Construction of floating treatment wetlands for remediation of polluted waters

Abstract

Water regulation, integral water management and water conservation are one of the main tasks, set by an ecologically conscious society. A series of complex treatments are set in order to achieve the main goal in wastewater treatment, i.e. eliminating or reducing pollutants to a level that will not cause adverse effects to humans and the environment. The paper presents the construction of an efficient, environmentally friendly and economically justified biological system for the treatment of polluted urban waters. Research has shown that the proposed system with floating islands and algae was effective in removing various categories of pollutants from polluted river (organic and inorganic matter, heavy metals and pathogenic microorganisms), which indicated that the selected type of construction was appropriate. It was concluded that minor modifications in terms of cell coverage by floating islands could provide even greater removal of certain pollutants such as nitrogen, phosphorus and heavy metals.