Ecological Engineering 35 (2009) 13671378

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Ecological Engineering
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecoleng

Review

Constructed wetlands in China

Dongqing Zhang a, , Richard M. Gersberg b , Tan Soon Keat c
a

DHI-NTU Centre, Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute, N1-B3b-29, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore Graduate School of Public Health, San Diego State University, Hardy Tower 119, 5500 Campanile, San Diego, CA 92182-4162, USA c Maritime Research Centre, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore
b

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
Large-scale centralized wastewater treatment systems often prevail in industrial countries and have been regarded as a successful approach during the last century. However, to solve the multifold water-related problems in China with its rapid growth of urbanization and industrialization, complete replication of this centralized, cost- and energy-intensive technology has proved to be extremely limited in scope and success. As one of the most important applications of ecological engineering, constructed wetland (CW) systems for wastewater treatment can offer an optimal alternative and result in benecial conservation of natural resources with low capital costs and energy consumption, as well as minimal operation and maintenance expenditures. CW technology is particularly suitable for rapidly growing small- and medium-size cities in China. This paper aims at examining the mechanisms of pollutant removal efciency in these systems and investigating the merits, status and feasibility of using constructed wetland systems to treatment wastewater in China. Additionally, it investigates existing impediments to application and implementation of CWs in China, as well as challenges to future development. 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 29 May 2009 Received in revised form 27 June 2009 Accepted 20 July 2009

Keywords: China Constructed wetlands Role of wetland plants Design of constructed wetlands

1. Introduction Rapid urbanization and industrialization, and highly accelerated economic development in China have resulted in excessive water consumption and degradation of water resources. Historically, traditional centralized sewer systems have been regarded as the optimal solution for water pollution control and have prevailed in many industrial countries. To a large degree, this centralized approach did and does solve the problems of sanitation very efciently. However, at the end of 2002, the ofcial rate of municipal wastewater treatment was approximately 36.5%, which is far from adequate given Chinas serious water pollution (U.S. Department of Commerce, 2005; Wang et al., 2005b). It follows then, that in order to solve the multifold water-related problems in China, complete replication of centralized water-, energy- and cost-intensive technology has proven to be rather limited and not entirely feasible. Amongst 660 cities in China, more than half of which are of medium- (population between 200,000 and 500,000) and small-size (population less than 200,000) (China Daily Report, 2005), and this is reected by the fact that 50% of the population of China still resides in these small- to medium-size

urban areas. While big cities are predominantly served by sewage treatment plants based on conventional intensive technologies (physicalchemicalbiological treatment), there is increasing doubt that whether these intensive technologies for sewage treatment systems are appropriate for medium- and small-size municipalities (Brissaud, 2007). Constructed wetlands (CWs) for wastewater treatment have great potential as an optimal alternative and would be ideal for Chinas small- to moderate-size cities. Indeed, in other places worldwide, CWs have proved to be an attractive and stable alternative because of their low cost, and energy savings. In addition, there is the advantage of multi-purpose re-use of the high quality efuent, self-remediation and self-adaptation to the surrounding conditions and environment (Song et al., 2006; Brissaud, 2007; Kivaisi, 2001). It is the objective of this paper to review the progress of CWs for wastewater treatment in China with the aim of delineating some of the key treatment efciency and performance issues which may be elucidated by the China experience, including the following: Design; Specic role of the plant; Effect of climate; Cost/energy/space efciency; Sustainability.

Corresponding author. Tel.: +65 8165 6212; fax: +65 6790 6620. E-mail address: dqzhang@ntu.edu.sg (D. Zhang). 0925-8574/$ see front matter 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ecoleng.2009.07.007

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D. Zhang et al. / Ecological Engineering 35 (2009) 13671378

Through a review of the Chinese CW experience, we may better dene the scope and issues at hand, and by doing so, overcome certain key challenges for the future development.

ment designed by Yanshan Petrochemical Company in Beijing (Li and Jiang, 1995), and an inltration wetland system for domestic sewage treatment located on the costal salinealkali soil on Dagang Oil Field near Tianjin City (Li and Jiang, 1995). These are considered to be milestones of CW application in China (Chen et al., 2008). 3. The design of constructed wetlands

2. Ecological engineering in China As a relatively new branch of ecology and an interdisciplinary science, ecological engineering was initially formulated in the 1960s. Ecological engineering as described by Mitsch and Jrgensen (1989) is engineering in the sense that it involves the design of this natural environment using quantitative approaches and basing our approaches on basic science. The term ecological engineering was in the 1960s rst independently proposed by Prof. Ma Shijun, known as the father of ecological engineering in China (Mitsch and Jrgensen, 2003a; Yan et al., 1993; Ma, 1988). He argued in 1978 that in recognition of the interdependency of social, economic and natural systems, a cross between social and natural sciences could form the theoretical basis for treating the ecological crises the world was facing (Ma, 1988; Yan et al., 1993; Ma, 1978). Ma (1988) dened ecological engineering as . . .a specially designed system of production process in which the principles of the species symbiosis and the cycling and regeneration of substances in an ecological system are applied with adopting the system engineering technology and introducing new technologies and excellent traditional production measures to make a multi-step use of substance (Mitsch et al., 1993; Mitsch and Jrgensen, 2003a). Yan et al. (1993) reported that during the period of 1970 to 1990, the dissemination of the knowledge and techniques of ecological engineering resulted in a rapid growth of its popularity all over China. Over 2000 experimental sites for the ecological engineering of agriculture and environmental protection have been founded in all the provinces of mainland China. Over 100 sites for the ecological engineering of wastewater treatment and utilization were created as well. Indeed, the special historical background, ancient Chinese philosophy and rich traditions of Chinese agricultural practices, as well as the socialeconomical settings in China give ecological engineering in China many rich and distinct characteristics. Mitsch et al. (1993) concluded that differences between Western and Chinese systems related to design principles, objectives, human manipulation of ecosystem structure, and recognized values and economics. The emphasis of ecological engineering in the West has been a partnership with nature and research has been carried our primarily in experimental ecosystems rather than in full-scale applications. Ecological Engineering, as pioneered by Ma in China, has been applied to a wide variety of natural resource and environmental problems, ranging from sheries and agriculture, to wastewater control and coastline protection (Mitsch et al., 1993; Mitsch and Jrgensen, 2003a,b; Mitsch, 1997). In addition, in the west, the goal of ecological engineering projects is usually environmental protection, while in China it is not only environmental protection, but also economic and social benets (Mitsch et al., 1993). As one of the most important applications of ecological engineering, constructed wetlands (CWs) systems for wastewater treatment could offer an optimal alternative and result in benecially natural resources conversation with low capital costs, low energy consumption, and minimal operation and maintenance. The rst full-scale CW (SSF system) for wastewater treatment from small or medium scale towns in the sub-tropics in China Bainikeng Constructed Wetland was put in operation in July 1990 at Longgang, Shenzhen Special Economic Zone (Yang et al., 1995). Other early established CWs in China include: the FWS system built in Changping District, Beijing for municipal sewage treatment (Li and Jiang, 1995), the in-series FWS for petrochemical efuent treat-

