The Design of Treatment Wetlands in the United Kingdom: Successes, Failures, and Alternative Approaches

Constructed wetland was first introduced into the United Kingdom in the middle of 1980s, following a visit by a group of scientist to Western Germany. In the past 2 decades, the applications of constructed wetlands in this country have expanded substantially, due to the demand for green technologies and rising cost of fossil fuel energies. This paper reported a statistical investigation of the performances of 78 horizontal flow wetlands, representatives of such system in the United Kingdom. Alternative design equations, based on organic matter removal efficiency, have been developed from Monod kinetics, and the accuracy and reliability of current and alternative design approaches have been examined.