Advances in Ecotechnologies for the Control of Non-Point Source Pollution in Agricultural and Urban Watersheds

Rapid socio-economic development has led to a rapid increase in the transport of non-point source (NPS) inorganic contaminants (e.g., nitrogen, phosphorus, sediments, and metals) and organic pollutants (e.g., pesticides and pharmaceutical residues). NPS contaminants originate from agricultural and urban sources which pollute rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. In many areas around the world, these contaminants are transported directly into aquatic ecosystems without treatment because of the lack of appropriate treatment facilities. Recognition of the detrimental impacts that NPS in/organic contaminants have on both aquatic environments and human health has resulted in substantial efforts to develop and implement strategies that decrease NPS in/organic contamination in critical water resources.

Considering the technological and economic limitations in many areas around the world, attention has shifted to evaluating and improving the efficacy of NPS in/organic contaminant retention in ecologically engineered systems. Such systems include constructed wetlands, drainage ditches, floating islands/wetlands, retention basins, and riparian buffer vegetation. To promote effective pollutant reduction using these technologies, we must consider both the pathways and fate of NPS in/organic contaminant loads in agricultural and urban watersheds and the removal mechanisms at the laboratory and field scales. This includes understanding the contribution of microbes and hydrophytes in pollutant retention and the hydrogeochemistry of these control strategies; evaluating the benefits and drawbacks of current management strategies of ecologically engineered systems for managing the risk of NPS in/organic contaminants entering aquatic ecosystems; and developing numerical models for water pollution transport to these systems.

The scope of this Research Topic aims to consolidate the latest worldwide multidisciplinary research on ecotechnologies with respect to the control of NPS in/organic contaminant transport, transformation, and retention characteristics from agricultural and urban watersheds. Also, research on the environmental drivers or factors influencing the removal of NPS in/organic contaminants is welcomed.
Potential topics include, but are not limited, to the following:

• Characteristics of non-point source pollution in agricultural and urban watersheds
• Pollutant transport, transformation, and retention within macrophyte-sediment-microbe systems
• Pollutant uptake and intensification of ecotechnologies e.g., ecological ditch systems, vegetated buffer strips, vegetated ponds/streams, land infiltration systems, and constructed wetlands
• The use of hydrophytes for NPS remediation
• Environmental drivers or factors influencing the removal of NPS in agricultural watersheds.

This Research Topic welcomes submissions of original research or review papers ranging from regional scales to the global scale based on microcosm trials, outdoor mesocosms, field scale measurements, and mechanistic modeling.