In general, two types of constructed wetlands systems are most commonly designed and used: the Free Water Surface (FWS) systems, the Subsurface Flow (SSF) systems including horizontal- or vertical ow. SFW systems are similar to natural marshes as they tend to occupy shallow channels and basins through which water ows at low velocities above and within the substrate. In SSF systems, wastewater ows horizontally or vertically through the substrate, which is composed of soil, sand, rock or articial media. 3.1. Subsurface ow vs. free water surface wetlands Table 1 summarizes several applications of the FWS system in China and presents relative treatment efciencies. Compared to the discharge standards set by the Chinese Government (Environment Bureau of the State, 1997) (COD < 60 mg/l, BOD5 < 20 mg/l, TN < 15 mg/l, TP < 0.5 mg/l), the majority of efuent values of TSS, BOD5 and COD are generally lower than that required by discharge standards in China. According to Li and Jiang (1995), in all seasons except winter, the levels of BOD5 and TSS in the efuent of every system could reach the standards of biological secondary treatment. However, for reasons that are unclear, perhaps due to lack of information and design/operation expertise, in the last 15 years, there are have been very few FWS reported in the literature. 3.2. Horizontal subsurface ow vs. vertical subsurface ow wetlands In the horizontal subsurface ow (HSSF) system, the inuent ow is under the surface of the bed following a horizontal path until it reaches the outlet zone. In the vertical subsurface ow (VSSF) system, however, the wastewater is fed onto the whole surface area through a distribution system and passes through the lter in a vertical path. Due to long retention time, HSSF is more effective for the removal of BOD5 , COD, TSS (Kadlec, 2009; Mander and Mitsch, 2009). The experience in China (see Tables 2 and 3) showed that the mean removal efciencies TSS and COD of HSSF systems (75.5% and 70.09%) are higher than that of VSSF systems (74.7% and 62.09%), while the mean removal efciencies of BOD5 of both systems are similar (82.22% and 82.95%, respectively). Usually nitrication is limited due to the lack of oxygen that is characteristic for this kind of system. Whereas in a VSSF system, mostly aerobic conditions provide the ideal environment for oxygen-requiring nitrifying bacteria and nitrication can be achieved in these systems. In a study on high-rate nitrogen removal in a two-stage VSSF system, Langergraber et al. (2008) indicated that nitrogen elimination in this two-stage VSSF system occurred because nitrication of about 80% in the rst-stage guaranteed the presence of nitrate for denitrication in the impounded drainage layer. However, denitrication may not take place to a large extent. Table 2 shows the treatment efciencies of HSSF systems in China. Compared to the discharge standards set by the Chinese Government (Environment Bureau of the State, 1997), the majority of the efuent values of TSS, BOD5 and COD are generally lower than that required by discharge standard in China. Meanwhile, in comparison to the average removal efciencies of TSS (73.5%), BOD5 (80.3%) and COD (65.5%) from 78 of HSSF systems

D. Zhang et al. / Ecological Engineering 35 (2009) 13671378 Table 1 A summary of the treatment efciency of FWS systems in China. TSS Changping, Beijinga Efuent value (mg/l) Removal efciency (%) Qinghe, Beijinga Efuent value (mg/l) Removal efciency (%) CW1, Tianjina Efuent value (mg/l) Removal efciency (%) CW2, Tianjin (inltration type)a Efuent value (mg/l) Removal efciency (%) Public Park, Shanghaib Efuent value (mg/l) Removal efciency (%) Liaohec Efuent value (mg/l) Removal efciency (%) Taihu, Zhejiang Provinced Efuent value (mg/l) Removal efciency (%) Average efciency in China (%)
a b c d

1369

BOD5

COD

NH4 -N

TN

TP

Hydraulic loading rate (m3 /day) 500

Hydraulic retention time (day) 7.3

17 93.8 6.1 83.8 19.5 79.9 11.4 90 30 70 83.50

17.8 85.8 5.6 37.7 18.1 84.9 10.3 85 7.7 15.4 3.9 88 66.13

5.1 64.6 3.08 29.2 19.54 50.6 6.15 83.4 9.7 10.2 1.6 86 3.97 19.8 49.11

0.42 55.1 0.34 53.9 0.98 70.3 0.32 86 0.53 18.5 0.103 35.1 53.15

120

5.6

32 17.9 77 80 5.93 16.5 38.13

1.37 22.8

200

1.53.0

1800

10

1.2

18.75

15

0.64 m/day

Li and Jiang (1995). Li et al. (2009). Ji et al. (2007). Li et al. (2008).

in Europe (Haberl et al., 1995), even under relatively high loading rates, the removal efciencies of TSS (75.50%), BOD5 (82.22%) and COD (70.09%) in China are slightly better. In particular, the average removal efciencies of TN (56.09%) and TP (59.0%) in HSSF systems in China are much higher than that in Europe (39.8% and 31.7% respectively). Table 3 summarizes the application of VSSF systems in China. Compared with HSSF systems, VSSF systems usually require smaller foot print (Lderitz et al., 2001), and it is therefore an attractive alternative for southern China where land is scarce and population density is high. In a pilot VSSF system near Longdao River in Beijing, CW occupied less than half of the area of conventional CW following adoption of an improved design. The authors compared Longdao VSSF system with other HSSF systems in other countries, the removal efciencies of BOD5 (87.2%), COD (81.8%) and TSS (85.1%) of the VSSF CWs are veried comparable to the highest performers, while the removal efciencies of TP (98.8%) and NH3 -N (77.4%) are much higher than that in other countries. Additionally, the efuent concentrations of all substances were stable even during the winter (Chen et al., 2008). Experiences showed that in China (see Tables 2 and 3), although VSSF systems are efcient at BOD5 and TP removal because of good oxygen supply, the removal rate of TN (43.66%) and NH4 -N (56.17%) remains lower in comparison of that in HSSF systems (56.09% and 64.59%, respectively), probably due to the lack of carbon source during denitrication. Also, despite the smaller foot print, the technical demand and cost of VSSF systems are relatively higher than that of HSSF (Yin et al., 2008). 3.3. Hybrid wetland systems As wastewater from various sources are generally difcult to treat in a single-stage wetland system, hybrid wetland systems which consist of various types of natural systems staged in series

