Assessment of uncertainty in constructed wetland treatment performance and load estimation methods

Constructed wetlands (CWs) are commonly established to reduce pollution load from different sources. In environmental permits, the load remaining after CW purification is typically estimated through concentration and flow measurements. This load monitoring is often carried out using long water quality sampling intervals, which causes uncertainty in load estimation. In this study, a large suspended solids (SSs) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) dataset was used to quantify the uncertainty in load estimation at the inlet and outlet of a CW with different sampling frequencies (sampling every 1, 2, 3 or 4 weeks). A method to reduce the uncertainty by dividing the CW flow duration curve (FDC) into four equal categories and assigning mean/median concentration for each category according to the measured concentrations was also tested. The results showed that estimated SS load was associated with considerable uncertainty and that this uncertainty increased with lower sampling frequency. The FDC method was able to decrease the uncertainty, but much still remained, especially when concentrations of the measured variable showed great variation. In such cases, sensor technology might be a feasible option for further reducing the uncertainty.