Sustainable Strategies and Technologies for Wastewater Management

Dear Colleagues,

Climatic change, industrialization and demographic increase make always more challenging the management of water resources in order to meet the global demand for clean water and sanitation.

In this respect, a sustainable wastewater management that avoids impacts on the human health and the environment from the production of wastewater to its treatment and discharge/reuse is of great importance.

Recently, “eco-technologies” and “green” strategies have been proposed to enhance the sustainability of the wastewater management system. The innovations proposed aim to reach at least one of the following targets: (i) minimize the water footprint of industrial processes and the pollution load contained in raw wastewater; (ii) reduce the use of chemicals, the land footprint, the energy consumption and the sludge production in wastewater treatment plants; (iii) recover energy and resources from wastewater; (iv) minimize the environmental impacts of the discharge (or reuse) of treated wastewater, in particular as regards priority pollutants, pathogens and antibiotic resistance.

The main objective of this special issue is to illustrate the benefits and the limits of the innovative technologies and management options in the field of wastewater treatment and reuse, with the final aim of enhancing the overall environmental sustainability of the wastewater management system.

For this purpose, several aspects must be taken into account, including technical, environmental, social and economic issues. Within this context, we invite you to submit papers in the following research areas:

• Innovative industrial processes aiming to reduce the water footprint and the pollution load in the raw industrial wastewater.
• Eco-technologies for wastewater treatment, such as natural systems, anaerobic processes, granular and biofilm biological processes, gravity filtration.
• Treated wastewater reuse, including direct reuse (for irrigation, industrial, urban and potable) and other options (e.g. indirect reuse, ecological use, aquifer recharge).
• Innovative management options (e.g. centralized vs. decentralized systems, innovative layout, platform for the combined treatment of different wastes).
• Energy recovery (anaerobic digestion, thermal recovery, ).
• Recovery of nutrients (N, P, K, S) and other resources (lipids, cellulose, etc.) and their valorization for the production of valuable chemicals, biodiesel, biolubricants, bioplastics, biopolymers etc.
• Monitoring, modelling and control strategies to optimize treatment processes, enhance their resilience, reduce their energy requirements, and guarantee the safeguard of the environment.
• Economic suitability and social acceptability of the strategies/technologies proposed.
• Environmental assessment of the wastewater management options (e.g. life cycle assessment, health and ecological risk analysis).
• Planning and policy interventions to promote the most sustainable wastewater management options.

Publishable papers will be selected by a peer review procedure. The rapid and wide dissemination of the results presented will help to select and prioritize the wastewater management strategies and technologies based on their environmental sustainability, so contributing to define the wastewater treatment plant of the next generation.

Dr. Pompilio Vergine
Dr. Antonella Angelini
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. Sustainability 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 2400 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.

• anaerobic digestion
• biodiesel
• biofuels
• biogas
• bioplastic
• circular economy
• control systems
• cost–benefit analysis
• ecotechnologies
• energy efficiency
• energy self-sufficiency
• environmental sustainability
• modeling
• resource recovery
• social acceptability
• sludge minimization
• waste-to-energy
• wastewater treatment
• wastewater valorization
• water footprint
• water use efficiency
• water reuse