4203ENG/7403ENG

WETLAND SYSTEMS IN ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

Assessment Item 2 Marking Scheme
Review the Effectiveness of Constructed Wetlands for the Treatment of either Municipal
Wastewater or Urban Stormwater
LITERATURE REVIEW (30%)

Name:Anjan Khanal
Type of Constructed Wetland: Municipal wastewater wetland
Scientific Content: Introduction/Background(6)
Scientific Content: Performance effectiveness in contaminant removal(10)
Scientific Content: strengths and weaknesses(4)
Conclusions/Recommendations/Summary tables(3)
Logical Sequence and Critical Review; Suitability of Case studies(3)
Adequacy of References i.e. Coverage of Literature(4)
TOTAL(30)
Marks will be lost for incorrect format and inadequate in-text referencing
Failure to acknowledge all materials and sources may result in zero marks

Review the Effectiveness of Constructed

Wetlands for the Treatment of
Municipal Wastewater

4203ENG/7403ENG
WETLAND SYSTEMS IN ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
Griffith University
Student ID: S2930724

1. Introduction:
Constructed wetlands are manmade wastewater treatment frameworks comprising of shallow
(generally less than 1 m deep) lakes or channels which have been planted with aquatic plants,
and which depend upon natural microbial, organic, physical and synthetic methods to treat
wastewater (Brix 1993). They usually have impervious clay or synthetic liners and built
structures to control the flow direction, liquid confinement time and water level. Depending upon
the kind of system, they could conceivably contain an inert permeable media for example,
gravel, rock or sand (Keddy 2010). Constructed wetlands have been utilized to treat an
assortment of wastewaters including urban overflow, Municipality, industrial, horticultural, storm
water drainage. However, the extent of this review is constrained to effectiveness of constructed
wetlands for the Treatment of Municipal Wastewater.
Keddy (2010), p. 2. States that wetland is "an ecosystem that arises when inundation by water
produces soils dominated by anaerobic processes, which, in turn, forces the biota, particularly
rooted plants, to adapt to flooding."Constructed wetlands are biological systems that consolidate
physical, chemical, and organic methodologies in a designed and managed framework. Fruitful
construction and operation of a biological framework for wastewater treatment requires an
essential information and understanding of the components and the interrelationships that form
the system. The treatment methods of constructed wetlands are based on ecological systems
same as in natural wetlands. Whereas, a primary difference between constructed wetlands and
common wetlands is the level of control over natural processes. Such as, a constructed wetland
works with a generally stable stream of water through the system, conversely to the variable
water offset of natural wetlands (Vymazal 2008). As a result, wetland biology in constructed
wetlands is influenced by constant flooding and concentrations of total suspended solids (TSS),
biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), also other wastewater constituents at reliably higher levels
than would overall happen in natural wetlands( Kadlec 1996).
Wetlands assume various roles in the environment, primarily water purification, surge control,
and shoreline stability. Wetlands are likewise viewed as the most biologically diverse system of
all biological communities, serving as home to an extensive variety of flora and fauna (Tam
1996).The most paramount component creating wetlands is flooding. The time of flooding
figures out if the wetland has aquatic, marsh or swamp vegetation.(Prescott et.al 1990 ).The
function of natural wetland system is not to figure out how to manage wastewater but their high
potential for the separating and the treatment of toxins has been perceived by environmental
engineers, that work in the zone of wastewater treatment. These constructed wetland systems are
exceedingly controlled environments that plan to specialize the occurrence of soil, vegetation,
and microorganisms in natural wetlands to support in treating wastewater effulent. Constructed
wetlands give the capability to try different things with flow regimes, micro-biotic composition,
and flora so as to create the most effective treatment process (Brix 1993) .The most imperative
elements of artificial wetlands are the water flow processes which are joined with plant growth.
Built wetland systems can be surface flow frameworks with just, free-floating macrophytes,
floating-leaved macrophytes, and submerged macrophytes. However, typical free water surface
systems are typically developed with emergent macrophytes (Vymazal 2008). Constructed