have gained increasing interest in Europe (Vymazal, 2005). For example, single-stage constructed wetlands cannot achieve high removal of total nitrogen due to their inability to provide both aerobic and anaerobic conditions at the same time. While there may be other better alternatives, combining ponds and vertical ow constructed wetlands, as well as inltration percolation and horizontal ow CWs have proven to be effective (Brissaud, 2007). In addition, CWs systems combining horizontal- and vertical ow were shown to be more efcient than non-hybrid system, and various types of constructed wetlands maybe combined to complement each other and to achieve higher treatment effect, especially for nitrogen (Vymazal, 2005; Lderitz et al., 2001; Brissaud, 2007). There has been good experience on application of hybrid systems in China. Table 4 presents several applications of hybrid systems in China. Zhai et al. (2006) reported a new type of hybrid constructed wetland: an innovative design of vertical-bafed ow wetland and horizontal subsurface ow wetland (HSFW) has been introduced in Chongqing University (CQU), China. The experimental results exhibited a dramatic reduction in the land requirement and the system was found suitable for waste treatment for a small township. In his report the author indicated that high hydraulic retention time (HRT) and internal circulation had very positive effect on pollutant removal the removal rate of TN could double through an internal circulation, with a ow rate that 12 times of the inuent. The highest pollutants removal rate of the hybrid CW with internal circulation occurred HRT of 70 h. Another successful example is Shatian hybrid CW which consists of two-stage-SSF systems. According to Shi et al. (2004), rst-stage wetland designed in horizontal ow pattern and the total area of wetland is 4800 m2 with bed depth of 1m and HRT of 11.5 h. The second-stage wetland takes the form of verticaldownwards ow, a total of 4 trains arranged in parallel. The total

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Table 2 A summary of the treatment efciency of HSSF systems in China. TSS Rongcheng, Shangdong Provincea Efuent value (mg/l) Removal efciency (%) Dongying, Shandong Provinceb Efuent value (mg/l) Removal efciency (%) Jiaonan, Shandong Provincec Efuent value (mg/l) Removal efciency (%) Miyun, Beijingd Efuent value (mg/l) Removal efciency (%) Futian, Shenzhen Provincee Efuent value (mg/l) Removal efciency (%) CIW-TS, Tianjinf Efuent value (mg/l) Removal efciency (%) Taihu, Zhejiang Provinceg Efuent value (mg/l) Removal efciency (%) Baptist University, Hong Kongh Efuent value (mg/l) Removal efciency (%) Average efciency in China (%)
a b c d e f g h

BOD5

COD

NH4 -N

TN

TP

Hydraulic loading rate (m3 /day) 20,000

Hydraulic retention time (day) 120

27.8 71.8 8.53 88.2 30 57.1 13 84.9 75.5

23.8 70.4 4.61 90 11 66.7 8.37 90 9.04 94.01 82.22

91 62.2 41.6 75.8 125 60.9 50 95.1 25.31 70 44 87.02 4.23 39.6 70.09

11.3 40.6 7.12 67.31 63 87.1 6.28 50 4.49 80.13 1.16 32 95 64.59

63.8 11.1 61.8 85.3 8.27 46 5.7 80.04 2.29 52.1 62 56.09

2 29.6 0.86 59.23 2.98 17.6 73.6 0.65 60 0.25 72.96 0.052 65.7 52 59.01

50,000

21.6

30,000

270

72

72

0.64 m/day

120

Song et al. (2006). Wang et al. (2005b). Song et al. (2008). Wang et al. (2008). Yang et al. (2008). Yin and Shen (1995). Li et al. (2008). Chung et al. (2008).

surface area of the secondary stage wetland is 4640 m2 with bed depth of 0.75 m and HRT of 8 h. A total of 7 species of plants have been chosen for this wetland system. And the average removal efciency of TSS, BOD5 , COD, TN and TP are 86.78%, 86.4%, 76.72%, 44.93%, and 81.7%, respectively. Wang et al. (1994) investigated a hybrid system for industrial wastewater at Yantian industry area in Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province, which consists of anaerobic lagoon and three water hyacinth ponds and two HSSF beds planted with Phragmites australis. Despite the very high hydraulic loading (36 cm/day for the HSSF stage), the authors reported that the removal efciencies of TSS (99%), COD (81%), BOD5 (69%), and TP (62%) were very good and steady in hybrid systems, but the removal efciency of TN was relatively low. Recently, hybrid constructed wetlands comprise more than two types of CWs and quite often include a FWS stage in Europe (Vymazal, 2005). In China, Liu et al. (2007) investigated the water quality variation in a hybrid CWs in purifying the Yongding River, Beijing. There were altogether 7 parallel-connected wetland units, and the inuents owed from the emerging plant pond (1. Surface ow); the rst-stage plant-gravel bed (2. Subsurface ow); the oating plant pond (3. Surface ow); the second-stage plant-gravel bed (4. Subsurface ow); the sand-ltration tank (5. Subsurface ow). The removal ratios of the main pollutants in Yongding River by this hybrid system were TSS (99.1%), COD (52.8%), BOD5 (77.0%), TN (59.4%), NH4 -N (52.8%), NO3 -N (60.3%), PO4-P (92.7%), respectively. The purication effect was remarkable.

3.4. Design and performance In sum, when comparing FWS, HSSF, VSSF and hybrid systems in China (see Tables 14), experience has showed that hybrid systems perform best in the removal of TSS (94.96%), COD (78.52%), and TP (79.68%). Compared to VSSF systems, HSSF systems showed better removal efciency for TSS and COD (75.5% and 70.09%, respectively). As for nitrogen removal, the TN removal efciency of HSSF systems was signicantly higher than that for VSSF systems. Apparently, despite experience in China pointing to the superior oxygen supply of VSSF systems, the removal rate of TN (43.66%) remains lower in comparison of that in HSSF systems (56.09%), probably due to the lack of carbon source during denitrication. However, surprisingly, even the ammonia removal efciency of HSSF systems in China (64.59%) was higher than for the VSSF systems (56.17%), indicating that at least in these systems reviewed here, that the HSSF systems are probably better at nitrication that are the VSSF systems in China. From Chinese CW experience (see Tables 14), a comparison of removal efciencies by FWS, HSSF, VSSF and hybrid systems can be made between China and Europe, the latter for which Haberl et al. (1995) reported on the efciencies of 268 wetlands in operation. The mean BOD5 removal efciencies were 66.13%, 82.22%, 82.95%, and 80.10% for FWS, HSSF, VSSF, and hybrid systems, respectively in China. In comparison with the value in Europe (79.1%) (Haberl et al., 1995), most systems in China seem to perform in the same range as those in Europe.

