Elsevier

Urban Water

Volume 2, Issue 3, September 2000, Pages 197-221
Urban Water

Review
Techniques for water and wastewater management: a review of techniques and their integration in planning

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1462-0758(00)00056-XGet rights and content

Abstract

This paper presents a review of techniques in wastewater management and a discussion as to how they can be integrated in future water-planning issues. Three technical areas are dealt with: rainwater management, domestic wastewater management, and water and waste re-use. Each approach is reviewed from a technical perspective with a further commentary on economic and social factors that underpin the different techniques that each approach has to offer. This is followed by a discussion on how integrated assessment can lead to the design and implementation of more sustainable approaches to wastewater management.

Introduction

If future generations are not to be constrained even further, we must develop a coherent `holistic' approach to the planning, specification, costing and evaluation of water and wastewater options in the domestic context, such as where the demand for new housing developments is forecast to have significant and widespread environmental impact. It requires a balance of technical, economic, environmental and social goals, while satisfying the demands of developers, planners, environmental protection agencies and customers. The decision-making process is therefore complex, requiring the identification and evaluation of mutual and conflicting interests of stakeholders.

Before dealing with sustainability in wastewater management, it is helpful to review some definitions of sustainability and thus to place it in context. According to Otterpohl, Albold, and Grottker (1996), the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED, 1987, also known as Brundtland Report) made the most popular definition of sustainability. Sustainable development is defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.

According to Tages-Anzeiger (1995), the word sustainability has long been used in forestry where it means that volume and mass taken out is replaced and hence the mass balance accounts to zero. This is nowadays known as `natural sustainability', whose criteria are based on mass flux and the ability of a technique to recycle nutrients and other valuable resources from wastewater before they are lost.

Another aspect is `financial sustainability'. It can be argued that the success and survival of business follows natural laws as well, i.e. money spent on production, wages and interest has to be replaced by money earned for services or goods. However, the costs and use of raw materials included in the processes to produce the goods or deliver a service may seriously affect the mass balance. The instability that can thus be created by applying different economic criteria is one of the principal reasons why the issue of sustainability is raised at all. Hence, the quest for sustainability is intimately linked to the quest for economic models, which take the natural mass fluxes into account.

A third and important factor in sustainability considerations is the potential users of a system. Their behaviour and commitment to participate in the water management process make a method sustainable, because the occurrence of pollution in the water cycle is mostly due to human behaviour. This third factor may be called `social sustainability'.

In this review, sustainability will be discussed in the context of the above three distinct interpretations.

Of the many criteria which may be used to assess the feasibility of water and wastewater systems, it is likely that “the social aspects will be the most difficult issues” (Harremoës, 1997). This oft-neglected `social' side of systems can provide a wealth of information regarding the appropriateness of a technology in a given setting, along with any potential barriers to its implementation.

The scope for interdisciplinary co-operation in this area is large and the role of the engineer and the social scientist may converge, thereby reducing the tendency towards “expertocracy” (Fismer & Wendler, 1996). The distinction made between social acceptability and social sustainability throughout this paper is discussed below.

The `awareness' criteria have to be included in the investigation on ecological systems, as lack of awareness influences acceptance. The extent to which people are required to alter their everyday behaviour will probably have the largest effect on acceptability. Disgust sensitivity is also likely to have an effect on acceptance of water and waste re-use systems (Bixler & Floyd, 1997). Furthermore, research into risk perception (Slovic & MacGregor, 1994; Renn, 1998; Lofstedt, 1997) has shown that people are more likely to accept risks if they are seen to be familiar, voluntary, and of negligible catastrophic potential. Simply being `environmental' does not necessarily determine public acceptance.

To be sustainable, wastewater technology assessment should include community participation within the decision-making process. The need for institutional involvement in the installation and maintenance of wastewater systems will also affect the social sustainability, along with the potential for local development, in the form of jobs, amenity enhancement, and correspondence with local ethics (Balkema, Weijers, & Lambert, 1998).

One of the biggest positive influences that many alternative wastewater treatment systems may have is the “environmental education” component and the potential for further interdisciplinary communication and active partnership.

Section snippets

Review methodology

Three main areas in planning of wastewater in urban areas are tackled:

  • rainwater management;

  • domestic wastewater management;

  • management of water re-use (both domestic and rainwater).

Three aspects have been analysed in each area regarding efficiency, economic, and social aspects of the techniques, as listed below.
  • Techniques: Both traditional and novel will be presented with a brief description of their design requirements.

  • Efficiency: For all techniques, the efficiency is presented with respect to

Techniques

1. Traditional storm drainage systems consist of inlet structures (inlets with gully-pots or catch-basins), and drainage pipes which transport water to the nearest outfall. A number of ancillary structures may be included in such systems, such as silt traps, storage tanks and controllable structures. This form of drainage is still the most widely used technique. A distinction between combined and separate drainage systems (Escritt, 1984) needs to be made:

  • 1(a) CSS: Combined sewer systems convey

Domestic wastewater management

Domestic wastewater management in urban and semi-urban Europe is based on the conventional approach of collecting the wastewater in one of the traditional drainage systems discussed in the section above and transferring it to a treatment works. However, a variety of decentralised methods exist, which are applicable for both rural and suburban areas. Decentralised and also ecological methods generally provide simple, low-cost and low maintenance methods of treating domestic wastewater.

Water and waste re-use

Water and waste re-use techniques come closest to what was earlier described as natural sustainability. These techniques enhance the local water cycle and reapply nutrients from domestic wastewater to the local environment.

If we consider water usage in the average household in the UK as shown in Fig. 14, we see that some 67% of all water used is theoretically not contaminated by human faeces, although small amounts of faeces can occur in baby bathing water. This water leaves the average

Techniques

With respect to planning for water and wastewater management, there is a wealth of techniques available and yet most of them are hardly known by the mainstream engineer. In civil engineering undergraduate courses in higher education, ecological treatment systems are not included in water modules and students study conventional techniques. Only in specialised courses, do students have a chance to learn about new techniques. This fact makes the application of ecologically sound solutions more

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Mr Graeme Slaver of Robert Gordon University who found the necessary financial resources to fund this research.

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