wetlands can be adjusted to treat crude sewage, municipality waste, storm waters, mining waste,
and modern and agricultural waste effluents.
Nitrogen is a toxin of fundamental concern in wastewater treatment because of it cause
eutrofication which has an impact on disintegrated oxygen levels of receiving water and has the
capability of creating toxicity in the aquatic creatures relying upon its structure. In municipal
wastewater the nitrogen can be found in natural forms like urea, amino acids, uric acid and
pyrimidines) and inorganic structure (ammonium Nh4, free ammonia Nh3, nitrite N02, nitrate
N03, nitrous oxide N2O, dissolved nitrogen gas (N2), nitric oxide NO2) (Saeed & Sun 2012).
Moreover, large amounts of nitrates in drinking water can result harming in blood and
hypertension in children and babies and additionally gastric ulcers in grown-ups and abnormality
in approaching infants. Occasionally, in normal the Total Nitrogen (TN) content in sewage is 60
to 70 mg/L when the ordinary adequate quality is 5 -15 mg/L (Greenway 2004). This implies that
the utilized treatment need to expel from 45 mg/L to 65mg/L of the nitrogen substance relying
upon the qualities of the wastewater and the end utilization.
The design of constructed wetlands can be separated in two primary types: Free water Surface
flow (FWS) and Subsurface flow system (SSF). The FWS wetlands are like regular wetlands.
They are made out of shallow water (20-50 cm), vegetated channels, open water lakes (50-22 m
of depth) and immerse soil substrate. This shallow water has a tendency to stimulate aerobic
conditions while the deeper water promotes the anaerobic environment (Saedd & Sun 2012;
Greenway 2004). On the other hand, SSF wetlands utilizes as the fundamental media gravel to
fortify the development of plants. They are characterized in two separate outlines: Vertical Flow
(VF) and Horizontal Flow (HF). Depending upon the configuration the water move through the
substrate where interface with microorganisms that permit pollution evacuation. The HF is form
by rock, soil or sand media and they are intended to treat the wastewater underneath the surface
where filtration and sorption are amplified by the roots and nutrients are captured by plants, and
organisms.
2. Performance Effectiveness in Contaminant (Nitrogen )Removal:
The natural and chemical methodology of nitrification/denitrification in the nitrogen cycle
changes the majority of nitrogen going to wetlands, bringing somewhere around 70% and 90% to
be removed (Johnston 1991). In aerobic substrates, organic nitrogen may mineralize to
ammonium, which plants and organisms can use, adsorb to adversely charged particles (e.g.,
clay), or diffuse to the surface. As ammonia diffuses to the surface, the bacteria named
Nitrosomonas can oxidize it to nitrite. The microscopic organisms Nitrobacter oxidizes nitrite to
nitrate. This methodology is called nitrification. Plants or microorganisms can acclimatize
nitrate, or anaerobic microbes may diminish nitrate (denitrification) to vaporous nitrogen (N2)
when nitrate diffuses into anoxic (oxygen exhausted) water. The vaporous nitrogen volatilizes
and the nitrogen is disposed of as a water pollutant. Therefore, the alternating reduced and
oxidized states of wetlands complete needs of the nitrogen cycle and amplify denitrification rates
(Lee et.al 2009).

In the biosphere, nitrogen is constantly changed between organic,soluble inorganic and vaporous
nitrogen structures. The nitrogen cycle is extremely unpredictable, and it is difficult to control
even the most fundamental transformations within a wetland. The amount of nitrogen that is
removed, i.e. changed or expelled from the water phase , in a wetland and which nitrogen
processes or nitrogen fluxes that are the most critical rely on upon water science and other
wetland conditions, for example, vegetation, climate, water profundity and water flow.
Ammonification is the microbial mineralisation of organic nitrogen to ammonium. This
procedure can be created by heterotrophic microorganisms and fungi. Ammonium is then
changed to nitrate by the bacterial procedure nitrification and nitrate or nitrite is at last decreased
to vaporous products, nitrous gas and dinitrogen gas, through the bacterial methodology
denitrification. Nitrate can likewise be changed to ammonium during low redox conditions
(Prescott et al. 1990; Vymazal 2001). Nitrogen fixation is a bacterial methodology, which
exchanges dinitrogen gas to ammonium. Moreover, nitrogen obsession is normally not critical in
nitrogen rich waters, for example, artificial wetlands for water treatment (Kadlec and Knight
1996). Nitrogen assimilation is the change of inorganic nitrogen to natural nitrogen in cells and
tissue. Plant assimilation represents a little percent of the aggregate nitrogen removal when the
nitrogen level is high (Tanner et al. 1995), which is the situation in most free water surface
treatment wetlands (Kadlec and Knight 1996). Further, plant uptake does not assume an essential
part in the yearly nitrogen evacuation over the long haul as the nitrogen acclimatized by
vegetation normally is discharged during deterioration of litter (Johnston 1991). On the other
hand, plant uptake can help the regular dynamic of nitrogen evacuation and record for a critical
piece of the wetland nitrogen evacuation during the development period with rapid nitrogen
uptake.

