CALL FOR PAPERS
Advanced Wastewater-Based Epidemiology Through Multi-Biomarker Integration and Smart Environmental Monitoring
Guest Editors:
Matthew Wade (UK Health Security Agency, United Kingdom)
Barbara Kasprzyk-Hordern (University of Bath, United Kingdom)
Sara Castiglioni (Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri, Italy)
Key dates:
Deadline for manuscript submission: 1 November 2025
Articles will be published online as soon as possible after acceptance.
Call for Papers:
Journal of Water and Health is pleased to invite submissions for peer review and possible publication in the Advanced Wastewater-Based Epidemiology Through Multi-Biomarker Integration and Smart Environmental Monitoring Special Issue.
Water systems are rapidly emerging as vital platforms for public health surveillance. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has demonstrated the value of environmental monitoring for tracking population-level trends in infectious diseases, pharmaceuticals, and other public health indicators. Now, a broader dimension of water and wastewater monitoring is emerging - one that integrates chemical, biochemical, biological, and molecular biomarkers to enable real-time, multiplexed, and multi-indicator public health insights. Central to this evolution is the concept of water-fingerprinting: the use of complex chemical and biological signatures in water to characterise community health, behaviour, and environmental exposures.
This Special Issue invites integrated studies that move beyond single-analyte tracking to showcase multi-biomarker and multi-source surveillance in water systems. We especially encourage submissions that use innovative analytical techniques - including mass spectrometry, next-generation sequencing, and multi-omics - alongside data science approaches - such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and informatics - to interrogate large, complex datasets for public health applications.
Relevant topics include:
- Integrated biomarker surveillance in water and wastewater
- Water-fingerprinting approaches for public health
- Real-time and multiplexed sensing technologies
- AI and machine learning in environmental health monitoring
- Multi-source data integration for epidemiological insight
How to submit:
Please make sure that your paper follows the Instructions for Authors, before submitting your paper directly to Journal of Water & Health via www.editorialmanager.com/jwh. Please choose the most appropriate article type and the submission category 'Special Issue: Advanced WBE and Smart Monitoring’ on submission.
About the Guest Editors:
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Matthew Wade is a Senior Environmental Science Advisor at the UK Health Security Agency, United Kingdom. His work focuses on wastewater-based epidemiology, environmental surveillance of infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance, and the application of data analytics and modelling to inform public health decision-making. Dr Wade also holds visiting fellow status at the University of Bath supporting advances in wastewater-based epidemiology for public health. He has over 25 years’ experience working at the frontier of water and environmental science and engineering, mathematical modelling, and informatics in academia and the public sector. Dr Wade has served as an Editor for the Journal of Water and Health since 2020 and Water Science and Technology since 2018, both published by IWA Publishing. |
Barbara Kasprzyk-Hordern, PhD, University of Bath, UK
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Barbara Kasprzyk-Hordern is a Professor in Environmental and Analytical Chemistry at the University of Bath, where she heads the Environmental Chemistry and Public Health Research Group. She is also director of the Centre for Excellence in Water Based early Warning Systems for Health Protection, and the NERC Centre for Doctoral Training in Real-Time Digital Water-Based Systems (RED-ALERT CDT). Professor Kasprzyk-Hordern’s principal research interests fall into the three interrelated research areas of environmental, analytical and water sciences. She has made major contributions to understanding chemical speciation of emerging and legacy pollutants in the environment, and in developing and evaluating new solutions aimed at reducing environmental pollution levels. Her recent interests are related to environmental pollution and public health, in the context of One Health. Professor Kasprzyk-Hordern is currently focusing on the development of early warning systems for environmental and public health assessment via water fingerprinting and (waste)water-based epidemiology (WBE). |
Sara Castiglioni, PhD, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS, Italy
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Sara Castiglioni is the Head of the Environmental Epidemiological Indicators Laboratory at the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Milan, Italy. She contributed to the development of the wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) approach for studying the consumption of substances in the population (illicit drugs, pharmaceuticals, alcohol, nicotine). She additionally worked to develop novel applications for studying human exposure to environmental and food contaminants, and the health status of a population. Dr Castiglioni has served as the editor for numerous books and special issues on WBE and is currently the coordinator of the Sewage analysis CORE group Europe (SCORE) network. |
About Journal of Water and Health:
Published by IWA Publishing, part of the International Water Association, Journal of Water and Health focuses on all aspects of the treatment and use of non-conventional water resources.
Editor in Chief: Nicholas J. Ashbolt (University of South Australia, Australia)