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Barcelo, D., & Pereira, P. Introducing Earth: Environmental Sustainability (EESUS). Earth: Environmental Sustainability. 2025. doi: Retrieved from https://w3.sciltp.com/journals/eesus/article/view/1082
Volume 1, Issue 1, 2025
Copyright (c) 2025 by the authors.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Editorial

Introducing Earth: Environmental Sustainability (EESUS)

Damia Barcelo 1,* and Paulo Pereira 2,*

1 Chemistry and Physics Department, University of Almeria, 04120 Almería, Spain

2 Environmental Management Laboratory, Mykolas Romeris University, 08303 Vilnius, Lithuania

* Correspondence: damiab@ual.es (D.B.); pereiraub@gmail.com (P.P.)

1. Background

A global consensus exists on the way to green and sustainable development. It calls for effective cooperation of the international community, especially for sustainable development. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), available online: https://sdgs.un.org/goals (accessed on 19 April 2025), were created in the spirit of global cooperation for a better future. Never was it so urgent to reverse the current climate and biodiversity loss crises. For this, several global strategies as the abovementioned SDGs were developed, such as the International Decade for Action “Water for Sustainable Development” (2018–2028), available online: https://www.un.org/en/events/waterdecade (accessed on 19 April 2025), United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021–2030), available online: https://www.decadeonrestoration.org (accessed on 19 April 2025), United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030), available online: https://oceandecade.org (accessed on 19 April 2025), International Decade of Sciences for Sustainable Development (2024–2033), available online: https://docs.un.org/en/A/RES/77/326, (accessed on 19 April 2025) and Decade of Action for Cryospheric Sciences (2025–2034), available online: https://docs.un.org/en/A/RES/78/321 (accessed on 19 April 2025). All these actions and the past, e.g., the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity (2011–2020), available online: https://www.cbd.int/2011-2020 (accessed on 19 April 2025), United Nations Decade for Deserts and the Fight against Desertification (2011–2020), available online: https://www.un.org/en/events/desertification_decade (accessed on 19 April 2025), International Decade for Action, “Water for Life” (2005–2015), available online: https://docs.un.org/en/A/RES/58/217 (accessed on 19 April 2025), are a symptom of a bigger problem that remains unsolved and is challenging to tackle: the current human impacts on the ecosystems and their degradation. It was never so urgent to solve, halt, and revert this; it is important to question ourselves to see if we are not late.

To address all the global challenges, science is a fundamental pillar. For this, we are glad to announce the launch of the Earth: Environmental Sustainability (EESUS) journal as part of the Earth Sciences portfolio of Scilight. EESUS is a new gold-open access peer-reviewed journal dedicated to multiple aspects of sustainability.

EESUS will provide a multidisciplinary platform focusing on environmental sustainability for groundbreaking research, thus providing complementary information to the interconnected array of disciplines, including Earth, atmosphere, freshwaters and seas, being a journal for the global Earth Science Community. EESUS in line with sustainable SDGs and other global strategies, including nature-based solutions, the dynamics of urban systems, global pollution, and ecosystem services, among others, all interconnected within the broader context of sustainability and urban development. EESUS will build a holistic approach to sustainability—where technology, natural systems, social equity, and economic practices converge to create a better future for all living beings

2. Aims and Scope

Earth: Environmental Sustainability (EESUS) publishes novel and significant original research with a global impact from various natural, engineering and social fields focused on sustainability, its legal and political dimensions and possible solutions. Understanding how to ensure the well-being of current and future generations within the limits of global boundaries is the overarching goal of sustainability. There is now a much stronger call for integrated knowledge about the Earth and its ecosystems, as highlighted by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Earth: Environmental Sustainability will cover topics including, but not limited to, land degradation, agriculture and food security, air, soil and water pollution, biodiversity loss, conservation and management, fire modelling and effects on the ecosystems, cities and urbanisation, climate change impact, adaptation and mitigation, natural hazards, ecosystem services, ecosystem account, nature-based solutions, green infrastructure, health and environment, land degradation, environmental remediation, forestry, natural capital, natural resources management, policy, waste management, spatial analysis and modelling, water–energy–food nexus, education, environmental behaviour and all other aspects related to sustainability and sustainable development goals.

Regarding article types, EESUS will publish novel and original research, short communications, opinions, mini-reviews, highlights, and methods papers focused on different disciplines related to sustainability.

The journal aims to facilitate a cross-disciplinary dialogue around sustainability issues and narrow the gap between research and policymaking.

Subject areas examples:

  • Air, water and soil chemistry, pollution and their impacts on the environment and health;
  • Biodiversity loss, conservation and management;
  • Past and present climate impacts on environment and health;
  • Climate change impacts, mitigation and adaptation;
  • Biological and chemical wastewater treatment technologies and reuse;
  • Forest fires effects on the ecosystems;
  • Ecosystem services and ecosystem accounting;
  • Nature-based solutions;
  • Land degradation;
  • Environmental modelling and spatial analysis;
  • Ecotoxicology, risk assessment and one health approaches;
  • Wildlife, contaminants and climate influence;
  • Agriculture, forest management, urban development and land use changes impacts on the environment;
  • Ecosystems restoration;
  • Waste management and treatment;
  • Drinking water contaminants and health implications on exposome;
  • Hydrological modelling under climate change;
  • Micro and nano plastics, nanomaterials, antibiotic resistance genes and other emerging contaminants;
  • Green and Sustainable Methods: nanotechnology, sensors and low-cost approaches;
  • Marine, freshwater, and terrestrial ecology;
  • Proximal and remote sensing environmental assessment;
  • Environmental education and citizen science;
  • Critical reviews or highlight papers on current or emerging topics;

3. Outlook

We are preparing our first two issues for the last semester of this year. Most importantly, we are pleased to announce that all articles accepted for APC during the journal’s first two years will be waived. We expect the submitted articles to gain recognition and citations, influencing academic research and real-world applications across various fields. You can contact the editors-in-chief or the Editorial office anytime with any ideas you have for any article to be submitted.

Lastly, we are deeply grateful to the associate editors and editorial board members who have already accepted to be part of the EESUS community, as well as to a long list of contributors who have already agreed to submit their papers in the coming months. Thanks to all of them for joining us in launching EESUS.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.