A note from NAWI Research Director Meagan Mauter. A year and a half into our research program, the NAWI community is beginning to generate significant research products. It is my pleasure to highlight several NAWI-themed special issues in leading water research journals where NAWI researchers can disseminate their work and NAWI alliance members can learn about cutting edge research relevant to their sectors.
The first special issue, entitled “Technology Baselines and Innovation Priorities for Water Treatment and Supply” is expected to be released by ACS ES&T Engineering this fall. Edited by NAWI’s industrial source water cartographer, Prof. Jaehong Kim of Yale University; NAWI’s agricultural source water co-cartographer, Prof. Dionysios Dionysiou of the University of Cincinnati; and myself, this issue will highlight both baseline data collected by the NAWI roadmapping team and complementary articles from the water research community. In sum, this special issue highlights rigorous assessments of the economic, energy, environmental, and social implications of a circular water economy transition. It will also highlight work that documents current state-of-the-art technologies for water reuse and establishes technology targets for future innovations. Finally, it highlights work that contextualizes the value of technology innovation and/or policy change in the transition to a circular water economy.
The second special issue, on “Water Purification” in NPJ Clean Water is currently open for submissions. Dedicated to highlighting advances in the purification of alternative (impaired) water sources, identifying the gaps and needs for freshwater provisions, state-of-the-art technologies and processes, and advances needed to reduce cost and energy of treating such waters, this Special Collection will be curated by Guest Co-Editors-in-Chief Professor Meagan Mauter, Stanford University, and Professor Arne Verliefde, Ghent University. The journal seeks cutting-edge papers in the fields of brackish groundwater and seawater desalination, municipal water recycling as well as industrial and agricultural water reclamation, recycling and reuse. Additional details are available on the NPJ Clean Water website.
We look forward to sharing the fruits of NAWI’s investments in APRIME water desalination technologies with the water research community through these two special issues!