Waterborne pathogens in a changing climate: wastewater based epidemiology, one health and AI driven surveillance systems

Climate change is increasingly influencing the dynamics of waterborne pathogens by modifying hydrological regimes, water temperatures, and the frequency and intensity of extreme events such as floods and droughts. These shifts affect pathogen survival, mobility, and human exposure pathways, creating growing challenges for public health, particularly in water-stressed and rapidly urbanizing regions. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has emerged as an effective population-level surveillance approach, enabling early detection of infectious agents through wastewater monitoring. Implemented within a One Health framework, WBE has the potential to link human, animal, and environmental health, providing a global understanding of pathogen circulation across interconnected compartments. In parallel, recent advances in artificial intelligence and deep learning offer new opportunities to enhance the analysis of complex surveillance data, improve outbreak prediction, and strengthen early warning systems, thereby supporting climate-resilient infectious disease surveillance.The growing impacts of climate change on water systems are increasing the complexity and uncertainty of risks associated with waterborne pathogens, while traditional monitoring and tracking of pathogens in water systems remain limited and uncoordinated. Moreover, these conventional approaches often fail to provide timely predictive insights on early warnings, particularly in arid regions, and in settings characterized by water scarcity, wastewater reuse, and in developing public health systems. This Research Topic aims to tackle these challenges by promoting the development of holistic surveillance frameworks that combine wastewater epidemiology, One Health approaches, and artificial intelligence-driven analytic models. Through a combination of research from various specialties, the Research Topic aims to foster new research ideas in pathogen identification, predictive models, and risk analysis in the current climate change scenario. Such research contributions are expected to support the design of early warning systems and evidence-based decision-making in public health and water resource management, ultimately strengthening climate-resilient strategies for the prevention of waterborne infectious diseases.The Research Topic focuses on the application of interdisciplinary methodologies in the surveillance and control of waterborne pathogens in relation to climate change issues; integrating wastewater-based epidemiology, One Health approaches, and AI driven systems. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: o the monitoring of viral, bacterial, and parasitic pathogens in wastewater and related environments; the role of climate factors on pathogen fate, transport, and exposure;o One Health approaches that link human, animal, and environmental health through water systems.o Contributions addressing the use of artificial intelligence and deep learning for the prediction of pathogens, the use of early warning systems, along with the integration of data, are encouraged.o Additional topics include antimicrobial resistance surveillance and risk assessment associated with wastewater reuse in agricultural and urban settings.The journal invites Original Research, Systematic Review, Methods, Review, Hypothesis and Theory, Mini Review, Perspective, Brief Research Report, General Commentary and Opinion manuscripts proposing innovative, scalable, and climate-resilient approaches to disease surveillance. Topic editors: PANAGIOTIS KARANIS, Layla BEN AYED, Warish Ahmed, Ynes Ortega Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/77654/waterborne-pathogens-in-a-changing-climate-wastewater-based-epidemiology-one-health-and-ai-driven-surveillance-systems