Dear Colleagues,

The civil, industrial and agricultural sectors are in strong competition for the use of water, particularly for blue water, which is less than 1% of the available water worldwide. The increased scarcity of water resources should lead to improved efficiency of wastewater treatment. Wastewater reuse will become a priority as climate change accelerates. Thus, water and wastewater management has become a key area, both for research and practice. In addition, agriculture is also called upon to rationalize the use of resources, regardless of the availability of water resources.

In arid environments, crops are very often in conditions of water and salt stress; in humid areas, over-irrigation is a major cause of ground pollution. Every single drop of water is considered essential, which is demonstrated in the recently coined phrase more crop per drop, which became more dollars per drop, then more jobs per drop, namely, water use efficiency (WUE). Water use efficiency (WUE) was initially introduced by Briggs and Shantz (1913) where the researchers considered the relationship between water use and plant productivity. They developed the concept of WUE in order to consider the biomass quantity acquired per unit of water available for the crop.

However, WUE is a complex composite governed by many genes and environmental responses, and for these reasons, WUE is often defined differently in relation to the different field of experts of science.

In the present Special Issue, plant and crop breeders, plant and crop physiologists, agricultural engineering, engineers, economists, and sociologists are invited to give their contributions for improving WUE and sustainability at different levels, moving from DNA to cells, to leaf, to canopy, to district level.

Prof. Dr. Arturo Alvino
Prof. Dr. Stefano Marino
Guest Editors

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• crop breeders
• crop physiologists
• agricultural engineering
• engineering
• economists
• sociologists