Call For Papers: Innovations for Water Sustainability: Bridging Science, Policy, and Society

Water lies at the heart of sustainable development, underpinning ecosystem health, public health, food and energy security, economic prosperity, and community resilience. Yet, water systems around the world are facing unprecedented pressures from climate change, rapid urbanization, population growth, land-use change, and unsustainable groundwater extraction. These challenges are contributing to declining water availability, deteriorating water quality, increasing salinity, and heightened vulnerability to extreme hydrological events.

Addressing these interconnected challenges requires more than technological innovation alone. Sustainable water futures will depend on integrated solutions that bridge traditional and indigenous knowledge systems with advances in science, engineering, policy, and governance.

This Special Issue in ACS ES&T Water, organized in conjunction with the International Conference on Water Sustainability: Innovations, Policy, and Community Resilience (ICWS 2026), seeks to highlight cutting-edge research, reviews, perspectives, and case studies that advance the science and practice of sustainable water management.

Topics of Interest

Topics include, but are not limited to:

Water treatment and circular water economy

• Advanced water and wastewater treatment technologies
• Water reuse and fit-for-purpose treatment strategies
• Nutrient, energy, and resource recovery from water and wastewater streams

Groundwater sustainability

• Aquifer remediation and management
• Groundwater depletion and recharge
• Groundwater quality monitoring and assessment
• Groundwater-resilient agricultural systems

Nature-based and engineered solutions

• Nature-based solutions for water quality improvement
• Green and hybrid gray-green infrastructure
• Constructed wetlands and ecological treatment systems
• Ecosystem-based approaches to water resilience

Digital and data-enabled water systems

• Artificial intelligence and machine learning applications in water systems
• Digital twins and smart water infrastructure
• Real-time monitoring and sensor technologies
• Remote sensing and geospatial approaches to water management

Climate change and water security

• Climate impacts on water quantity and quality
• Climate adaptation strategies for water systems
• Extreme events and water infrastructure resilience
• Water-energy-climate Nexus

Water policy and governance

• Integrated water resources management
• Water governance and institutional frameworks
• Policy tools for sustainable water management
• Water equity, access, and justice

Community-centered approaches to resilience

• Community-based water management
• Indigenous and traditional knowledge systems
• Social acceptance and implementation of water innovations
• Building water resilience in vulnerable communities

Emerging contaminants and water quality

• Contaminants of emerging concern
• PFAS and other persistent contaminants
• Microplastics and nanoplastics
• Pharmaceuticals and personal care products

Submit your manuscript by February 28, 2027.

Organizing Editors

Prof. Kirti Sankhala, Guest Editor
Indian Institute of Technology, Jodhpur, India

Prof. Volker Abetz,Guest Editor
University of Hamburg, Germany

Prof. Moshe Herzberg, Guest Editor
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel

Submission Information

We welcome submissions for this Special Issue through February 28, 2027. For more information on submission requirements, please visit the journal’s Author Guidelines page.

Accepted manuscripts for consideration in this Special Issue will include research articles, reviews, perspectives, features, and viewpoints. Papers accepted for publication for this Special Issue will be available ASAP (as soon as publishable) online as soon as they are accepted. After all submissions have been published, they will then be compiled online on a dedicated landing page to form the Special Issue. Manuscripts submitted for consideration will undergo the full rigorous peer review process expected from ACS journals.

Open Access: There are diverse open access options for publications in American Chemical Society journals. Please visit our Open Science Resource Center for more information.

How to Submit

• Log in to the ACS Publishing Center.
• Select your manuscript type; upload your manuscript and related files.
• Review the title and abstract fields to ensure any pre-populated information has uploaded correctly.
• Under "Special Issue Selection," select Innovations for Water Sustainability: Bridging Science, Policy, and Society.
• Confirm all other information has uploaded correctly.
• Submit your article.

If you have any general questions regarding submission to this Special Issue, please contact Kunal Gupta, Managing Editor, ACS ES&T Water at managing.editor@estwater.acs.org.