Current and future opportunities for forest land application systems of wastewater

Abstract

Global human population growth will continue to threaten loss of forested lands, which, in turn, will negatively impact water quality as well as global and local environmental processes that regulate climate and biogeochemical cycling. Forests are integral to drinking water supplies for 30 % of the major cities in the world, and our existing managed and natural forests provide cleaner and more stable water supplies for surface water and groundwater than any other land use. One opportunity to minimize loss of forested landscapes, improve water quality, and regulate water availability is to consider coupling natural and managed forests with other environmental services such as wastewater treatment and management. These opportunities exist globally in wild lands, urban, suburban, and rural contexts at various scales across municipal, industrial, and agricultural systems. Wastewater treatment via land application has occurred since the 1500s in Europe and was established both in England and the United States in the late 1800s. Greater pressures exist today to manage water, wastewater, and forest systems in a sustainable manner. Advances in wastewater management provide new opportunities for forest-wastewater system design and use. The land application of wastewaters to forest ecosystems has historically focused on wastewater treatment and recycling. In the future, provisioning the world’s forests with adequate water may become as important as managing wastewaters with forested landscapes.