D. Zhang et al. / Ecological Engineering 35 (2009) 13671378 Table 3 A summary of the treatment efciency of VSSF systems in China. TSS Bainikeng, Shenzhen, Guangdong Provincea Efuent value (mg/l) 10.9 Removal efciency (%) 92.6 Longdao, Beijingb Efuent value (mg/l) Removal efciency (%) CIW-TS, Tianjinc Efuent value (mg/l) Removal efciency (%) Taihu, Zhejiang Provinced Efuent value (mg/l) Removal efciency (%) 7.08 85.1 48 44 BOD5 COD NH4 -N TN TP Hydraulic loading rate (m3 /day) 3100

1371

Hydraulic retention time (day)

6.9 90.5 6 87.2 69.4 54

38.3 73.5 19.7 81.8 207 39 4.25 40.4 25.31 70 19.5 90.05 68.9 35 13.8 67 62.09

18.5 10.5 5.2 77.4 15.3 32 0.89 45.9 6.28 50 1.3 94.8 32.9 61.7 1.65 71.25 2.7 62 56.17

18.5 10.6 23.6 30 2.37 51.6 8.27 46 38.15 26.66 41.3 66.6 2.58 64.85 3.7 53 43.66

1.59 30.6 0.061 98.8 1.09 44 0.056 64.3 0.65 60 0.25 92.25 48.9 0.2 61.24 1.9 33 59.23

2000

0.64 m/d

Laboratory, HongKong; Pilot Project, Guangzhoue Efuent value (mg/l) 8.37 Removal efciency (%) 90 Jinan, Shandong Provincef Efuent value (mg/l) Removal efciency (%) Wuxi, Zhejiang Provinceg Efuent value (mg/l) Removal efciency (%) Jinhe River, Tianjinh Efuent value (mg/l) Removal efciency (%) Chongming, Shanghaii Efuent value (mg/l) Removal efciency (%) Average efciency in China (%)
a b c d e f g h i

0.45 m3 /(m2 day)

18

96 77.1 74.7

2.66 94.68 61.8 81.3 82.95

1000

0.4

0.8 m/day

Yang et al. (1995). Chen et al. (2008). Yin and Shen (1995). Li et al. (2008). Chan et al. (2008). Yin et al. (2008). He et al. (2006). Tang et al. (2009). Wang et al. (2006b).

The mean NH4 removal efciencies were 64.59%, 56.17%, and 37.37% for HSSF, VSSF, and hybrid systems, respectively in China. And the mean TN removal efciencies were 49.11%, 56.09%, 43.66%, and 46.76% for FWS, HSSF, VSSF, and hybrid systems, respectively in China. In Europe, the average NH4 removal rate was 30%, and the average of TN removal rate is 39.6% (Haberl et al., 1995). Apparently, both of the removal rates for NH4 -N and TN in these CW systems in China are higher than that in Europe. The mean phosphorus removal efciencies were 53.15%, 59.01%, 59.23%, and 79.68% for FWS, HSSF, VSSF, and hybrid systems, respectively in China. In comparison with the value reported for Europe (47.1%) (Haberl et al., 1995), the average removal efciencies of TP in China are generally higher than that for Europe. 4. The role of the plant in constructed wetland treatment There has been some debate on the importance of plants in pollutant removal by constructed treatment systems (Wu et al., 2008). Experience has shown that a wetland system with vegetation has a higher efciency of pollutant removal than that without plants, and the signicance of the plants used for wastewater purication has been emphasized by previous researchers (Brix, 1997; Peterson and Teal, 1995; Gersberg et al., 1983). However, the quantitative

role that the plant plays in wastewater purication is still a subject of some debate. The removal capabilities of a well-developed vegetation could be explained by: (i) the rhizosphere connected to a plant with active oxygenic photosynthesis will allow the transfer of a certain amount of oxygen to the vicinity of the roots; (ii) in the root system, where there exists a large number of bacteria whose oxidationreduction potential and nitrication rate are both higher than the area without plants, and each plant root system is regarded as a mini aerobic/anoxic biological treatment system, and (iii) uptake into the plants. Generally, the amounts of nutrients removed by vegetation harvesting are insignicant compared to the load brought into the system with wastewater (Brix, 1994; Merlin et al., 2002). If the wetland vegetation is not harvested, most of nutrients could be temporarily stored in the litter compartment. According to Verhoeven and Meuleman (1999), during the autumn and winter, a large part of nutrients will be gradually released again through leaching and organic matter mineralization. Only a small part of the nutrients stays in the vegetation as additional long-term storage in aggrading wood or rhizome material. Vymazal (2005) also concluded that the removal of nitrogen and phosphorus through plant harvesting is negligible and forms only a small fraction of the removed amount.

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Table 4 A summary of the treatment efciency of hybrid systems in China. TSS Chongqing University, Sichuan Provincea Efuent value (mg/l) Removal efciency (%) Shatian, Shenzhen, Guangdong Provinceb Efuent value (mg/l) 7.92 Removal efciency (%) 86.78 Yongding River, Beijingc Efuent value (mg/l) Removal efciency (%) Guangdong Provinced Efuent value (mg/l) Removal efciency (%) Yantian, Shenzhen, Guangdonge Efuent value (mg/l) Removal efciency (%) Average efciency in China (%)
a b c d e

BOD5

COD

NH4 -N

TN

TP

Hydraulic loading rate (m3 /day) 1555 m3 /(m2 day)

Hydraulic retention time (day) 70

7.68 86.4 5.91 77 88 58 69 80.10

51.5 78.5 33.9 76.72 5.47 67.4 89 88 81 78.52

17.8 42.3 4.27 52.8 12.2 17 37.37

20.1 51.7 9.11 44.93 6.38 59.4 15.5 31 46.76

1.12 65.9 0.56 81.7 0.1 91.8 97 1.8 62 79.68

5300

11.5 (Stage 1) 8 (Stage 2)

12.3 99.1 3.2 99 94.96

0.58 m3 /(m2 day)

34.26

72

36 cm/day

Zhai et al. (2006). Shi et al. (2004). Liu et al. (2007). Cui et al. (2006). Wang et al. (1994).

4.1. The capacity of plants for supplying oxygen The role of plants in supplying oxygen is still being debated. In CW systems, an important function of macrophytes is to transport oxygen and release them from its root system into the wetland, inuencing the biochemical cycles in the substrate, and supplying oxygen to bacteria growing on plant roots to improve the decomposition of organic matter and convert ammonium to nitrate (Gersberg et al., 1986; Barko et al., 1991; U.S. EPA, 2000). However, such capacity of oxygen transfer is limited. Brix et al. (1996) found a negligible oxygen input of 0.02 g/(m2 day). And Zhu and Silora (1994) pointed out that no obvious nitrication could be observed when dissolved oxygen concentration is lower than 0.5 mg/l. Furthermore, in anaerobic soils, oxygen is transferred to the roots primarily for plant respiration and only excess oxygen is leaked to the micro-zone at the rhizosphere (Brix, 1990). In China, the data on the ability of plant in translocation oxygen is also rare. Yin et al. (2004) reported that the ability of oxygen translocation are 0.0212 g/(m2 day), 0.55.2 g/(m2 day) and 0.259.6 g/(m2 day) by reed, submerged- and oating plant respectively, these values showing the wide range of translocation abilities of these aquatic plants. However, despite this fact, in research on nitrogen removal and microorganism in a SSF system in Sihong County, Xia et al. (2006) reported that compared with the removal of COD and BOD5 , the nitrifying process was slow. Because oxygen is mainly used for removal of organic matter and the nitrifying reaction begins only if BOD5 is reduced to a signicant extent, the small amount of oxygen (0.20.4 mg/l) in this CW system limited the activity of the nitrier Nitrosomonas, which limited any further removal of nitrogen (by sequential nitricationdenitrication) from CWs. 4.2. Role of the plant in nitrogen removal The nitrogen removal mechanisms in wetland systems are very complex. The processes that affect nitrogen removal during wastewater treatment in CWs are manifold. Basically, it includes NH3 volatilization, nitrication, denitrication, nitrogen xation, plant and microbial uptake, mineralization (ammoni-

