecosystems; ecotoxicology; environmental chemistry; environmental pollution; environmental risk assessment; physiology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Qihang Wu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, China
Interests: electronic waste; emerging contaminants; flame retardants; mangroves; persistent organic pollutants; pollutant transformation; wastewater treatment

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Water is an indispensable resource for human survival. Over the last few decades, however, humans have been increasingly polluting precious water resources through urbanization and industrialization, especially in densely populated regions. Waterborne pollutants, such as heavy metals, can be dispersed by water currents and thus contaminate the pristine environment. Given the toxicity, persistence, and bioavailability of pollutants, regular monitoring of water quality is imperative to prevent their potential adverse effects on humans and ecosystems.

Identifying how to tackle water pollution is a global pressing issue, particularly for those countries suffering from water scarcity. Since water pollution is predicted to deteriorate in the future due to population growth, cost-effective wastewater treatment technologies need to be developed to minimize the impacts of pollutants on the environment and human health.

This Special Issue seeks to (1) understand the impacts of anthropogenic activities on water resources and ecosystem health and (2) provide innovative methods and strategies to safeguard water resources. We welcome original papers addressing research themes including, but not limited to, the following:

  1. Occurrence of pollutants (e.g., heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants, microplastics, or any emerging contaminants) in different water bodies, caused by human activities (e.g., mining, e-waste recycling, agricultural and industrial activities);
  2. Ecological risk of pollutants in the aquatic environment (e.g., lakes, rivers, streams, and coastal waters) and their effects on biota and humans;
  3. Behavior of pollutants in water and their interaction with other environmental media, such as sediment and biota;
  4. Treatment of polluted water and remediation of contaminated areas through various technologies, such as sewage treatment plants and constructed wetlands;
  5. Management strategies to cope with water pollution.

Dr. Jonathan Y.S. Leung
Dr. Qihang Wu
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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

  • ecotoxicology
  • environmental chemistry
  • environmental risk assessment
  • heavy metals
  • human activity
  • microplastics
  • persistent organic pollutants (POPs)
  • sewage treatment
  • water pollution
  • water resource management

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 693 KiB  
Article
Rapid Assessment Method for Evaluation of the Weighted Contribution of Anthropogenic Pollution: A Case Study of Lake Burullus, Egypt
by M. S. Moussa and Mohamed K. Mostafa
Water 2021, 13(23), 3337; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13233337 - 24 Nov 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2041
Abstract
This paper proposes a pragmatic approach for rapid assessment of the weighted contribution of the main waste streams contributing to pollution of surface water bodies. A case study was conducted on Lake Burullus in Egypt. The lake suffers from pollution due to many [...] Read more.
This paper proposes a pragmatic approach for rapid assessment of the weighted contribution of the main waste streams contributing to pollution of surface water bodies. A case study was conducted on Lake Burullus in Egypt. The lake suffers from pollution due to many human-based activities around the lake, such as domestic, industrial, agriculture, fish farming, and solid wastes. The weighted contribution of these activities was assessed in terms of chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP). The results showed that the highest organic load is due to the domestic wastewater pollution component (63.2% of COD load), followed by fish aquaculture (35.4%). The highest TN (43.9%) and TP (58.3%) pollutant loads to Lake Burullus are due to the agricultural pollution component, followed by fish aquaculture with pollutant loads of 28.5% and 25.3%, respectively. The industrial wastewater pollution component has a very small effect on the pollution of Lake Burullus. The assessment of this study will help identify and magnify the key polluters and thus guide the decision-makers to prioritize investment planning for depollution intervention projects. For example, if the target is to reduce COD loads, investments must be directed toward the rehabilitation and expansion of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impacts of Anthropogenic Activities on Water Resources and Ecosystem Health: How to Minimize These Impacts?)
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21 pages, 1738 KiB  
Article
Optimal Return Policies and Micro-Plastics Prevention Based on Environmental Quality Improvement Efforts and Consumer Environmental Awareness
by Dong Wang, Kehong Wang and Yujing Chen
Water 2021, 13(11), 1537; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13111537 - 30 May 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2393
Abstract
Consumers initiating returns online may produce secondary packaging, while most of the packages are produced by plastics. The more products are returned, the more plastics are used. Existing research indicates that the plastic packages can contribute to the micro-plastics pollution of the environment. [...] Read more.
Consumers initiating returns online may produce secondary packaging, while most of the packages are produced by plastics. The more products are returned, the more plastics are used. Existing research indicates that the plastic packages can contribute to the micro-plastics pollution of the environment. As consumer environmental awareness (CEA) improves, more and more consumers are willing to pay extra fees to change the materials of packages from plastics to others in order to protect the environment, prompting enterprises to adjust to their return policies. In this context, this paper takes environmental quality improvement effort and the environmental coefficient as decision variables, and compares the manufacturer’s optimal decisions under with and without return policy. Our results show as follows: (1) There is a positive correlation between CEA and environmental quality improvement effort and the environmental coefficient; that is, environmental quality improvement effort and the environmental coefficient increase with an increase in CEA; (2) When CEA is high (k≤τ≤d), there is a threshold for manufacturers to invest in environmental effort. However, when CEA is low (0≤τ≤k), regardless of the return policy the manufacturer implements, its profit increases with the promotion of CEA, and when the manufacturer allows consumer returns, the relationship is more obvious; (3) The manufacturer should adopt an appropriate return policy according to the changes in CEA. When CEA is low (0≤τ≤k), the manufacturer should adopt a without return policy; when CEA is high (k≤τ≤d), the manufacturer should adopt a full refund (r=p) return policy, which is the optimal profit, and increase investment in environmental protection. From the above conclusions, we suggest that the government should increase the publicity of environmental protection, consumers should establish the awareness of green consumption, and enterprises should increase investment in environmental quality improvement to achieve sustainable development. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impacts of Anthropogenic Activities on Water Resources and Ecosystem Health: How to Minimize These Impacts?)
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