Submission deadline: 15 Jan 2026
The journal Environments has announced a special issue on Wastewater-Based Epidemiology Assessment and Surveillance (see here for details).
Topics include:
- Pathogen surveillance (e.g., SARS-CoV-2, emerging viruses, and antimicrobial resistance genes);
- Community exposure assessment for illicit drugs, pharmaceuticals, and environmental toxins;
- Technological innovations in sample collection, high-throughput sequencing, and real-time monitoring;
- Ethical and governance frameworks for data privacy and public health decision-making;
- Case studies demonstrating WBE’s role in pandemic response, environmental justice, and One Health initiatives.
The Special Issue welcomes interdisciplinary perspectives from environmental science, epidemiology, data science and public policy, fostering a holistic understanding of WBE’s potential to transform global health surveillance in diverse settings.
Prof Zhugen Yang of Cranfield University, who leads EBNet’s Environmental Sensors and Wastewater Surveillance Working Group, said “This is an important opportunity to cover this emerging monitoring mechanism from the Covid-19 pandemic, which has been performed in 72 countries through regional, national and integrated surveillance programmes, and is currenty still active in several countries in the EU. The special issue is a valuable platform to showcase the most recent findings. Indeed our Working Group is actively involved in the UK’s national wastewater surveillance programme, focusing on field testing of low-cost and rapid wastewater sensors as demonstrated in London quarantine hotels during the Covid-19 pandemic, and supported by UKRI and the UK Health Security Agency”.