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Bribie Lakes: A Case Study in using Floating Wetland Treatment Systems to Treat Urban Runoff
Conference paper   Open access   Peer reviewed

Bribie Lakes: A Case Study in using Floating Wetland Treatment Systems to Treat Urban Runoff

Michael Nielsen, Christopher Walker, Darren Drapper and Terry Lucke
Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD)
International Conference on Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD), 9th (Sydney, Australia, 19-Oct-2015–23-Oct-2015)
Engineers Australia
2015
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PDF - Author Accepted Version440.95 kBDownloadView
Accepted VersionPDF - Author Accepted Version Open Access

Abstract

Civil Engineering Environmental Engineering urban runoff
Floating Wetland Treatment Systems (FWTS) have the potential to provide significantly greater stormwater pollution removal rates per unit area compared to constructed wetlands or other treatment systems. As FWTS do not require additional earthworks or land uptake, they can also offer this increased pollution removal performance at significantly lower costs. In addition, the use of floating wetlands in stormwater retention ponds does not affect their hydrological processes or performance. This paper describes an innovative research study currently underway on Bribie Island in Queensland, Australia to evaluate the performance of a floating wetland system used to treat the stormwater runoff from a 10 ha urban catchment. The experimental design of the study is unique on a number of levels. Firstly, the experimental design of the study allows the performance of the new floating wetland system to be monitored and analysed during storm events. The experimental design also incorporates an array of impermeable baffles which directs all of the stormwater runoff through the floating wetlands, eliminating the short-circuiting problems experienced in previous studies. This approach effectively makes the floating wetland an on-line treatment system. This setup enables real-time water sampling to be accurately undertaken to evaluate the pollution removal performance of the system Previous study results suggest that FWTS are effective in removing pollutants when inflow pollutant concentrations are sufficiently high. However, as with all treatment systems, the efficacy is reduced when influent pollutant concentrations are low. Preliminary study results indicate that the catchment runoff pollutant concentrations are significantly lower than those expected for Queensland urban catchments. This has the potential to significantly affect the study results. This paper discusses these and other stormwater monitoring issues.

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