Conservation and improvements in water resource management: a global challenge

•We present eleven papers dealing with a responsible water resource management.•New clean-up methods for produced water and groundwater remediation are proposed.•New research opportunities concerning environmental decontamination are highlighted.•Innovative techniques for multiobjective optimization are proposed.•Innovative algorithmic tools for water and energy saving in industry are validated.

This Special Volume of the Journal of Cleaner Production focuses on “water Efficient Processes”. It highlights the issues of a global challenge to use water resources more efficiently and more effectively in various fields of human activity. For the process industry the new paradigm of profitable cleaner production means the adoption of complex strategies that are build upon the most advanced developments in several areas of science and technology: chemistry, physics, engineering, ecology and economics, which can and do provide essential contributions to better and cleaner production processes. Because of the sheer size of the problems involved, some issues of special relevance call for intensified efforts. The most significant topics are dealt with eleven contributors from ten countries in Europe, Asia and South America. In the first part of this paper, selected themes concerning the most pressing environmental challenges are reviewed, with particular attention to environmental remediation, pollution control and water decontamination. The second part, where the selected papers are presented and discussed, within the spirit of the making improvements in water resource management. Several novel technical solutions in terms of materials, processes and software are proposed and designed to achieve pollution prevention orientated methodologies with beneficial real-world applications.