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Updated: Sep 9, 2025

Mesocosm-Scale Constructed Wetland Design for Wastewater Treatment
Published on: May 2, 2025
Partially water-level-fluctuating strategy enhances rural greywater treatment in vertical flow constructed wetlands
Cangxiang Wen1, Zheqin Dai2, Fangkui Cheng3
1School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, No.2 Sipailou Road, Nanjing, 210096, China.
Abstract:
Vertical flow constructed wetlands (VFCWs) represent a cost-effective and eco-friendly solution for sustainable wastewater management in rural areas. However, their limited capacity to tolerate influent fluctuations constrains their reliability in practical applications. This study aims to enhance the efficiency and reliability of rural greywater treatment by developing a new partially water-level-fluctuating strategy (PFCW) in VFCWs. The performance of PFCW was systematically evaluated and compared with conventional unsaturated (USCW) and partially saturated (PSCW) strategies under field conditions with varying hydraulic and pollutant loads. Results showed that PFCW significantly improved oxygen transfer and utilization, consistently achieving high removal efficiencies for COD (> 93 %) and NH4+-N (> 92 %). Weibull reliability analysis confirmed that PFCW maintained 100 % treatment reliability with discharge standards under all tested conditions, whereas others did not. Microbial analysis revealed that the dynamic water-level fluctuations in PFCW balanced anaerobic and aerobic conditions, promoting a stable and interconnected microbial community, which significantly enhanced key metabolic pathways associated with organic and nitrogen removal, thereby supporting high performance and contributing to long-term stability. Overall, this study demonstrates how water level management strategies shape microbial ecology and functional metabolism in VFCWs, offering a reliable, simple, and cost-efficient solution for greywater treatment in resource-constrained rural areas.
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