Wetland Engineering as Part of an Integrated Green City Management
PARE Summer School 2014 Final Report
Urban area has many problems related to population, activities, resources,
and environment. Related to those chains, there is a complicated problem in
urban area that is competition between living place and green open space
related to land resources combined with air pollution and greenhouse gas
emission coming from electricity and transportation related to environment and
sustainability of fossil fuel use.
As a solution for the complicated problems in urban area, our group was
proposed an “integrated green area” for city management level. The “integrated
green area” adopts wetlands system concept that combined with public
facilities. Wetlands technologies utilise plants that can absorb certain kinds
of pollutant such as organic matter and heavy metal so it can be used as
wastewater treatment facilities coming from household. This facility can be
combined with park or garden to provide green open area for urban people so it
has aesthetic and landscape function. In addition, integration of wetlands
technology and walkways or bicycle path by applying a porous pavement with
subsurface constructed wetlands is a solution and effort to reduce private car
utilisation. Thus, wetlands technologies combined with public facilities do
have multiple benefits and can be alternative solution for urban area problems.
Moreover, wetlands technology has additional benefit to preserve ecological
wildlife.
There are many specialisation in environmental engineering. One of
specialisation in environmental engineering is wetland specialist. As an
environmental engineer, I could take a role as wetlands and engineering
consultant. The consultant would be responsible for design of wetland system.
For this master plan, I will design a wetland system as wastewater facilities
for domestic wastewater treatment. The integration between wetland system with
public facilities such as park, garden, walkways, or bicycle path have to
involve other field of expertise such as civil engineering, landscape
architect, and urban planner. One of research paper that support my idea
entitled “Artificial Wetlands and Water Quality Improvement” by R.B.E Shutes
which is published in Journal of Environment International No. 26 (2001) page
441-447. Based on Shutes (2001), the constructed wetlands can be designed to
form an aesthetically pleasing and functional landscape which can be
incorporated into residential developments. In addition, they provide a
valuable ecological habitat for wildlife (Shutes, 2001). Constructed wetlands
can also be designed to treat urban runoff and leachate from landfill site
(Shutes, 2001).
The design process of wetland system as wastewater facility started with
analyzing wastewater characteristics both of quality and quantity. The quality
of wastewater can be measured from several parameters such as organic content
i.e. biochemical organic demand (BOD) or chemical organic demand (COD), total suspended
solids (TSS), and metals (if any). The quantity of wastewater can be
represented by the flow rate of wastewater. The design of wetland system is
done based on local regulation for effluent standard or stream standard. From
the standard provided, the calculation of organic load and hydraulic retention
time (HRT) can be determined. Then, other design parameters such as site
selection, types of water flow, and types of vegetation are decided based on
the calculation and characteristics of wastewater and site.
Refers to my specialisation as an environmental
engineer, it would be appropriate if I propose a research which is related to
the master plan entitled “Performance analysis wetlands system as domestic
wastewater treatment facilities for small communities in residential area”. The
idea of research title is based on Shutes (2001) which state that the use of
constructed wetlands to treat wastewater and other sources of water pollution
is a valuable and appropriate technology to be used alone or in a combination
with other systems, especially suitable for small communities in developing
countries. In addition, The research was proposed because of demand of
wastewater treatment facilities in urban area which is environmental-friendly
without requirement of extensive area.
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