key: cord-0995506-96zg8q0b
authors: Weng, Chih-Huang
title: Water pollution prevention and state of the art treatment technologies
date: 2020-07-20
journal: Environ Sci Pollut Res Int
DOI: 10.1007/s11356-020-09994-5
sha: 8a89d4f4044c28ec6471927d4019145d8b0ffdfd
doc_id: 995506
cord_uid: 96zg8q0b

nan

This special issue (SI) of Environmental Science and Pollution Research (ESPR) includes a collection of 18 peer-reviewed articles relating to water quality and toxicity risk assessments, ecosystem protection, groundwater contamination assessment, soil and sediment remediation technologies, water treatment technologies, climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies, and control of carbon intensity that were formally presented at the 4th International Conference on Water Resources and Environment (WRE 2018) , the 5th International Conference on Water Resources and Environment (WRE 2019), and the 1st International Conference on Advances in Civil and Ecological Engineering Research (ACEER 2019). WRE 2018 was held in I-Shou University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, from July 17th to 21st, 2018. WRE 2019 was held in Macau University of Science and Technology, Macao, China, from June 16th to 19th, 2019. WRE conference started in 2015, when the first WRE was held in Beijing. As an annually held conference, the upcoming 6th WRE conference is prescheduled held in Tokyo, from 23rd to 26th, 2020; however, due to the outbreak of COVID-19 and for the safety of participants, WRE2020 will be held online via virtual presentation (http://www.wreconf.org/index.html). The WRE conference highlighted the needs to maintain the sustainability of indispensable water resources under increasing uncertainty and to protect the fragile water environments under the growing concern of intensive use of water we are facing today. While Civil Engineering provides us a better living environment, there is a need not only to protect our fragile environment but also to ensure it is sustainable for future generations. Thus, the initiation of ACEER 2019 is to emphasize links between civil engineering research and knowledge of ecological/environmental issues. The 2nd ACEER will be held on October 20th-23rd, 2020, in Beijing, China (http://www.aceerconf.org/index.html). The present SI of ESPR was guest-edited by Professor Chih-Huang Weng (I-Shou University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan). The papers selected in this SI were based on the ones originally presented at the conference; however, having gone through the regular peerreview process of ESPR, the contents of those papers have been changed. A brief highlight of the papers included in this SI is as follows:

& Constantly consumption of caffeine around the world has led to increase in caffeine concentration in water bodies and agricultural soil, and thus the impact of caffeine on the environment should not be ignored. Korekar & Yeh et al. (2020) demonstrate that the synergistic heavy metal contamination degree of an industrially affected river and its adverse biological effects can be assessed by employing the heavy metal pollution index, the degree of contamination index, the contamination factor, the index of geo-accumulation, and hazard quotients. This assessment practice can be quite useful to provide a reference for establishing river pollution control and management strategies.

& With the help of ionic tracers and employing the spiraling curve characterization approach and the Michaelis-Menten equation, Song and Song (2019) revealed that the dynamic absorption characteristics of NO 3 -N in a rural-urban ecotone channel is slightly influenced by the hydrological factors, but significantly influenced by the geomorphic features of the channel. & On the basis of a 23-year dataset of eleven cities in the Songhua River Basin, Wanhong et al. (2019) ultimately developed two econometric models to quantify the indust r i a l w a s t e w a t e r d i s c h a r g e a l l o w a n c e a n d ecocompensation of the investigated cities, respectively. They suggested that the ecosystem can be protected via an emissions trading program, which permits the wastewater discharge allowance to trading market. & Peng et al. (2019) found that poly-γ-glutamic acid (γ-PGA), an environmentally friendly washing reagent, is effective in removing heavy metals (Cu, Zn, Ni, and Cr) from metal-contaminated farmland soil. The efficacy of metal removal in the field pilot-scale tests is mainly governed by the order of γ-PGA concentration, washing time, liquid/soil ratio, and rotational speed. & Lee and Lin (2019) provide relationships between integrated vulnerability (biophysical and social) and personal ecological footprint of Taipei (urban) and Yunlin county (rural), Taiwan, for governments and communities to establish implementation strategies in risk areas to adapt and mitigate to climate change. & The carbon intensity of a country is closely related to its economic system. Based on a selection of 24 countries and application of endogenous growth model, Wang et al. (2020) revealed that countries with high or medium high income show convergence of carbon intensity; however, countries with medium or low income exhibit insignificant convergence tendency in carbon intensity.

Publisher's note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. He serves as the editor, editorial board member, and guest editor of several academic journals, such as Agricultural Water Management, Coloration Technology, Environmental Geochemistry and Health, and Environmental Science and Pollution Research. He has also organized and chaired several international conferences. His main research interests focus on using advanced oxidation processes and adsorption for the treatment of wastewater and bacteria inactivation, ground water modeling, and application of electrokinetic technologies to soil remediation/sludge treatment/activated carbon regeneration.

Biosynthesized Fe-and Ag-doped ZnO nanoparticles using aqueous extract of Clitoria ternatea Linn for enhancement of sonocatalytic degradation of Congo red

Comparative toxicity of five dispersants to test organisms at different trophic levels: Platymonas helgolandica

Removal of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)-contaminated sediments by persulfate oxidation and determination of degradation product cytotoxicity based on HepG2 and ZF4 cell lines

Assessment of background levels and pollution sources for arsenic and fluoride in the phreatic and confined groundwater of Xi'an city

Occurrence, fate, persistence and remediation of caffeine: a review

Application of progressive freezing on forward osmosis draw solute recovery

Vulnerability and ecological footprint: a comparison between urban Taipei and rural Yunlin

Impact of carrier on ammonia and organics removal from zero-discharge marine recirculating aquaculture system with sequencing batch biofilm reactor (SBBR)

Remote sensing-based water quality assessment for urban rivers: a study in Linyi development area

Enhancement of sonocatalytic degradation of organic dye by using titanium dioxide (TiO 2 )/activated carbon (AC) derived from oil palm empty fruit bunch

A field pilot-scale study on heavy metal-contaminated soil washing by using an environmentally friendly agent-poly-γ-glutamic acid

Graywater treatment technologies and reuse of reclaimed water for toilet flushing

Fish habitat evaluation based on width-to-depth ratio and eco-environmental diversity index in small rivers

Spiralling curve characterization of nitratenitrogen absorption in a channel at a rural-urban ecotone in Northeast China

Convergence of carbon intensity: a test on developed and developing countries

Industrial water pollution and transboundary eco-compensation: analyzing the case of Songhua River Basin

Assessment of heavy metal contamination and adverse biological effects of an industrially affected river

Hydrogeochemical and isotopic characteristics of groundwater in Xinchang preselected site and their implications