Sustainable Drainage in Agricultural Landscapes

A special issue of Annals of Agri-bio Research (ISSN 2982-3374).

Submission Deadline：1 October 2026

Guest Editor

Department of Civil Engineering Science, School of Civil Engineering, and the Built Environment, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of Johannesburg, Kingsway Campus, PO Box 524, Aukland Park 2006, Johannesburg, South Africa

Special Issue Information

Drainage ditch maintenance, management and modelling is a controverse topic between drainage engineers and ecologists. The importance of flood control to maintain productive agricultural fields and grasslands for farmers is often contrasted with the need to enhance biodiversity and water quality, which benefits the environment and general public. Recent findings indicate that ecosystem disservices such as greenhouse gas and nutrient release from ditches in peatlands should be counteracted by rewetting. Paludiculture offers farmers an alternative income, if their field cannot be used cost-effectively for agricultural purposes anymore.

Research implies that a high hydraulic retention time should lead to more ammonium removal from ditches. A combination of different maintenance techniques results in high spatial and temporal vegetation variability. Frequent and destructive ditch maintenance such as harsh dredging often leads to a reduction in biodiversity and nitrogen removal.

This special issue should encourage engineers to softly maintain ditches supporting environment health and delivering a positive contribution to ecosystem services. To support drainage engineers in the agri-bio field, original research articles, technical papers and critical reviews on sustainable drainage in agricultural landscapes are invited to this special issue.

Keywords: best management practice; ditch system modelling; dredging to remove sediment; ecosystem services; nutrient control

Manuscript Submission Information

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