cation), nitrate reduction to ammonium (nitrate-ammonication), fragmentation, sorption, desorption and leaching (Vymazal, 2006). Of the many kinds of removal mechanisms, however, only a small subset of these processes ultimately play an important role in total nitrogen removal while most processes just convert nitrogen to its various forms. Two major processes have been identied and they are: (i) storage, which is achieved by assimilation into biomass (e.g., plant and microbial uptake) or adsorption to the substrate (e.g., soil); and (ii) removal through the N cycle: nitrication and denitrication (Jamieson et al., 2003). In a FWS in Dianchi Valley (Kunming City), Lu et al. (2009) investigating the N distribution pathway and removal efciency, concluded that plants were important for the wetland, as the plants provided good growth conditions for microbes, which removed the majority of N from the CWs. Over a 5-year period, the wetland received slightly more than 2000 kg/ha of nitrogen, mostly from farmland drainage. The nitrogen removal was mostly due to plant uptake (1110 kg/ha) and soil accumulation (570 kg/ha), with the contribution of denitrication being estimated at around 7%. The authors concluded that this was because Zizania caduciora and Ph. agmites had large biomass and thus had good N and P absorption capability. However, much experience at higher hydraulic application rates (high nitrogen loading rates), show that the processes of sequential nitricationdenitrication play an increasingly major role as compared to plant uptake (Gersberg et al., 1986). For example, in a controlled comparison of ammonia-N removal efciencies in vegetated vs. unvegetated contracted wetland beds, Gersberg et al. (1986) showed that the presence of plants did indeed make a signicant (p < 0.05) difference in removal efciency (although not via N-incorporation into plant biomass. These authors found that ammonia removal efciencies were 2894% for various types of wetland plants versus only 11% for unvegetated wetlands. They concluded that clearly sequential nitricationdenitrication was responsible for the higher rates of ammonia removal in these planted wetlands. Similarly, Tang et al. (2009) in the study of seven experimental pilot-scale VSSF systems in Tianjing, also reported that, with respect to NH4 -N removal, the planted wetland showed higher

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removal performances than that of the unplanted wetlands. The improvement was signicant and accounted for a 17.18% increase as compared to that in unplanted wetland in NH4 -N mean removal efciency (p < 0.05). The authors also indicated that insufcient microbial activity in unplanted wetland substrate is likely to limit NH4 -N removal. Meanwhile, the planted wetland showed a better TN removal than the unplanted wetland, and the presence of Typha latifolia in a signicant (p < 0.05) additional TN removal of 21.78%. This observation veried that wetland plants can make signicant contribution to TN removal. In a study of the HSSF system at Baptist University in Hong Kong, Chung et al. (2008) indicated that plant uptake only removed 2.63.1% N in the microcosms, and denitrication was the main removal pathway. Loss of N through denitrication was 34 and 50% in 10-day HRT and 5-day HRT unplanted treatment respectively. In planted treatment, loss of N through denitrication was 20% and 32% in 10-day HRT and 5-day HRT treatment. The average removal efciencies in NH4 -N were 9597% and 9294% planted and unplanted treatment, respectively. Meanwhile, the average removal efciencies in TKN were 6366% and 4052% for planted and unplanted treatment, respectively, and removal of TKN was comparatively lower in unplanted treatments, because anoxic conditions were found in unplanted treatments due to ponding of wastewater, and this limited the rate of removal. In this study, loss of N through denitrication was 1941% of total N input for all treatment. Additionally, the plants could reduce total N to signicantly lower levels than unplanted treatments. The high removal rate of NH4 -N in planted treatments showed that nitrication was very active but the high NH4 -N removal was enlarged by the increased rate of evapotranspiration during plant growth. Wu et al. (2008) investigated the capabilities of mangrove SSF microcosms in treating primary settled municipal wastewater collected from a local sewage treatment work in Hong Kong. The removal efciencies in the planted systems were 76.1691.83% for ammonium-N, 47.8963.37% for inorganic-N, and 75.1579.06% for total Kjeldahl nitrogen. And the authors also indicated that for total nitrogen, the planted system had signicantly higher removal (55.5683.33%) than the unplanted treatments (22.2233.33%). Nitrication and denitrication process are believed to be an important mechanism for nitrogen removal, and in this study, decreases of ammonia in efuent were followed by increases in nitrate. Additionally, the planted systems had signicantly lower efuent nitrate concentrations than the unplanted ones. The authors concluded that apparently the mangrove plants not only absorb nitrate for their growth, but they also enhance the efciency of both nitrication and denitrication processes. Furthermore, even though the plants could take up nitrate in the soil pore water and their roots could provide a large surface area for microbial growth, in this study, the amount of nitrogen accumulated in the plants was only 2.883.28% of total nitrogen. 4.3. Role of the plant in phosphorus removal Jiang et al. (2008) investigated a two-stage SSF (combining with HSSF and VSSF) in Longgang district of Shenzhen city (Guangdong Province), and reported that in the rst-stage CW, results of TP concentration indicated that this was superior for TP removal, and the main area for TP accumulation. In the 15 cm and 36 cm depth layer, 87.92% and 86.24% of TP was accumulated in the superior half part, and this was totally in agreement with the removal situation of wastewater. The authors further examined P transfer into different plants and reported in the rst-stage of the CW, the order of TP concentration in organs of Ph. australis Trin, Miscanthus sacchariorus, Thalia dealbata was owers, roots, leaves and caudex, while that of