Case studies:
In the case study 1, Oxygen and carbon source supply are normally deficient in subsurface flow
constructed wetlands. Concurrent removal of natural contaminations and nitrogen in five batch
operated vertical flow constructed wetlands under diverse working conditions was researched
(Fan et.al 2013). Alternate aerobic and anaerobic regions were created well with discontinuous
air circulation. Four-month experiments demonstrated that the wetland-connected discontinuous
air circulation consolidated with step feeding system incredibly enhanced the removal of
organics, ammonium nitrogen (NH4N), and Total nitrogen (TN) all the while, which were 97,
96, and 82 %, respectively(Fan et.al 2013). The impact of plants was conformed in this study,
and the monitoring data demonstrated that the plants could develop typically. Irregular aeration
and step feeding had no clear impact on the development of wetland plants in this study.
In the case study 2, The targets of this study are to analyze the execution of recently developed
baffled and traditional horizontal subsurface flow (HSF) constructed wetlands in the removal of
nitrogen at the hydraulic retention times (HRT) of 2, 3 and 5 days and to assess the capability of
rice husk as wetland media for wastewater treatment (Tee et.al 2012). The results demonstrate

that the planted baffled unit accomplished 74%, 84% and 99% ammonia nitrogen (NH super(+)
sub(4)-N) removal versus 55%, 70% and 96% for the conventional unit at HRT of 2, 3 and 5
days, separately(Tee et.al 2012). The better execution of the baffled unit was clarified by the
more extended pathway because of the up-flow and down-flow conditions successively,
permitting more contact of the wastewater with the rhizomes and micro-aerobic zones. Near
compete total oxidized nitrogen was seen because of the utilization of rice husk as wetland media
which gave the Compound oxygen interest (COD) as the electron donor in the denitrification
process (Tee et.al 2012).
This case study 3 explored natural matter and nitrogen decrease and change in components inside
a field-scale hybrid natural purification system. The system incorporate an oxidation lake, two
serial surface-flow wetlands with a cascade in between, and a subsurface-flow wetland receiving
secondary treated dormitory sewage(Yeh, et.al 2010). The normal biochemical oxygen demand
(BOD) and compound oxygen demand (COD) evacuation was 81% and 48%, respectively (Yeh,
et.al 2010). Microbial deduction was the essential procedure helping to organic reduction. Total
Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN) and ammonium was decreased from 7.1 to 3.9 and 5.58 to 3.25 mg/L,
respectively, inside the surface-flow wetlands (Yeh, et.al 2010). The results demonstrated that
nitrification happened within the aerobic compartments. The nitrate levels kept on decreaing
from 1.26 to 1.07 mg/L, demonstrating nitrate reduction occurred in the surface-flow wetland.
Total nitrogen diminished from 8.61 to 5.12 mg/L, proportionate to a 41% decrease, inside the
surface-flow wetlands. Results uncovered that denitrification may simultaneously happen in the
compartment of surface-flow wetland.Total nitrogen kept on decreaing from 5.12 to 3.99 mg/L
inside the anoxic subsurface-flow wetlands through denitrification transformation (Yeh, et.al
2010). The nitrogen reduction was 65%. The decrease of total nitrogen may occur within the
sediment of surface flow and the subsurface-flow wetland where denitrification occurred. The
microbial identification result also likewise demonstrated that nitrification/denitrification may
happen simultaneously within the sediments of surface-flow wetlands. The after effects of this
study demonstrate that hydrid wetland sytems are a feasible choice for natural matter and
nitrogen transformation and removal in tropical areas where tertiary wastewater systems are
excessively unreasonable or not able to operate. Treated water from these frameworks can
conform to local surface water criteria rendering reuse of water and groundwater recharge (Yeh,
et.al 2010).
The research depicts examinations which have showed the remarkable utility of CW for the
removal of nitrate from municipal wastewater effluents at moderately high application rates. This
test was done in 14 different small wetlands containing emergent vegetation growing in gravel
( Gersberg 1983). Without any addition of carbon, total nitrogen removal percentage was low (
25%) in both vegetated and unvegetated beds. At the point when methanol was added to
supplement the carbon supply and stimulate bacterial denitrification, the evacuation proficiency
was to a high degree of (95% removal of total nitrogen at a wastewater application rate of 16.8
cm day1) (Gersberg 1983). Since methanol is a generally expensive form of carbon, the
research was utilizing plant biomass, mulched and applied to the surface of marsh beds, as a
substitute source of carbon. At a wastewater application rate of 8.4 cm day1, the mean total

nitrogen evacuation effectiveness for the mulch-amended bed was 86% (Gersberg 1983). At the
point when the application rate was higher (16.8 cm day1) the mean total nitrogen removal
percentage was bring down to 60% in the mulch-amended beds (Gersberg 1983).

