Urban water management faces mounting challenges—rapid urbanization, resource depletion, pollution, and climate-induced disasters. By 2050, water scarcity, aggravated by diverse contamination sources, may threaten nearly half the urban population. Marginalized groups endure severe disparities in access to clean water and sanitation, leading to health and socio-economic inequalities. The diverse nature of cities further impacts water security across neighborhoods, requiring tailored approaches for effective water management. Addressing these complexities demands a concerted effort using advanced modelling techniques, monitoring instruments, sustainability principles, and resilient measures to navigate the intricate landscape of urban water systems. Yet, sustainable water management in urban areas embraces a holistic approach, encompassing water supply, distribution, treatment, reuse, and drainage, all while prioritizing environmental, social, and economic sustainability. It integrates strategies spanning water supply, treatment, reuse, and drainage to meet current needs without jeopardizing future access to clean water. This involves optimizing water usage, improving wastewater management, predicting hydro-climate variability, deploying innovative water management technologies, promoting efficient infrastructure, and enhancing resilience against climate impacts. Community engagement and innovative technologies aid in real-time monitoring and management. This collection aims to disseminate practical applications, groundbreaking research, and fresh insights into urban water management, steering urban water systems toward intelligence, sustainability, and resilience.
The scope of this collection includes, but is not limited to:
The Collection will publish original research Articles, Reviews, Perspectives and Comments (full details on content types can be found here). Papers will be published in npj Clean Water as soon as they are accepted and then collected together and promoted on the Collection homepage. All Guest Edited Collections are associated with a call for papers and are managed by one or more of our Editorial Board Members and the journal’s Editors.
This Collection welcomes submissions from all authors – and not by invitation only – on the condition that the manuscripts fall within the scope of the Collection and of npj Clean Water more generally. See our editorial process page for more details.
All submissions are subject to the same peer review process and editorial standards as regular npj Clean Water articles, including the journal’s policy on competing interests. The Guest Editors have no competing interests with the submissions, which they handle through the peer-review process. The peer review of any submissions for which the Guest Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests. See our Collections guidelines for more details.
This Collection is not supported by sponsorship.