Scirpus validus was roots, caudex and owers. In the second-stage CW of Canna generalis and Cyperus papyrus, phosphorus transfer was coincident with phosphorus distribution in plants in the order of seeds, followed by leaves, roots and caudex. The unregularity of phosphorus transfer in the CW system demonstrated that it was greatly inuenced by plant growth environment and species. Similarly, Chung et al. (2008) reported that removal of PO4 P was at least twofold higher in the planted treatment and the presence of plants could effectively remove PO4 -P because it is readily available for plant uptake. Low removal of TP in unplanted treatments was expected, removal was sixfold lower than planted treatments. The authors also indicated that vegetation, detritus, fauna and microorganisms are an important sink for P in the short term, but substrate is the main sink for P in long term. However, in the long term, TP removal will be decreased in the vegetated treatment due to the saturation of P adsorption in the substrate. In a mass balance of P, the uptake of P by plants was only 1% if the total amount of P, the presence of plants has increased the P removal rate and improved the treatment efciencies. Despite the nding above, since phosphorus removal is not mediated by a microbial transformation process (as in the case with nitrogen), plants would not be expected to play a major role in phosphorus removal at higher hydraulic application rates. Indeed, Wang et al. (2005a) reported that even in the growing season, the vegetation did not show signicant uptake capacity for phosphate removal, and the phosphate was taken up by vegetation roots mostly from the sediments. In a similar study, Yang et al. (2008) investigated the treatment efciency in a pilot-scale mangrove wetland in Futian, Shenzhen for municipal sewage treatment and the removal efciency data indicated that plant growth had played a minor role in phosphate removal which was conrmed by an insignicant correlation between phosphate removal and the increase in plant height. 4.4. Role of plant in COD, BOD5 and TSS removal The removal COD and BOD5 rely largely on the good combination between physical and microbial mechanisms. Due to a physical separation mechanism and low porosity of the soil media, the organic solids could be ltered and trapped in the bed of CWs for a long time, thereby allowing for better biodegradation of organic solids. The high removal rates for COD and BOD5 are caused by sedimentation of SS and by rapid decomposition processes in the water and upper soil layers. Organic matter is consumed and reduced by bacteria and other microbes both aerobically and anaerobically (U.S. EPA, 1993). Yang et al. (2007) presented a comparative study of the efciency of contaminant removal between several emergent plants species and between vegetated and unvegetated wetlands conducted in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province for domestic wastewater treatment. The authors reported that there were no signicant differences in the removal of organic matter between vegetated and unvegetated wetlands. Similarly, Tang et al. (2009) investigated and assessed the effect of plants [T. latifolia L. (cattail)] through severs experimental pilotscale SSF CWs in Tianjin. A statistical analysis indicated that there was not a signicant difference in COD removal rate between the planted wetland and the unplanted wetland, and the presence of T. latifolia only led to an insignicant (p < 0.05) increase of 2.94% with respect to the mean COD removal efciency. Therefore, plants played a negligible role in chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal. Apparently, despite the fact that BOD5 and COD removal in CWs are mediated through biological degradation of the organic matter, it would appear that in most wetland systems either anaerobic decomposition plays a major role, or alternatively, aeration of the

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substrate along (without plants) is sufcient oxygen demand of organic removal. 4.5. Role of plant species on removal efciency In the report of investigation on twelve small gravel-based SSF CWs systems and larger SSF CWs systems were installed at the Virginia Techs Kentland Research Farm and at the Powell River Projects, Huang et al. (2000) indicated that plant species had no impact on TKN or NH4 -N concentrations in the wetland efuent or removal of these N species from the wetland. However, other researchers indicated that the removal efciency of pollutant is varied by the plant species (Gersberg et al., 1986; Peterson and Teal, 1995). In China, many studies revealed that different wetland systems performed differently with plant species and productivity varied. Yang et al. (2007) concluded that there was a signicant difference in the removal of total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP). Wetlands plants with Canna indica Linn., Pennisetum purpureum Schum., and Phragmites communis Trin. had generally higher removal rate for TN and TP than wetlands planted with other species. The authors also indicated that ne root (root diameter 3) biomass rather than the mass of the entire root system played an import role. Moreover, removal efciency varied with season and plant growth, e.g., wetlands vegetated by P. purpureum signicantly outperformed wetlands with other plants in May and June, whereas wetlands vegetated by Ph. communis and C. indica demonstrated higher removal efciency from August to December. In a similar study, Yang et al. (1995) investigated a CW system at Bainikeng, Shenzhen and indicated that different plant species resulted in great differences in removing efciency: efuent BOD5 was 17.1 mg/l for Cyperus malaccensis, 18.2 mg/l for Ph. communis (sampling at secondary gravel bed); and 5.3 mg/l for Cyperus malaccensis, and 7.78 mg/l for Lepironia articata (sampling at the fourth gravel bed). The authors concluded that C. malaccensis is the most efcient one at removing BOD5 while L. articata is the least. Even using same plant type, the treatment efciency varies largely by species. Yang et al. (2008) invested the treatment efciency in a pilot-scale mangrove wetland in Futian, Shenzhen for municipal sewage treatment and also indicated that although 70% of the organic matter, 50% of TN, 60% of NH3 -N, 60% of the TP, and 90% of the coliforms were removed, Sonneratia caseolaris was the most efcient one with all the efuent samples below the discharge standards for COD, BOD5 , and NH3 -N, whereas the percentage of samples meeting the discharge standards varied from 71.43% to 85.71% for A. corniculatum and Kandelia candel. The removal of TP was the lowest among the nutrients with 42.86% (K. candel) to 74.43% (A. corniculatum) of the samples meeting the discharge standards. Investigating the growth vitality and their removal ability of the pollutants in domestic sewage, nine aquatic plant species commonly used in northern China and transplanted in a HSSF CWs in Beijing region, Wang et al. (2008) reported that among the tested plant species, Iris pseudacorus (with the capacity of high N & P removal efciency) ranked rst in setting up the constructed wetland, followed by Typha angustifolia, Acorus calamus, and Triarrhena sacchariora, whereas Alisma plantago and Arundo donax were not recommended due to their sensitivity in cold winter in northern China. 5. Climate effects Treatment performance in constructed wetlands may be less consistent than in conventional treatment since they are strongly

inuenced by climate and weather (U.S. EPA, 2000). The best prospects for successful wetland treatment should be in the warmer regions. However, in cold weather, wetlands continue to function, but rates of microbial decomposition may be slow if the wetland either freezes solid or under a cover of ice. Maehlum et al. (1995) and Jenssen et al. (1996) stated that nitrogen cycling was inhibited in colder months due to the decrease of oxygen availability. Besides lower winter temperatures, low oxygen availability which is already a common limiting factor in FSSF systems during the growing season, may be even more severe in winter. Similar results were also obtained by Maehlum and Stalnacke (1999), in which they found that the differences in efciency between cold and warm periods were less than 10% for all parameters, and the temperature effects were partially compensated for by longer hydraulic retention time. Wang et al. (2006a,b) reported that the removal efciency of ammonia nitrogen in October (71.6%) was much higher than that in May (32.9%), although the water pH and temperature, which are the most important factors affecting the volatilization rate of NH3 -N, in May were similar to that in October. That means the volatilization was not a major removal mechanism for ammonia nitrogen. Song et al. (2006) investigated the seasonal and annual performance of a full-scaled CW in Rongcheng, Shandong Province. He concluded that there was a signicantly seasonal component to this wetland for BOD5 , COD, ammonia nitrogen and total phosphorus, when measured on a percentage reduction basis: and (i) the mean BOD5 and COD percent reduction were approximately 10% less efcient in winter compared to spring and summer, as physical processes such as sedimentation are important in organic matter removal and are unaffected by winter conditions; (ii) ammonia nitrogen removal was about 40% less efcient in winter than in summer and was associated with an increase in temperature and plant growth; and (iii) there was less variability in seasonal phosphorus removal (around 20% less efcient winter) when compared to ammonia nitrogen, due to sedimentary binding of phosphorus. Peng et al. (2005) reported for a multi-stage pondwetlands ecosystem located in Dongying, Shandong Province, that in cold season the removal efciency of BOD5 , COD, and NH3 -N was about 84.5%, 40%, 19.6% respectively, whereas in warm season, that increased to 91.8%, 73% and 71.4% respectively. Yin and Shen (1995) reported that a CW with reed beds for industrial and municipal wastewater treatment located in Tanjin, North China, could successfully operate under ice layers when the average temperature was lower than 4 C and the lowest temperature ranges from 21.2 C to 26.3 C. And efuent quality are 9.04 mg/l, 13 mg/l, 5.5 mg/l and 0.25 mg/l for BOD5 , SS, TN and TP, respectively, which are better than secondary treatment level, e.g., BOD5 < 20 mg/l, SS < 20 mg/l, TN < 15 mg/l, TP < 0.6 mg/l. The high removal rate of BOD5 indicated that soil microbes in winter still have the capacity to decompose organic contaminants. Also, reeds in winter play an important role although they stop growing. They give the ice layer a strong support and partly transfer oxygen from air to water. Zhang et al. (2006) studied the treatment performance of an SSF system treating polluted river water in Shandong Province and reported that water temperature had great inuence on ammonium nitrogen removal and plastic lm mulch on the wetland could improve pollutant removal efciently. In his investigation, the average removal rates of ammonium nitrogen and COD could rise up from 29.4% and 29% to 67.6% and 46.6% respectively. Microorganism enzyme activity experiments showed that increase of microorganism activity caused by the overlay of plastic lm mulch contributed very much to pollutant removal enhancement. Wang

