The remediation of contaminated sites necessitates robust and objective sustainability assessment frameworks to guide decision-making, yet prevailing methods often rely on qualitative or semi-quantitative metrics susceptible to subjectivity. This study establishes a comprehensive, fully quantitative evaluation system integrating environmental, economic, and social dimensions, comprising 13 objective indicators derived from Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), economic documentation, and publicly accessible social data—including nighttime light intensity, Point of Interest (POI) data, and social media sentiment analysis. The system employs the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) for weight assignment, ensuring methodological rigor and expert consensus. Validated through three case studies of remediated contaminated sites in Shandong Province, China, the framework reveals distinct sustainability profiles: Site 1 achieved the highest composite score (0.1030), demonstrating balanced performance across all dimensions, whereas Sites 2 and 3 yielded negative scores (−0.2490 and −0.1069, respectively), reflecting trade-offs between remediation efficiency, secondary environmental impacts, and socio-economic outcomes. The key findings underscore the dominance of environmental health indicators—notably Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs)—in overall weighting and highlight the critical influence of remediation technology selection on lifecycle impacts. The study validates the utility of a quantitative, multi-criteria approach in identifying optimal remediation strategies, facilitating cross-project comparability, and supporting the transition from cost-centric remediation toward value-driven, sustainable redevelopment.

Groundwater is the main source of drinking, irrigation, and ecological water in the Baiyangdian Lake Basin (BLB), but growing human activity has raised concerns about its quality. This study assesses major ion geochemistry and multi-receptor environmental risks across the BLB using 1113 groundwater samples (983 shallow, 130 deep). Risks to drinking water supply, agricultural irrigation, and wetland health are evaluated within a single framework, and Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) is used for quantitative source apportionment. Shallow groundwater shows markedly higher dissolved solids and nitrate than deep groundwater, with 20.7% of shallow samples exceeding the WHO nitrate guideline. Multi-receptor assessment finds that 41.2% of shallow wells pose risk to at least one endpoint and 12.5% to two or more simultaneously. PMF identifies three sources—geogenic weathering, agricultural nitrate, and wastewater discharge—with nitrate as the largest single contributor to water quality impairment. The findings point to an urgent need for targeted agricultural non-point source control and provide a basis for nested, multi-scale groundwater management in the BLB and similar intensively exploited alluvial aquifers.

Emerging contaminants in groundwater pose growing challenges because chemical, genetic, and particulate pollutants are measured and interpreted through fundamentally different evidence chains. This critical review compares per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), and microplastics across sources, subsurface behavior, monitoring, source apportionment, exposure and risk-related interpretation, and management. Cross-class synthesis highlights that the dominant evidence bottleneck shifts along the assessment chain: for PFASs, uncertainty is concentrated mainly after chemical quantification, where precursors, unknown organofluorine, mixtures, and benchmark definitions limit interpretation; for ARGs, the critical gap lies between gene detection or abundance and transmission relevance, requiring host, mobile genetic element, mobility, and exposure evidence; and for microplastics, uncertainty begins at the measurement-definition stage because sampling volume, particle-size cutoff, and particle-number versus mass reporting determine the apparent exposure metric. Consequently, harmonization should be stage-specific rather than uniform across contaminant classes. The review distinguishes directly comparable evidence from evidence constrained by analytical boundaries and separates quantitative risk assessment from risk screening, hazard characterization, exposure characterization, and relative prioritization. A cross-class decision framework links data quality, source evidence, hydrogeological vulnerability, receptor exposure, uncertainty, and management response. The practical value of integration therefore lies not in ranking contaminant classes on a common risk scale, but in identifying the limiting evidence link that must be resolved before a defensible groundwater-management decision can be made.

Arsenic (As) contamination in paddy soils poses a persistent threat to food safety and human health through rice consumption. The environmental fate of As in flooded paddy soils is governed by complex physicochemical and microbially transformations, yet the role of biologically active interfaces remains poorly understood. Periphyton, a ubiquitous and metabolically active biofilm at the paddy soil–water interface, may play a critical role in regulating As speciation and behavior. Herein, we integrated biofilm development, microscopic and elemental characterization, bacterial community profiling, and As-transforming functional gene analysis to elucidate the role of periphyton in As transformation potential. Results showed that periphyton formed a heterogeneous three-dimensional matrix composed of microbial aggregates, extracellular matrix-like materials, and mineral particles. Periphyton-associated As was 2.37 mg kg⁻¹ in the irradiated-soil sample and 1.16 mg kg⁻¹ in the natural-soil sample, whereas dissolved As in the overlying water was 2.06 and 5.85 μg L⁻¹, respectively. The natural-soil composite showed higher bacterial richness and diversity indices than the irradiated-soil composite, with 2615 versus 1124 observed ASVs and Shannon indices of 8.63 versus 7.22. Proteobacteria and Cyanobacteria dominated both communities. The coexistence of aioA, arrA, arsC, and arsM indicated the potential for concurrent As(III) oxidation, As(V) reduction, detoxification, and methylation. In the natural-soil composite, aioA, arrA, and arsM reached 1.84 × 10⁶, 1.99 × 10⁶, and 2.63 × 10⁶ copies g⁻¹ sample, respectively. These values were 2.4-, 9.8-, and 7.2-fold higher than those in the irradiated-soil composite, whereas arsC remained relatively stable. These findings indicate that periphyton provides a structured microbial interface with the genetic potential for multiple As transformation pathways. We propose that paddy periphyton represents a structurally and microbiologically complex interface linking microbial assembly with As-transforming functional potential.