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Environmental and Economic Approach to Assess a Horizontal Sub-Surface Flow Wetland in Developing Area

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Abstract

Many urbanized areas in tropical climate regions are coping with water contamination due to inadequate sewage collection, particularly in communities that inhabit marginal land of rapid-growth. Relying on large-scale Waste-Water Treatment Plants -WWTPs and implementation of traditional sewage collection infrastructures have proven limited success to cope with the mentioned problem. Alternatives based on Nature-based Solutions - NbS, have the potential to deliver des-centralized treatment as well as additional socio-environmental benefits for the improvement of urban poor conditions. This research focused on modelling cost-efficiency and environmental performance of Nb-S implemented in fast-growing urban areas of the developing countries. A Horizontal Sub-Surface Flow Constructed Wetland - HSSF-CW is proposed to perform as complementary cost-effective decentralized treatment of local sewage. P-K-C* model is applied as sizing approach of the system for a 60% minimum removal of Biological Oxygen Demand - BOD in the influent. Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) has been used to analyse the feasibility of the CW proposal with environmental performance of CW modelled through shadow prices methodology. Shadow prices of contaminants, i.e. phosphorus, nitrogen and BOD, act as a proxy of environmental benefit in monetary units, allowing to include the environmental performance of CW into CBA. This new method combines both P-K-C* sizing approach and environmental performance through shadow prices to enhance best allocation of resources for water treatment.

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Authors do not have permission to share the database used in this work.

Notes

  1. Several programs have been developed to cope with the water contamination in São Paulo, such as the Tietê Project, which efforts and resources have been focused on expanding the sewage collection network and implementing WWTPs. This program has been rated as the most expensive of this kind approved in the Latin-American context (Stepping 2016).

  2. Several Linear Parks were designed based on stream’s channeling as well as the incorporation of a grid of new paved areas combined with small green isolated surfaces at both edges. Such measures avoided hydrological and biological performance of stream’s riparian buffers, which contributes to ecosystem recovering (Bernhardt and Palmer 2007).

  3. Streams were not meeting quality standards established by local regulations.

  4. Constant influent flow and contaminant concentration are required for the applicability of this model. Thus, first-order models are not recommended when inflow and inlet concentration are affected by external factors, as for storm-water treatment wetlands, which depend upon the rainfall-intensity patterns.

  5. The value associated to percentile 50 is represented as the one where half of the samples fall below or over to it.

  6. Originally defined in the European Council Directive 91/271/EEC of 21 May 1991 concerning urban waste-water treatment.

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Acknowledgments

This article is based on studies performed with the financial support of São Paulo Research Foundation – FAPESP and the Cornell Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future – ACSF.

Funding

This article is based on studies performed with the financial support from São Paulo Research Foundation – FAPESP and the Cornell Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future – ACSF.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of São Paulo, Butantã, São Paulo, SP, 05508-080, Brazil

    Carme Machí Castañer

  2. Institute of Local Development (ILD-WATER), Water Economics Group, University of Valencia, Avda. Tarongers S/N, 46022, Valencia, Spain

    Águeda Bellver-Domingo & Francesc Hernández-Sancho

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  1. Carme Machí Castañer
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  2. Águeda Bellver-Domingo
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  3. Francesc Hernández-Sancho
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Correspondence to Carme Machí Castañer.

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Castañer, C.M., Bellver-Domingo, Á. & Hernández-Sancho, F. Environmental and Economic Approach to Assess a Horizontal Sub-Surface Flow Wetland in Developing Area. Water Resour Manage 34, 3761–3778 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-020-02629-x

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