Case study

Nitrogen Removal

1. Subsurface flow constructed wetlands: organics, ammonium nitrogen (NH4N), and Total
nitrogen (TN) which were 97, 96, and 82 % (Fan et.al 2013).
2. Horizontal subsurface flow (HSF) constructed wetlands: 99% ammonia nitrogen (Tee et.al
2012).
3. Surface flow wetland: Nitrogen reduction was 65%.( Yeh, et.al 2010)

4. Subsurface flow constructed wetlands: 95% Nitrogen removal (Gersberg 1983).

3. Strengths and Weaknesses:

At the past, individuals thought that the wetlands were useless, and they were emptied for the
development. Nowadays we have understood that wetlands play a significant and vital part in the
world's ecosystem thus, people have started to make the artificial wetlands. We are discussing
about the numerous strengths of constructed wetlands. When we are cleaning the dishes or
washing our auto, we presumably use a sponge to soak up the water. Consider wetlands a big
sponge, gradually absorbing water and discharging it when necessary (US EPA). The sponge like
nature of wetlands permits them to return water to the ground during the dry periods. Wetlands
additionally ease off water's momentum as it travels to the sea or the river, and less energy means
less soil erosion. Artificial wetlands are a moderately simple innovation, with limited
maintenance need. Thus they are economic for municipal waste water treatment. They can attain
great BOD/COD reduction and can likewise remove pathogens productively (Ramsar).
Engineered constructed wetlands are tolerant to fluctuations in both water powered and
contaminant load, which make them a perfect solution where variable storm water quantity or
municipal wastewater quality may be a problem. The system can also give a mixture of indirect
profits for example, natural life, habitat, and place for recreational purposes. The wetland zones
can likewise be utilized for harvesting with immediate financial quality, for example, biomass for
energy or horticultural purposes.

Strengths:

Wetlands directly enhance different environments.

Disintegration Control
Numerous creatures that live in different spaces use wetlands for migration or habitat.
Wetlands additionally clean the water by separating out sedimentation, deteriorating
vegetative matter and changing over chemicals into useable form.
The capacity of wetlands to reuse supplements makes them discriminating in the
ecosystem of earth.
Surge Control
Fisheries
Plants and photosynthetic micro-living beings evacuate dissolvable inorganic
supplements (ammonium, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate)
Maintain the ph value
For the denitrification carbon source is provided
Inexpensive to construct rather than any other wastewater treatment plant
Can manage both small and huge amount of water
Weakness:
May require larger construction area
May impose the odour of waste sewage if it is constructed in a unplanned way and ant
high temperature
Home for mosquitos.
large amounts of nitrates in drinking water can result harming in blood and hypertension
in children and babies
The nitrogen cycle is extremely unpredictable, and it is difficult to control even the most
fundamental transformations within a wetland.
Higher technical needs,short flow distances and poor denitrification are the demerits of
vertical flow wetlands.
Wastages must be treated in advance physicochemical methods prior to discharge into
the vertical flow wetlands
More land is utilized by the hybrid artificial wetlands.

4. Conclusion:
In conclusion, looking at all the case studies mentioned above there are many ways
to remove nitrogen in a constructed wetland and most of them are successful. The
wetlands can be utilized within a supportable way, by characterizing a clear design
objective for the wetland framework to attain its definitive objective and close
observing to access the performance of the wetlands and to guarantee all goals are
satisfied. Therefore, the choices are boundless. The treatment methods of constructed

wetlands are based on environmental systems same as in natural wetlands. Whereas, a primary
difference between constructed wetlands and natural wetlands is the level of control over natural

processes for example, a constructed wetland works with a generally stable stream of water
through the system, conversely to the variable water offset of natural wetlands.

(Sinn-Chye, 2008).
The effectiveness of constructed wetlands in
treating the wastewater and the design of
the plants has been discussed in detail in
this paper. Also, some case studies are
presented which shows the real use and
benefit of these systems. On one side
constructed wetlands provide us with
facilities that are cheap in nature and provide
opportunities for enhancing wildlife habitats,
researches, recreation activities and
pollution removal. But on the other hand they
also emit a harmful greenhouse gas that
harms the nature and increase global
warming. Many of the drawbacks and
advantages of the constructed wetland have
been already discussed in this paper;
however some of the highlighted features for
them can be seen in the table 1 ahead:
Table 1: Table demonstrating key strengths and weaknesses of constructed wetlands

