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A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Seminatural Wetlands and Activated Sludge Wastewater-Treatment Systems

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Abstract

A cost-effectiveness analysis was performed to evaluate the competitiveness of seminatural Free Water Surface (FWS) wetlands compared to traditional wastewater-treatment plants. Six scenarios of the service costs of three FWS wetlands and three different wastewater-treatment plants based on active sludge processes were compared. The six scenarios were all equally effective in their wastewater-treatment capacity. The service costs were estimated using real accounting data from an experimental wetland and by means of a market survey. Some assumptions had to be made to perform the analysis. A reference wastewater situation was established to solve the problem of the different levels of dilution that characterize the inflow water of the different systems; the land purchase cost was excluded from the analysis, considering the use of public land as shared social services, and an equal life span for both seminatural and traditional wastewater-treatment plants was set. The results suggest that seminatural systems are competitive with traditional biotechnological systems, with an average service cost improvement of 2.1-fold to 8-fold, according to the specific solution and discount rate. The main improvement factor was the lower maintenance cost of the seminatural systems, due to the self-regulating, low artificial energy inputs and the absence of waste to be disposed. In this work, only the waste-treatment capacity of wetlands was considered as a parameter for the economic competitiveness analysis. Other goods/services and environmental benefits provided by FWS wetlands were not considered.

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Notes

  1. The Equivalent Inhabitant is used as one of the parameters for the organic load of waste water and is equal to an Oxygen Chemical Demand of 130 g day−1 or a discharge volume of 200 l day−1, whichever as higher (Art. 4, c.1, L.R.T. n. 5/86).

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Acknowledgments

This project was funded by the Ministry of Infrastructures–Venice Water Authority through its concessionary Consorzio Venezia Nuova. We gratefully acknowledge hydraulic data and raw analyses provided by Protecno SRL (Italy) and chemical analyses provided by LabControl SNC (Italy).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Venice International University, Isola di San Servolo, Venice, 30100, Italy

    Ilda Mannino

  2. Planland—Studio Tecnico Daniel Franco, Cannaregio 3841, Venice, 30131, Italy

    Daniel Franco, Enrico Piccioni, Laura Favero & Erika Mattiuzzo

  3. Università Cà Foscari, Dorsoduro 3246, Venice, 30123, Italy

    Gabriele Zanetto

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  1. Ilda Mannino
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  2. Daniel Franco
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  3. Enrico Piccioni
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  4. Laura Favero
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  6. Gabriele Zanetto
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Correspondence to Daniel Franco.

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Mannino, I., Franco, D., Piccioni, E. et al. A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Seminatural Wetlands and Activated Sludge Wastewater-Treatment Systems. Environmental Management 41, 118–129 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-007-9001-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-007-9001-6

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