Dear Colleagues,

Increasing human pressure on the environment, including protected areas, opens up new questions about the status of protected habitats, the necessity to maintain or modify existing forms of protection, and the search for new possible approaches. The dissemination of scientific knowledge concerning problems occurring during water management, especially in protected areas, is necessary due to the difficulties of legal, technical, natural, and organizational nature.

The observed climate changes additionally affect water management, intensifying water shortages and increasing the risk of extreme weather events at regional and global scale. The global growth of tourism (now weakened by the pandemic situation) together with the ongoing degradation of water resources (plastics, metals, toxins) intensify an already difficult situation in many parts of the world.

Recent years have brought new methods and tools for the monitoring of aquatic ecosystems for environmental protection and tourism purposes. The development of biological indication (macrophytes, algae, macroinvertebrates) approaches for field and laboratory studies was followed by remarkable advances in remote sensing techniques, which can both be successfully utilized for the evaluation of the actual state of the environment and for planning activities.

This Special Issue invites authors to contribute reviews and research papers on freshwater ecology and protection, water management, sustainable development, and modern techniques and tools for monitoring aquatic ecosystems (rivers, lakes, wetlands) localized within or close to protected areas.

The Special Issue aims to publish research results from the following areas:

• Inventory and monitoring of natural habitats;
• Water management of river valleys;
• Implementation of sustainable development principles;
• Environmental impact assessments in protected areas;
• Remote sensing in protected areas;
• Climate changes;
• Protected areas;
• Protection of water resources;
• Problems associated with the exploitation of hydrotechnical devices;
• Inland water transport;
• Best river restoration practices.

Dr. Ryszard Staniszewski
Dr. Bogumiła Pawluśkiewicz
Prof. Dr. Mariusz Sojka
Prof. Dr. Klaudia Borowiak
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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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.

• protected area
• river valleys
• lakes
• freshwater ecology
• water quality
• eutrophication
• heavy metals
• anthropogenic pressures
• sustainable water resources management
• remote sensing