Strengths

Weaknesses
1. Removes contamination from
wastewaters.
1. Do not remove phosphorus contamination
with effectiveness.
2. Provide habitat to large species of flora
and fauna.
2. Become obsolete in short time as
compared to conventional wetlands and then
become a toxic site for nature.
3. Cost effective method of wastewater
treatment by using natural resources.
3. Emit harmful greenhouse gases especially
nitrous oxide which harms the nature.
Constructed wetlands are gradually making
its presence in the treatment of municipal
sewage, storm water etc. Also there private
application is on rise especially in community
systems having 10 to 200 homes. Thus it is

becoming the trend of future with reduced

cost of treating wastewaters (Heathcote, I.,
n.d.).
Find out more from UK Essays here: http://www.ukessays.com/essays/environmentalsciences/constructed-wetlands-treatment-of-municipal-wastewater-environmental-sciencesessay.php#ixzz3GNQCWiy6

References

Brix, H 1993,
Wastewater treatment in constructed wetlands: system design, removal processes, and treatment
performance in AG Moshiri (ed), Constructed Wetlands for Water Quality Improvement, CRC Press,

Boca Raton, Florida

Du, X., Wang, S. & Xu, Z. 2009,
"Simultaneous nitrification and denitrification in non-planted pilot-scale modified vertical flow
constructed wetland systemA paper submitted to the Journal of Environmental Engineering and
Science", Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, vol. 36, no. 5, pp. 850-858.

Durn-de-Baza, C., Guido-Zrate, A., Huanosta, T., Padrn-Lpez, R.M. & Rodrguez-Monroy, J. 2008,
Artificial wetlands performance: nitrogen removal", Water science and technology : a
journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research, vol. 58, no. 7, pp. 1357-1360.

Fan, J., Liang, S., Zhang, B. & Zhang, J. 2013,

"Enhanced organics and nitrogen removal in batch-operated vertical flow constructed wetlands by
combination of intermittent aeration and step feeding strategy", Environmental science and pollution
research international, vol. 20, no. 4, pp. 2448-2455.

Gersberg, R.M., Elkins, B.V. & Goldman, C.R. 1983,

"Nitrogen removal in artificial wetlands", Water research, vol. 17, no. 9, pp. 1009-1014.
Greenway, M 2004.
Constructed Wetlands for Water Pollution Control-Processes, Parameters and Performance,
Developments of Chemical Engineering and Mineral Process, Vol 12, No. 5/6; pp1-14.

Johnston CA (1991)
Sediment and nutrient retention by freshwater wetlands: Effects on surface water quality. Critical
Reviews in Environmental Control 21:491-565

Kadlec RH, Knight RL (1996)

Treatment wetlands. Lewis, Boca Raton, Florida

Keddy, P.A. 2010.

Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press,

Cambridge, UK. 497 pp.

Lee, C., Fletcher, T.D. & Sun, G. 2009,
"Nitrogen removal in constructed wetland systems", Engineering in Life Sciences, vol. 9, no. 1,
pp. 11-22.

Prescott LM, Harley JP, Klein DA (1990)

Microbiology, second edn.Wm. C. Brown Communications, Inc., Dubuque, IA

Ramsar, http://ramsar.org/

Saeed, T & Sun, G 2012,

A review on nitrogen and organics removal mechanisms in subsurface flow constructed wetlands:
Dependency on environmental parameters, operating conditions and supporting media, Journal of
Environmental Management, vol. 112, pp. 429-448.

Tam, N. F. Y., & Wong, Y. S. (1996).

Retention of wastewater-borne nitrogen and phosphorus in mangrove soils. Environmental

Technology, 17(8), 851-859.

Tanner CC, Clayton JS, Upsdell MP (1995)
Effect of loading rate and planting on treatment of dairy farm wastewaters in constructed
wetlands - II. Removal of nitrogen and phosphorus. Wat. Res.29:27-34

Tee, H., Lim, P., Seng, C. & Nawi, M.M. 2012,

"Newly developed baffled subsurface-flow constructed wetland for the enhancement of nitrogen
removal", Bioresource technology, vol. 104, pp. 235-242.

US EPA,
HTTP://water.epa.gov/type/wetlands/outreach/upload/EconomicBenefits.pdf

Vymazal, J & Krpfleova, L 2008,

Wastewater treatment in constructed wetlands with horizontal sub-surface flow, Environmental
Pollution, vol. 14

Yeh, T.Y., Pan, C.T., Ke, T.Y. & Kuo, T.W. 2010,

"Organic Matter and Nitrogen Removal within Field-Scale Constructed Wetlands: Reduction
Performance and Microbial Identification Studies", Water Environment Research, vol. 82, no. 1, pp. 27-33.