Environmental Monitoring and Assessment - Special Issue: International conference on Recent advances in Water Science and Technology (ICRAWST-2021)

Groundwater is an integral part of the environment and cannot be looked upon in isolation. It supplies about 75% of global water resources required for human activities (i.e., domestic, irrigation and industrial). Most of the world’s mega-cities in the under-developed countries of Asia, Africa and South America are fully dependent on groundwater for the water supply. This result in over exploitation, natural and anthropogenic contamination due to increasing pressure on groundwater resources. As per the WHO, the lack of access to clean drinking water is one the major factor that influence the human population adversely by affects the human health as well as the plant growth. The significance of this special issue “International conference on Recent advances in Water Science and Technology (ICRAWST-2021)” is to provide information related to the recent advances in hydro-geochemical process in groundwater systems aided by natural and anthropogenic influences on geological structure, hydrometrology and hydrogeology. The hydrochemical variations in groundwater originates through the hydrological cycle due to processes like evaporation, precipitation, ion exchange, mineral dissolution and dissociation, quality of recharge water, redox reactions, cation exchange, leaching from fertilizers and manures, pollution, vegetative intake and biological influences. Dissolution of aquifer minerals determines the chemical composition of natural waters. Carbonates, primary silicates, clays and sulfide minerals tend to dissolve and alter through ion exchange and change in Eh and pH conditions in the aquifer matrix. The solute load in the aqueous solution is influenced by the bed rock/sediment and hence the chemical characteristics of aquifer are an indication of geology of the aquifer materials. The chemical weathering rates of various litho units, development of regoliths, development of secondary porosity, sequestration of atmoshpheric carbon dioxide, and rates of mineral weathering are triggered due to the dissolution kinetics of rocks and minerals in aqueous medium. The contaminants like arsenic and fluoride, nutrient and trace elements, acid- mine drainage water, and geo-microbiological reactions and aquifer storage capacity also significantly influence groundwater chemistry along its flow path. 

This special volume will provide a synoptic perspective of the state of the art topics encompassing chemical characters of groundwater and their relationships with the geological and anthropogenic frameworks. This issue will be a collection of research papers reflecting the acquired knowledge in the area of groundwater using interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary approaches and make them available in a single platform to the future generation science enthusiasts and researchers. 
 

This Special Issue aims to cover the following areas:

•    Monitoring and assessment of groundwater using geochemical, geophysical, and geospatial techniques. 
•    Hydro-chemical solute and mass transport modeling of organic and inorganic constituents in aquifers.
•    Thermodynamics and kinetics of water-rock interaction and experimental geochemistry.
•    Natural, anthropogenic and emerging contaminants in groundwater.
•    Isotopic and gas tracers for biogeochemical and hydrologic processes.
•    Vulnerability assessment using index and process based models.  
•    Assessment of climate change on geochemistry of groundwater.
•    Transfer risk of microplastic pollutant to groundwater system.
 

Keywords:  groundwater chemistry; geochemical processes; geophysical techniques; numerical and solute transport modelling; isotopic tracers; climate change; contaminants

Timeline:
Expected date for submissions to be opened: 05 December, 2021

Submission deadline: 31 August 2022  
Completion of the editorial process: June 2022
Expected number of accepted articles: 20-25

Guest Editors:

Dr. D. Karunanidhi,  Department of Civil Engineering Sri Shakthi Institute of Engineering and Technology Coimbatore-641062, India 

Prof. K. Srinivasamoorthy, Department of Earth Sciences, School of Physical, Chemical and Applied Sciences, Pondicherry University, Puducherry, India

Prof. T. Subramani, Department of Geology, Anna University, Chennai, India

Prof. Margarida Antunes Department of Earth Sciences,  Universida de do Minho 4710-057 Braga, Portugal

Prof. Qingchun Yang, Department of Groundwater Science and Engineering, Jilin University, China