D. Zhang et al. / Ecological Engineering 35 (2009) 13671378 Table 5 A comparison of the cost of a conventional wastewater treatment processes and CW system. Design capacity (m3 /day) Conventional WWTP in Chinaa Conventional activated sludge process in Chinab Constructed wetland in Chinab Dongying, Shangdong Provincec Longdao River, Beijing Cityd Dagong Oil Field, Tianjin Citye Wei Fang, Shangdong Provincee Hong Kongb
a b c d e

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Total capital cost (US$) 8.2 million 29,191 41,176

Unit capital cost (US$/m3 ) 220 115 28.82 82 146 20 102 37.64

Treatment cost (US$/m3 ) 0.15 0.03 0.025 0.021

O/M cost (US$/m3 ) 0.13 0.116 0.022 0.012 0.014 0.031 0.019

100,000 200 2000 180,000 0.45 m3 /(m2 day)

Li and Wang (2006). Chan et al. (2008). Wang et al. (2005a). Chen et al. (2008). Li and Jiang (1995), Yin and Shen (1995).

et al. (2005a) reported that the BOD5 removal rate ranged from 75.6% to 90.7% in winter and 85.5% to 83.0% in summer respectively, with efuent BOD5 of 3.2916.7 mg/l in winter and 1.505.91 mg/l in summer. Similarly, Yang et al. (2007) also indicated that the concentration of pollutant in the efuent was signicantly higher in October and December compared to summer. During these months, the mangrove plants had slower growth and the microbial activities were also lower due to the low temperature. However, Lu et al. (2009) reported that the removal rate of N in winter was not far lower than in other seasons and the contaminant removal rate of the CWs had less than 10% difference between the warm and cold period. The authors concluded that the good performance of the CWs during winter was mainly due to three reasons: (i) the initial harvest prevented N release caused by the decomposition of plant matter and strengthened oxygen diffusion from the atmosphere; (ii) the free water surface CWs was built in Kunming City, which is in the north-subtropical zone, and the average water temperature in winter was higher than the minimum required temperatures of nitrication and denitrication; and (iii) the intermittent inow was benecial to the processes of nitrication and denitrication. 6. Cost/energy/land requirements and limitations 6.1. Cost In China, wastewater in most small- and medium cities as well as rural areas has not been properly treated, because of the invariability of wastewater treatment facilities. The use of CWs system for the treatment of polluted water has attracted increasing attention in the last decades due to its minimal costs for construction, operation and maintenance. Table 5 compares the investment and operation cost for a traditional wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) and CWs in China. Although conventional WWTP and activated sludge processes are efcient for wastewater treatment, their cost-effectiveness can only be achieved in densely populated urban areas. In contrast, the application of CW is more affordable for the wastewater treatment demands of small communities. Table 5 shows that although CW systems do not present apparent advantage in construction cost, the treatment and O/M cost of CW systems is much lower than that of conventional WWTP and activated sludge processes. Wang et al. (2006a) reported that the total capital cost of an ecosystem consisting of integrated ponds and constructed wetland system (located in Dongying City, Shandong Province) was US$ 82/(m3 day), which is about half of the conventional systems based on activated sludge process. The O/M cost is US$ 0.012/m3 ,

only one fth that of conventional treatment systems. Li and Jiang (1995) reported that the capital investment and operation cost of a large-scale reed bed FWS in Weifang City, Shandong Province were 35% and 14% of that of A2O (anaerobic/anoxic/oxic) treatment systems. Similarly, the investment cost for a CWs with reed beds for wastewater treatment in Tianjin, North China was summed up to US$ 20/(m3 day) and the operation cost was US$ 0.025/(m3 day) (Yin and Shen, 1995). Chen et al. (2008) also reported that with the treatment capacity of 200 m3 /day, the construction cost in the Longdao River CW (located in Beijing) was calculated to be US$ 0.02/m3 , and average treatment cost was summed up to US$ 0.03/m3 , which is equal one-fth of that in traditional WWTP. 6.2. Energy Constructed wetlands are an attractive and promising alternative (both for industrialized and developing countries) to conventional technologies to treat wastewater due to their low energy consumption. Lderitz et al. (2001) compared three different strategies for wastewater treatment and disposal for three villages, namely discharge to a large-scale sewage treatment plant 20 km away, construction of a central mechanicalbiological wastewater system for the three villages, or construction of a wetland for every local community. The authors concluded that a semi-centralized constructed wetland needed 83% less energy than that of a central technical system and 72% less energy than the discharge to a central treatment located 20 km away. In addition, in the case of energy, the advantage of the CW in operational efciency dominates. In China, data and reports on energy consumption for constructed wetland are very rare. From 1985 to 1990, National Planning Committee, National Science and Technology Committee and National Environmental Protection Agency organized a nationwide study on sewage wetland treatment systems. The research projects were installed in different climatic zonesNorthwest: Xinjiang Autonomous Region (arid area, the north temperate zone); Northeast: Shenyang City (the north temperate zone); North China: Beijing and Tianin (the medium temperate zone) and Southwest: Kunming City (the north-subtropical zone). At the treated wastewater included municipal sewage, paper industry efuent, petrochemical processing wastewater and beer brewery efuent. And the treated sewage capacity ranges from 120 m3 /day to 500 m3 /day, the resultant technical-economic comparative analysis indicated that energy consumption for the different CW systems was only 1525% of that of conventional activated sludge technology (Li and Jiang, 1995).

