June 21, 2021
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Article

Post Covid-19 water and waste water management to protect public health and geoenvironment

Publicated to: Environmental Geotechnics. 8 (3): 193-207 - 2021-05-01 8(3), DOI: 10.1680/jenge.20.00067

Authors:

Paleologos, EK; O'Kelly, BC; Tang, CS; Cornell, K; Rodríguez-Chueca, J; Abuel-Naga, H; Koda, E; Farid, A; Vaverková, MD; Kostarelos, K; Goli, VSNS; Guerra-Rodríguez, S; Leong, EC; Jayanthi, P; Shashank, BS; Sharma, S; Shreedhar, S; Mohammad, A; Jha, B; Kuntikana, G; Bo, MW; Mohamed, AMO; Singh, DN
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Affiliations

‎ Abu Dhabi Univ, Dept Civil Engn, Abu Dhabi, U Arab Emirates - Author
‎ Bo & Associates Inc, Mississauga, ON, Canada - Author
‎ Boise State Univ, Biomol Res Ctr, Dept Chem & Biochem, Boise, ID 83725 USA - Author
‎ Boise State Univ, Dept Civil Engn, Boise, ID 83725 USA - Author
‎ Delft Univ Technol, Delft, Netherlands - Author
‎ Dr Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Govt Polytech, Dept Civil Engn, Silvassa, India - Author
‎ Indian Inst Technol, Dept Civil Engn, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India - Author
‎ La Trobe Univ, Sch Engn & Math Sci, Engn Dept, Melbourne, Vic, Australia - Author
‎ Mendel Univ Brno, Fac AgriSci, Brno, Czech Republic - Author
‎ Nanjing Univ, Sch Earth Sci & Engn, Geol Engn Div, Nanjing, Peoples R China - Author
‎ Nanyang Technol Univ, Sch Civil & Environm Engn, Singapore, Singapore - Author
‎ Natl Inst Technol Meghalaya, Dept Civil Engn, Shillong, Meghalaya, India - Author
‎ Natl Inst Technol, Dept Civil Engn, Tadepalligudem, Andhra Pradesh, India - Author
‎ Trinity Coll Dublin, Dept Civil Struct & Environm Engn, Dublin, Ireland - Author
‎ Uberbinder Inc, Seattle, WA USA - Author
‎ Univ Houston, Petr Engn Dept, Houston, TX USA - Author
‎ Univ Politecn Madrid, Escuela Tecn Super Ingn Ind, Dept Ind Chem & Environm Engn, Madrid, Spain - Author
‎ Warsaw Univ Life Sci SGGW, Inst Civil Engn, Warsaw, Poland - Author
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Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has posed severe threats to humans and the geoenvironment. The findings of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (Sars-CoV-2) traces in waste water and the practice of disinfecting outdoor spaces in several cities in the world, which can result into the entry of disinfectants and their by-products into storm drainage systems and their subsequent discharge into rivers and coastal waters, raise the issue of environmental, ecological and public health effects. The aims of the current paper are to investigate the potential of water and waste water to operate as transmission routes for Sars-CoV-2 and the risks of this to public health and the geoenvironment. Additionally, several developing countries are characterised by low water-related disaster resilience and low household water security, with measures for protection of water resources and technologies for clean water and sanitation being substandard or not in place. To mitigate the impact of the pandemic in such cases, practical recommendations are provided herein. The paper calls for the enhancement of research into the migration mechanisms of viruses in various media, as well as in the formation of trihalomethanes and other disinfectant by-products in the geoenvironment, in order to develop robust solutions to combat the effects of the current and future pandemics.
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Keywords

BacteriaBiosolidsCoronavirusCovid-19Developing countriesDeveloping worldDisaster resiliencesDischarge (fluid mechanics)Disease transmissionDisinfectantsDisinfectionEnvironmental engineeringEpidemicGeoenvironmentHealth riskHealth risksMigration mechanismsPractical recommendationProtection of water resourcesPublic healthPublic risksRemovalRiskRobust solutionsSars coronavirusSars-cov-2Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirusStorm drainage systemsStorm sewersSurvivalTransmission routeTransportVirusesWaste managementWaste management & disposalWastewater treatmentWater management

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Environmental Geotechnics due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency Scopus (SJR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2021, it was in position , thus managing to position itself as a Q2 (Segundo Cuartil), in the category Nature and Landscape Conservation. Notably, the journal is positioned en el Cuartil Q3 for the agency WoS (JCR) in the category Engineering, Geological.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 2.47. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 13, 2025)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Weighted Average of Normalized Impact by the Scopus agency: 3.45 (source consulted: FECYT Mar 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2026-04-25, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 33
  • Scopus: 39
  • Open Alex: 45
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Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2026-04-25:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 168.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 163 (PlumX).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
  • Assignment of a Handle/URN as an identifier within the deposit in the Institutional Repository: https://oa.upm.es/95448/

As a result of the publication of the work in the institutional repository, statistical usage data has been obtained that reflects its impact. In terms of dissemination, we can state that, as of

  • Views: 11
  • Downloads: 2
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Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Australia; Canada; China; Czech Republic; India; Netherlands; Poland; Singapore; United Arab Emirates; United Kingdom; United States of America.

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Awards linked to the item

The authors would like to acknowledge the insightful comments received from the following reviewers: Dr Daniel M. Tartakovsky, Stanford University, USA; Dr Xiaoli Liu, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China; Dr Kosmas Pavlopoulos, Paris-Sorbonne University, Abu Dhabi, UAE; Dr Bora Cetin, Michigan State University, USA; Dr Theo S. Sarris, Institute of Environmental Science and Research, New Zealand; and Dr Mohad M. Nezhad, University of Warwick, UK, which have improved this paper significantly. J. Rodriguez-Chueca acknowledges Comunidad de Madrid for funding the research project IN_REUSE (APOYOJOVENES-X5PKL6-88-KZ46KU) within the framework of the multiyear agreement with the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid.
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