LAUSR

finally been left for calmer and more serein times. Obviously, the war has changed this view but we must remains positive and optimistic for the future. We also need to thank all of you that have trusted us and have decided despite these long years to come and meet us and again share ideas and projects, also discovering together Italian foods and wines and possibly making new friends. This EGAH Special Issue contains 20 papers covering different topics related to mineral and thermal waters in various world regions. It gives how many scientists are interested in an extensive variety of aspects related to these special waters. Ten articles (Olea-Olea et al., 2022; Benderev et al., 2021; Bonotto, 2021; Corniello et al., 2021; Cuoco et al., 2021; Li Vigni et al., 2021; Meng et al., 2021; Rman et al., 2021; Sacchi et al., 2021; Tassi et al., 2020) concern the geochemical processes that determine the peculiar quality feature of mineral and thermal waters in different geological and hydrogeological environments. Four articles deal with the therapeutic properties and the health effects of mineral and thermal waters (Filimonova et al., 2022; Rufino et al., 2021; Scungio et al., 2021; Tuulik et al., 2021). Four articles address issues of management, sustainability, and the impact of climate change on these groundwater resources through analytical and numerical models (Bastiancich et al., 2021; Kicsiny et al., 2021; Torresan et al., 2021; Wang et al., 2021). Finally, two more articles examine energy aspects related to geothermal “Only” 2 years later, the MinWat2020, the third International Multidisciplinary Conference on Mineral and Thermal Waters, will be held in June 2022 in Caserta. The Conference co-sponsored by the IAH Commission on Mineral, Thermal Waters and Ferrarelle S.p.A. aims to stimulate interactions and exchanges between scientists and managers on these important groundwater resources widely used for therapeutic, balneological, water bottling, and energetic purposes. We also wish to highlight the energetic aspects, in such a critical period for the whole world, are particularly important from an ecological transition point of view. After 2 long years in which the world has undoubtedly changed, not sure for good, the surprise is that most probably for the first time, the EGAH Special Issue of the Conference will be presented directly at the meeting and not as usually occurs, sometime after. Evidently, all of us have done our best thinking only that MinWat2020, a scientific and social event, would have been held in Italy, and we were sure that the dark period(s) we have all known would have