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6.3. Space and land requirements CWs systems for wastewater treatment are usually land intensive and may require more space than conventional wastewater treatment systems (Kivaisi, 2001; Wittgren and Maehlum, 1997; Brissaud, 2007). The high land requirement for CWs is the main barrier for expanding the application of CWs in China. Also, CW cannot be applied in densely populated areas where land prices are often too high. The land requirements of CWs for wastewater treatment vary widely. Chinas distinct problem is that 81% of its water resources are in the countrys southern part but the largest part of arable land (64%), is in the north, where the nations political and economic centre is located (Varis and Vakkilainen, 2006). Since there is considerable diversity of geography, climate, land- and water resources distribution between northern- and southern China, the availability of land use for CW construction varies correspondingly. Therefore, although Zhai et al. (2006) indicated that the land requirement of traditional CWs for wastewater treatment is from 10 m2 /(m3 day) to 70 m2 /(m3 day), experience of CW construction in southern China indicated that the land requirement is much smaller than that in the northern region. For instance, according to Li and Wang (2006), in the constructed wetland systems of Shatian (Shenzhen, Guangdong Province), the land requirement was approximately 1.88 m2 /m3 and 1.2 m2 /capita, in the case of assumed consumption of 300 l/(capita day). Additionally, with the consideration of preliminary treatment, the total land requirement is 4 m2 /m3 . Also, in the constructed wetland of Bainikeng (Shenzhen, Guangdong Province) the land requirement for wastewater treatment was around 2.7 m2 /m3 . Southern China belongs to a subtropical climate zone, with relatively high temperatures and a humid climate, which is favourable for water plants growth. However, in Southern China, the average population density is 210 persons/km2 (Zhai et al., 2006). In this region, land resources are scarce with a high population density. Furthermore, the price of land is so high that land cost forms a high percentage of total investment for CWs. Therefore, CW treatment may be economical relative to other options only where land is available and affordable. As the available land possessed per capita in China is much lower than that of international standard, wetland systems with small land requirement and good efuent performance are more suitable for application. Great effort should be made therefore towards improving the treatment efciency of CWs and decreasing the land requirement.

Emergy analysis at the scale of biosphere and society is an evaluation system free of human bias, which can represent both the environmental and economic values of a given system (Odum, 1988; Brown and Ulgiati, 1999). Emergy accounting as an ecological approach came out of creative combination of thermodynamics and systems ecology (Odum, 1996; Geber and Bjoerklund, 2001), and this approach represents a measure for comparison of environmental good, energy quality, and economic valuation (Odum, 1988; Brown and Herendeen, 1996). In China, Zhou et al. (2009) measured the energy and resource consumption and conducted a comparative study on a constructed wetland (Longdao River, Beijing) and conventional wastewater treatment with cyclic activated sludge system (CAAS) (Hangtiancheng, Beijing). In this study, emergy-based indices such as the ratio of purchased/fee, local/imported and the ratio of electricity emergy used were chosen to characterize the two treatment systems in self-sufciency and environmental effect, respectively. The report revealed that the ratio of purchased inputs to free inputs for CWs were 3.4, compared with the ratio of 1450 for CAAS. The ratio of local inputs to imported for CWs was 0.35, almost three times more than those for CASS, revealing that the system of CASS depended more on external resources and were driven mainly by the imported emergy. Similarly, the ratio of the electricity consumption for CWs is 3.9% while 37.1% for CASS. This indicates that more local renewable resources and less ecological cost are involved, thus promoting the economic benet due to less energy consumption and the lowering of environmental stress. Zuo et al. (2004) initialled a comparative study on the sustainability of original and constructed wetlands in Yancheng Biosphere Reserve (YBR) located in Jiangsu Province. The authors employed two new emergy indices, base emergy change (Bec) and the net prot (Np) in order to compare the ecological-economic benets of different kinds of wetlands. Results indicated that a water fowl pond, constructed for ecological reasons at the edge of the core zone of YBR, has much more Bec than the original wetlands and shponds, while its Np is negative and much lower than the other sites. Fishponds built for economic reasons in the buffer zone have negative Bec while the Np is the highest. However, the emergy yield ratio (Yr) of the original wetlands is the highest. In some way, it could be said that the negative Bec in the shponds may mean a purely exploitation activity searching for economic benets by exhausting natural resources, and shpond creation should be stopped to ensure better conservation of the original wetlands and rare bird species. The positive Bec and negative Np of the waterfowl pond indicated an effective way forward for biodiversity conservation, which was proved by the increasing numbers of birds and bird species observed.

7. Sustainability In 1987, the concept of sustainable development was dened at Brundtland Commission as: development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generation to meet their own needs (Brundtland Commission, 1987). In the last decade, costbenet analysis has been considered as the major evaluation system for sustainable development activities. However, such monetary costbenet evaluation procedures do not consider all of the resources involved. Although it is difcult, to give an adequate denition of sustainability, the measurement and assessment on sustainability of at least three aspects, embracing the economic cost that determines the operation and maintenance of the system, input/output efciency that is necessary for scarce resource allocation, and the ecological cost of restoration that is important to deal with the interaction between the biosphere and societal environment, have to be thoroughly included (Chen et al., 2009). 8. Conclusions To solve the multifold water-related problems in China, completely replication of centralized water-, energy- and costintensive technology has proved to be extremely limited and not feasible, especially in fast growing small- to medium-sized urban area in China. Constructed wetlands have gained increasing attention and been implemented as wastewater treatment facilities in many parts of the world because of their low-cost and energysavings. This paper reviews the progress of CWs for wastewater treatment in China, and delineate some of the key treatment efciency and performance issues which may be elucidated by the China experience. Comparison on the existing of FWS, HSSF, VSSF and hybrid systems in China that we have data for indicates that hybrid systems perform best in the removal of TSS, BOD5 , COD, and TP. Compared

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to VSSF systems, HSSF systems showed better removal efciency for BOD5 and TP (82.22% and 59.01%, respectively), although for TSS removal the VSSF showed much better removal efciency (75.52%). As for nitrogen removal, the TN removal efciency of HSSF systems was signicantly higher than that for VSSF systems. And surprisingly, even the ammonia removal efciency of HSSF systems in China (56.2%) was higher than for the VSSF systems (43.3%). Additionally, this comparison of removal efciencies by CWs in China to CW treatment of 268 systems throughout Europe (Haberl et al., 1995) indicated that the removal rates for nearly all the parameters, were higher in China than Europe. Experience in China show that plants can play a key role and make a signicant difference in treatment efciency. Numerous comparative studies have veried that the planted wetlands show higher removal efciency of TN and NH4 -N than that unplanted wetlands. However, plants play a much lesser role in the removal of TP, COD and BOD5 . For COD and BOD5 , it would appear that in most wetland systems either anaerobic decomposition plays a major role or, alternatively, aeration of the substrate (without plants) is sufcient to satisfy the oxygen demand of organics removal. Although CW systems in China do not have an apparent advantage in construction costs, the costs for treatment and operation/maintenance of CW systems are much lower than those of conventional WWTP and activated sludge processes. Similarly, results of technical-economic comparative analysis of various CW systems in China indicate that energy consumption for different CW systems was far less than that of conventional activated sludge technology. Land requirements for CWs present one of the factors most limiting their broader use, especially in southern China, where land resources are scarce and population density is high. References
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