Environmental Challenges

Environmental Challenges is an international open‑access journal that advances solutions‑oriented environmental research with direct implications for management, governance and implementation.

We publish studies that demonstrate:

We prioritize contributions that quantify outcomes (e.g., pollution load reduction, risk abatement, cost‑effectiveness, equity or co‑benefits), compare alternatives, and reveal barriers and enablers of implementation. While the journal acknowledges the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, our remit is deliberately focused on environmental SDGs 6 (water), 11 (sustainable cities), 12 (responsible consumption and waste), 13 (climate action), 14 (life below water), and 15 (life on land)—with an emphasis on actionable pathways and management impacts rather than broad agenda framing.

Submissions should include a clearly defined use case or decision context, together with transparent methods, data and metrics that support replication and adoption.

The journal welcomes submissions that focus on the following topics:

• Industrial and urban emissions control; multi‑pollutant mitigation strategies.

• Solid waste, plastics, e‑waste and organics: prevention, capture, sorting, recycling, and end‑market performance; LCA‑backed circularity models.

• Emerging contaminants (PFAS, microplastics, pharmaceuticals): risk management, monitoring-to-action pipelines, and treatment efficacy in real systems.

2. Water Security under Climate Stress (SDG 6 & 13)

• Watershed/source‑to‑tap risk management; drought/flood adaptation portfolios and trade‑offs.

• Climate‑resilient WASH services and utility performance (non‑revenue water, energy/water nexus).

• Nature based and hybrid infrastructure for water quality/quantity with cost–benefit or cost–effectiveness evidence.

3. Urban & Industrial Environmental Management (SDG 11 & 12)

• Air quality management plans (AQMPs) and measured public health/ exposure outcomes

• Decarbonization of hard to abate sectors only when accompanied by environmental performance and management implications (e.g., emissions, water, waste, ecosystem impacts).

• Land contamination, brownfield remediation, and evidence on cleanup standards attainment and reuse.

4. Resilient Ecosystems & Nature‑Based Solutions (SDG 14 & 15)

• Coastal and riverine resilience (e.g., living shorelines, wetland restoration) with quantified hazard reduction (erosion, surge, flood) and biodiversity co‑benefits.

• Catchment/land‑use interventions that reduce sediment/nutrient loads, restore habitats, or reverse degradation, with monitoring designs that enable policy learning.

5. Risk, Governance & Implementation Science for the Environment (cross‑cutting)

• Environmental risk assessment linked to management decisions (standards, permits, compliance).

• Policy instruments, regulation, finance and procurement models that accelerate adoption of effective solutions; evidence of effectiveness (before–after, quasi‑experimental, RCT, natural experiments).

• Community participation, equity and just transition as determinants of environmental outcomes (not as stand‑alone social studies).

We may not consider submissions that fall outside the journal’s applied, solution-oriented mission:

• Basic laboratory studies without a management pathway or field relevance.

• Biodiversity or ecology studies without a management intervention or policy implication.

• Energy materials or device papers not centered on environmental performance or management outcomes.

• Case reports that are narrowly local without transferable insight, benchmarking, or comparison.

• General SDG/ESG discourse, awareness studies, or surveys without environmental outcome metrics.

• Manuscripts that merely count or catalog the number of published articles on a topic, without synthesizing evidence, evaluating solutions, or providing decision‑relevant insight.