Research Questions → Analytical Briefs → Conference Discussion → Post-Conference Book
This page presents a structured catalogue of open research questions developed for the conference War, Soil, and Freshwater Systems. The catalogue identifies knowledge gaps, unresolved scientific problems, methodological uncertainties, and areas where further expert discussion is needed.
These questions are not intended to provide final answers. Instead, they form a public research framework for the conference, the pre-conference analytical briefs, accepted presentations, thematic sessions, and the post-conference book.
Each question is linked, where applicable, to relevant publications, analytical briefs, conference contributions, or future book chapters. The catalogue will be updated as new materials are accepted and reviewed.
Methodology, Modelling, and Uncertainty
What science-based protocols are needed to assess, monitor, remediate, and restore war-affected soils and associated freshwater systems in order to protect food security, ecosystem functions, and human health?Lal, Rattan. 2026. “Soil Health and War”. Pollution and Diseases, May. https://doi.org/10.66659/74xm7p81.
How can we recognize the long-term environmental and health consequences of engineered freshwater systems before economic infrastructure becomes a persistent contamination pathway?Kenneth Ray Olson “Engineering Transformations of New York Canal System and Long-Term Environmental and Public Health Implications”. Pollution and Diseases, May. https://doi.org/10.66659/ywg2pw58
How can scientific systems prevent politically or institutionally inconvenient hypotheses from being dismissed before they are properly tested under the same evidentiary standards as dominant explanations?Gibbs Andrew, Dmitry Nikolaenko. Competing Hypotheses and Scientific Non-Recognition: Investigating the Hector’s and Māui Dolphin Decline in the Context of Wartime Chemical Legacies https://pollution-diseases-ojs.org/index.php/pd/article/view/29
How can science develop a coherent and testable account of the morphology and morphogenesis of military contamination from fragmented case evidence without reducing this evolving natural–anthropogenic process to inherited disciplinary categories or static models?Nikolaenko, Dmitry. 2026. “From Individual Events to the Morphology of Military Contamination: An Epistemological Study of Form, Process, and Morphogenesis. ”. Pollution and Diseases, June, 55 pages. https://doi.org/10.66659/resz8h58.
War and Soil Systems
How should environmental science, soil science, and post-conflict assessment frameworks recognize and monitor new forms of war-related pollution generated by contemporary drone technologies, particularly fiber-optic drone tether debris and its possible transformation into war-derived polymer microfibers?Nikolaenko, Dmitry. 2026. “A New Type of War-Related Pollution: Fiber-Optic Drone Tether Debris and War-Derived Polymer Microfibers”. Pollution and Diseases, May. https://doi.org/10.66659/rp314s66
War and Freshwater Systems

War and Land-Use Systems

War and Health
How should scientific, community, and policy frameworks evaluate possible long-term and intergenerational consequences of historical phenoxy-herbicide exposure when measurements are incomplete, outcomes are rare, and co-contaminants may have been overlooked?Gibbs, Andrew. 2026. “Beyond the TCDD Lens in Paritutu New Plymouth, New Zealand: Invisible Phenoxy-Herbicide Co-Contaminants, Visible Developmental Signals, and Decision-Making under Incomplete Evidence”. Pollution and Diseases, May. https://doi.org/10.66659/ar7fqk65.
How should scientific and institutional frameworks evaluate potential war-related herbicide exposure and delayed health harm when administrative distinctions between “tactical” and “commercial” herbicides obscure toxicological continuities and exposure pathways, and the surviving evidence is fragmented but convergent?Tornoe, Donna. 2026. “The Tactical–Commercial Distinction: 2,4,5-T, TCDD, and the Recognition of War-Related Health Harm in the Panama Canal Zone”. Pollution and Diseases, June. https://doi.org/10.66659/dgzstm97