Message from the Guest Editors
The world’s water resources are increasingly coming under pressure from overexploitation of aquifers, climate change, drought and pollution of freshwater resources. The agricultural and agro-industrial sectors require a large amount of water and can be particularly vulnerable to scarce or intermittent water resources. In addition, these sectors generate significant volumes of wastewater that can impact the quality of freshwater. Wastewater treatments can be expensive and require qualified personnel for O&M, which is not always possible especially in small agro-industrial realties. Nature-based solutions (NBS) can be an effective answer to the needs for wastewater treatment and climate adaptation, but they can also supply ecosystem services while requiring low O&M costs. This Special Issue requests papers that explore different aspects of NBS, from sustainable tools for wastewater management, to ecosystem services (ES) provided by NBS, identifying spatial criteria for NBS location, and the economic impact of NBS in the agricultural and agro-industrial economy.
