[Water treatment efficiency of constructed wetland plant-bed/ditch systems]

Shijiuyang constructed wetland (SJY-CW) in Jiaxing City adopted plant-bed/ditch systems originated from the natural landscape as its major functioning unit. The constructed root channel technology (CRCT) is the core technique applied within the plant-bed/ditch systems. Monitoring results demonstrated that the wetland had the capability of improving water quality indexes by one rank grade according to the national environmental quality standards for surface water (GB 3838-2002). In order to optimize the water quality improvement function of plant-bed/ditch systems and CRCT, a pilot project in SJY-CW was constructed from May to October, 2010. The project contained 16 independent experimental cells. Orthogonal test design was applied to probe into the effects of constructed root channel layers, plant species combination, and reinforced physical substrates on promoting the water quality amelioration efficiency of the plant-bed/ditch systems. Comprehensively considering water treatment effects, construction difficulty, and construction and maintenance cost, the recommended optimal ways are as follows. Plant straws were preferably paved under subsurface zones by two layers with a gap of 20-30 cm. The preferable plant combination was reed (Phragmites australis) plus wild rice (Zizania caduciflora). Calcite might be applied as alternative reinforced media in some suitable sites of plant-bed/ditch systems. Water treatment effects were compared between pilot project and the whole wetland area of SJY-CW. The results showed that the reinforced pilot project exhibited higher treatment efficiency for nutrients than SJY-CW itself. The removal rates of total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and ammonia nitrogen were increased by about 20% - 40% in the pilot project. This suggested that SJY-CW could release its vast water treatment potential by means of increasing water flux through the subsurface root channel zones of plant beds. Therefore, some adjustment and control measures could be proposed to maintain the tradeoff balance between the potential release and maximization of wetland treatment efficiency and the treated water amount, such as constructing or modifying the hydraulic structures to regulate flow amount through large ditch, redistributing water flow and increasing the water head difference between the two sides of alternate small ditches.