Microplastics (MPs) are reactive particles whose size, morphology, and surface chemistry govern their mobility, persistence, and toxicity in aquatic ecosystems. However, existing monitoring and policy frameworks focus on quantitative analysis rather than mechanistic traits, which influences their abundance in the ecosystem. Compounding this issue, this review presents a properties-to-behavior framework that links physical (size, morphology, surface roughness), chemical (oxidation index, surface energy, zeta potential) and biological (biofilm colonization) properties to MP fate and ecotoxicological outcomes. A systematic literature synthesis of 930 peer-reviewed studies using PSALSAR methodology was conducted from 2000 to 2024. It identifies property-driven controls on transport, contaminant sorption and trophic transfer, and highlights methodological gaps that hinder comparability. Thus, in this review, we present, a conceptual reactivity index, using literature-derived values for standardized observation and targeted interventions based on composite morphological, electrochemical, and biological studies. The proposed index, therefore, provides a foundation for future empirical calibration. The methodological framework guides MP research beyond the conventional descriptive abundance measures, moving from abundance-oriented perception to property-based risk assessment and water management with a sustainability focus.
Chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology (CKDu) has become a growing public health concern in Sri Lanka and some parts of Mesoamerica over the past three decades. CKDu has disproportionately affected rural, poor agricultural communities in the dry zone. In the context of a lack of scientific consensus on the etiology, CKDu has become a contested disease where more than thirty hypotheses have been proposed to explain the causation of the disease. Among them, the polluted drinking water hypothesis has attracted by far the most attention, prompting widespread deployment of Reverse Osmosis (RO) filtration systems. While RO provision is framed as a preventive public health intervention, it has also contributed to the commodification of drinking water in rural communities.This study examines the viability of community-based rainwater harvesting as an alternative drinking water source to RO-filtered water in a CKDu-affected village in the dry zone of Sri Lanka. Viability is assessed across three dimensions: (1) physicochemical and microbiological water quality, (2) household-level water sufficiency, and (3) social acceptability. Using a mixed-method, citizen science–based approach, authors combined laboratory water testing, community-led water quality monitoring, semi-structured interviews (n = 15), focus group discussions (n = 2), and ethnographic observation.Laboratory analyses demonstrated that harvested rainwater met national potable water standards for physical and chemical parameters. Citizen science monitoring confirmed consistent water quality within permissible limits and phenomenological qualitative observations. These findings revealed high social acceptance of rainwater for drinking and cooking, reduced economic burden, and decreased gendered labour associated with accessing RO-filtered water. The paper argues that rainwater harvesting constitutes a technically safe, socially acceptable, and cost-effective alternative to RO-filtered water provision. Furthermore, the citizen science component facilitated cognitive justice by positioning community members as active producers of environmental health knowledge rather than passive recipients of technological solutions.
Urban flood adaptation partnerships are increasingly promoted across the Global South as inclusive and collaborative responses to climate risk. Yet their proliferation has often obscured a more uncomfortable reality that many partnerships perform participation without redistributing authority, recognise community knowledge without granting it epistemic weight, and invoke justice without institutionalising accountability. This paper argues that the persistent gap between justice discourse and adaptation practice arises because partnerships are too often treated as inherently progressive governance forms rather than as institutional arrangements whose justice capacity is conditional. To address this problem, the paper develops an integrated Adaptive Justice–Institutional Fit (AJI–Fit) Lens that brings together the normative demands of adaptive justice with the enabling conditions of institutional fit. The framework links five justice dimensions (power redistribution, epistemic justice, distributional equity, reflexive learning, and multi-directional accountability) to three institutional conditions: structural, relational, and cultural fit. The paper shows that transformative partnerships emerge only when justice claims are institutionally enabled, while tokenism, elite capture, and technocratic dominance signal distinct forms of institutional misfit. In advancing this argument, the paper reconceptualises partnerships as contested infrastructures of governance and offers a diagnostic framework for designing urban flood adaptation that is more accountable, inclusive, and transformative.
This article examines how fragmented and misaligned infrastructures in informal settlements produce enduring forms of water injustice. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Film Nagar Basti, Hyderabad, it develops the concept of out-of-sync infrastructure to describe how multiple systems (water, drainage, electricity, and waste) operate on disconnected temporal logics. These mismatches reflect deep-rooted patterns of uneven urban governance. As infrastructures operate in conflict or contradiction, residents are drawn into continuous adaptive management such as queuing for water at night, coping with sewage overflows, and improvising during power cuts and floods.The article foregrounds the gendered and embodied labour required to navigate these everyday breakdowns. Women, in particular, shoulder the burden of adjusting routines, protecting children from contaminated water, and absorbing the emotional and physical toll of infrastructural uncertainty. Water insecurity, in this context, is embedded within a wider ecology of neglect, territorial stigma, and piecemeal governance. Rather than attributing water injustice to scarcity or policy failure, the article argues that temporally misaligned infrastructures produce risk as a routine condition of urban life.
Water scarcity is intensifying in rainfed and semi-arid agricultural regions, where increasing water demand and climate variability threaten food production and rural livelihoods. In this context, decentralized water storage systems, particularly Rainwater Harvesting (RWH), have emerged as key strategies for agricultural water security. However, the current literature remains fragmented, prioritizing hydrological performance over agricultural, socioeconomic, and long-term system perspectives. This systematic review critically assesses the role of RWH systems in agricultural water security. The review follows the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA 2020) protocol to ensure transparency and reproducibility and applies the Methodi Ordinatio to rank studies. A total of 22 peer-reviewed articles from the Scopus, ScienceDirect, and SciELO databases were analyzed. The results indicate that RWH contribute to increased water availability, and increased agricultural productivity. The RWH systems allow for greater crop intensity and reduce vulnerability to intra-seasonal climate variability. Despite these benefits, significant gaps remain in the literature such as limited socioeconomic integration, a lack of participatory approaches, and an absence of long-term evaluations. However, only 9 studies explicitly evaluated livelihood outcomes, and 11 conducted a limited socioeconomic analysis. The results suggest that the contribution of RWH systems to water security cannot be fully understood solely through technical indicators. Integrated approaches combining hydrological, agronomic, and socioeconomic perspectives are necessary. This study proposes a research agenda focused on interdisciplinary methods, participatory frameworks, and long-term systemic analyses to strengthen agricultural resilience in the face of increasing water scarcity.
