Thursday, June 10, 2010

UNEP & constructed wetland

The United Nations Environment Programme

International Environmental Technology Centre (IETC)

Division of Technology, Industry and Economics

have a specific focus on Water and Sanitation ActivitiesAbuot this, they speech on Phytotechnology and Water. From the http://www.unep.or.jp/ietc/ web site:

"The term Phytotechnology is the application of science and engineering to study problems and provide solutions involving vegetation to a variety of environmental conditions. It is based on use of the ecosystem services provided by plants. Some examples of its application include the reduction and control of pollution through wetland systems, restoration of degraded natural or industrial land, carbon sinks and ameliorating the effects and impacts of climate change.

IETC application of Phytotechnology relates to the use of wetlands for water quality, and sanitation improvement, wastewater treatment as well as for the restoration of degraded aquatic ecosystems. Artificially constructed wetlands are considered as one of the best options due to their low costs and environmental and social friendliness particularly when compared with other conventional technological approaches. To facilitate the design of artificial subsurface flow wetlands a software application has been developed (SubWet 2.0) while SufWet 1.0 for surface flow wetland systems, and WetRestore wetland restoration assessment.

IETC has implemented a project in Brazil using SubWet 2.0 and Iraq to treat domestic wastewater. The forthcoming project Sanitation and Water Efficiency Enhancing Technologies (SWEET) uses SubWet 2.0 as one of the main tools. A self-learning Interactive Training Package considering the above mentioned software application and others will be produced during the 2010."

More info about the vision of UNEP on constructed wetland: http://www.unep.or.jp/ietc/publications/freshwater/watershed_manual/03_management-10.pdf

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi. My name is Rodrigo and i working in wetland proyect in the Autonomous Metropolitan University in Mexico,
I'm trying to adapt the subwet 2.0 to my project, but i have a problems because I've had no information and I would greatly appreciate if you had an example with the program that could send me to complete the data. thank you very much

Dave Toc PhD said...

Hi Rodrigo.
sorry for the late answer, I'm in Brasil until 18 July, I haven't here my computer for sending you some example. You can contact directly IETC for more info.
Greetings, Davide

Dave Toc PhD said...

Hi Rodrigo, here a link of unep with something more about subwet 2.0. I ask at IETC more cases study and procedure manual of the software.

http://www.unep.or.jp/Ietc/WS/news-apr10/S2_2_DrBrentWootton.pdf


I'm a wetland designer by 1998 and if you need help or practical information feel free to contact me.
Regards
Davide