Dear Colleagues,

Hydrogeology and water resources are broad research topics involving monitoring and modelling strategies, prediction approaches, management issues, and mitigation/adaptation/conservation strategies related to sustainability. The field supports a variety of research applications, that have evolved from a traditional emphasis on water availability assessment and allocation, and the definition of cost-effective operating strategies to a wider scope, which includes environmental implications, stakeholder concerns, social welfare, and human dimensions. Thus, we now face the challenge of an integrated and interdisciplinary research framework.

Innovative research and advanced modelling techniques are needed in the domains of study and technology focusing on hydrogeology and water resource interactions with climate and anthropogenic forcings, implications on the function and sustainability of ecosystems, water resource management and conservation practices, as well as on legislation and policy issues from local, regional, or global perspectives.

This Special Issue “Hydrogeological Environment and Water Resources Research” in the Sustainability journal aims to identify, discuss, and address the above challenges by seeking research and review manuscripts dealing with relevant research fields.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to: 

• hydrogeological and hydrological monitoring and modelling; novel techniques for tracing water from surface to acquifer;
• new capabilities, as well as limitations of machine learning models for predictions;
• the role of uncertainty due to model factors in decision making;
• Earth system change;
• vulnerability of water resources to climate variations;
• impact of growing population, increasing impermeability, and economy on natural resources;
• coupled human-natural systems;
• consequences of human disturbance on various Earth system processes;
• change over time of hydrological cycle;
• hydrological systems and ecosystems’ sustainability;
• water management and adaptations under climate and anthropogenic challenges;
• water-related natural hazards prediction and mitigation;
• the present and the future of hydrogeology and water resources research.

In this Special Issue, the goal is for authors to respond to developing solid research on the aforementioned issues in a context of the mainstream literature on hydrogeology and water resources, with a strong encouragement of interdisciplinary research. The intention in this context is to encourage scientists who promote realistic, advanced and pioneering approaches to contribute to the various issues of macrothematics, taking the existing knowledge a step further.

Dr. Sara Todeschini
Dr. Sauro Manenti
Dr. Emily Alyssa Baker
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.

• hydrogeology
• water resources
• monitoring
• modelling
• human-natural systems
• research
• management
• conservation
• adaptation
• sustainability