Sustainable Monitoring and Management of Freshwater Surface Ecosystems Quality

Freshwater surface aquatic ecosystems (FSAE), including rivers, lakes, floodplains, deltas, and lagoons, underpin drinking water, inland water transport, fisheries, aquaculture, agriculture, and tourism, delivering ecosystem services central to regional economies and human well-being. Their degradation carries direct economic costs and exposes critical governance shortcomings: declining fisheries yields threaten food security and livelihoods, while pollution, habitat degradation, biodiversity loss, and climate change place the blue economy at risk across navigation, aquaculture, and tourism. A central pressure is the growing occurrence of emerging contaminants and complex mixtures, including pharmaceuticals, PFAS, endocrine disruptors, pesticides, and micro- and nano- plastics, which act at trace concentrations yet exert chronic, synergistic, and transboundary effects on aquatic life and human health. Despite advances in aquatic science, freshwater quality assessment remains limited by fragmented governance, regulatory gaps, and monitoring frameworks that insufficiently capture the hydrological, sedimentological, biogeochemical, and ecotoxicological dynamics specific to freshwater systems.

This Research Topic aims to advance the economic, environmental, and governance dimensions of freshwater management while strengthening its ecological and ecotoxicological foundations. On the economic and policy side, it addresses ecosystem-service valuation, the cost-effectiveness of monitoring and restoration, economic incentives for pollution reduction and resource conservation, regulatory design, and the socio-economic vulnerability and resilience of dependent communities. On the scientific side, it develops integrative frameworks linking the fate, transport, persistence, bioavailability, and transformation of contaminants across water, sediment, and biota with ecological status, ecosystem functioning, and human-health risk. It brings together hydrology, freshwater ecology, environmental and analytical chemistry, ecotoxicology, socio-economics, environmental engineering, and digital sciences, with emphasis on detection and interpretation methods adapted to freshwater systems, including non-target screening, passive sampling, biomonitoring, and effect-based approaches. The Topic further encourages adaptive management supported by modelling, artificial intelligence, digital tools, and Nature-based Solutions. By connecting economic and governance analysis with ecological and contaminant science, it aims to strengthen the evidence base for resilient, climate-resilient, and pollution-free freshwater ecosystems.

We welcome submissions that connect one or more of the themes below across the economic, ecological, and contaminant dimensions of freshwater systems. Topics include, but are not limited to:
Economics, policy and governance
• Economic modelling, ecosystem service valuation, cost-benefit analysis, and blue economy frameworks for assessing trade-offs between freshwater ecosystem conservation and economic development
• Governance frameworks, policy instruments, and economic assessments addressing climate change, socio-economic transformations, and environmental pressures
• Socio-economic and public health impacts of freshwater ecosystem degradation and restoration, with attention to community resilience, environmental justice, human well-being, and adaptation strategies
Monitoring and analytical methods
• Sampling and measurement methodologies to the specificities of freshwater surface ecosystems
• Monitoring and modelling of emerging pollutants (micro- and nano- plastics, pharmaceuticals, pathogens)
• Passive sampling, biomonitoring, and high-resolution mass spectrometry in freshwater monitoring
Contaminant fate and ecological effects
• Effect-based methods, ecotoxicological assessment, and mixture toxicity evaluation
• Sediment dynamics, pollutant transport, and interactions with hydrological processes
Solutions, engineering and tools
• Nature-based Solutions (NbS) and circular economy principles in water management
• Engineering, economic, and policy-based solutions for pollution reduction and ecosystem restoration
• Application of artificial intelligence and digital tools for predictive monitoring, sediment modelling, and management optimization

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Environmental Policy, Blue Economy, Water Governance, Cost-Benefit Analysis, Ecosystem Services Valuation, Freshwater Surface Aquatic Ecosystems (FSAE), Inland Water Transport (IWT), Water Pollution, Emerging Pollutants, Nature-based Solutions (NbS), Sust

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.