Accepted Papers - 3.pdf - UNESCO

National Seminar on Rainwater Harvesting and Water Management 11-12 Nov. 2006, Nagpur
62. Urban Stormwater Management Through Sustainable Urban Drainage
Systems - A Unified Approach Through Constructed Wetland using
Macrophytes
* M. N. V. Prasad
Abstract
Stormwater is a important water resource. Stormwater treatment and management is
an important topics in tropical countries. In the wake of 2005 Bangalore and Mumbai urban
flash floods all concerned authorities must examine the feasibility of implementing “ Sustainable
Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS)” a well established and operationalized in developed counties.
This is a neglected area in Indian scenario. In this paper stormwater treatment and management
using macrophytes is described. A glossary of terms is also attached at the end.
INTRODUCTION
Pollutants that originate mainly from nonpoint
sources, which are difficult to control.
Constructed wetlands are designed to intercept and
remove a wide range of contaminants from waste
water. These wetlands can save time and money by
using natural mechanisms to treat non-point source
pollution before it reaches lakes, rivers, and oceans.
Conventional wastewater treatment plants can
effectively remove non-point source pollution, but
are expensive to build and operate. Therefore, Local
waste water treatment plants are desirable to reuse
water.
SUSTAINABLE URBAN DRAINAGE
SYSTEMS FOR COLLECTION OF
STORMWATER – WATER TREATMENT IN
CONSTRUCTED WETLAND USING
MACROPHYTES :
The use of aquatic plants in water quality
assessment has been common for years as in-situ
biomonitors and for in situ remediatio. The
occurrence of aquatic macrophytes is
unambiguously related to water chemistry and using
these plant species or communities as indicators or
biomonitors has been an objective for surveying
water quality. Aquatic plants have also been used
frequently to remove suspended solids, nutrients,
heavy metals, toxic organics and bacteria from acid
mine drainage, agricultural landfill and urban stormwater
runoff. In addition considerable research has
been focused on determining the usefulness of
macrophytes, as biomonitors of polluted
environments and as bioremediative agents in waste
water treatments. The response of an organism to
deficient or excess levels of metal (i.e. bioassays)
can be used to estimate metal impact. Such studies
done under defined experimental conditions can
provide results that can be extrapolated to natural
environment. There are multifold advantages in
using an aquatic macrophyte as a study material.
Macrophytes are cost-effective universally available
aquatic plants and with their ability to survive
adverse conditions and high colonization rates, are
excellent tools for studies of phytoremediation.
Rooted macrophytes especially play an important
role in metal bioavailability through rhizosphere
secretions and exchange processes. This naturally
facilitates metal uptake by other floating and
emergent forms of macrophytes. Macrophytes
readily take up metals in their reduced form from
sediments, which exist in anaerobic situations due
to lack of oxygen and oxidize them in the plant
tissues making them immobile and bioconcentrate
* Department of Plant Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad 500 046, India.
Tel: +91-40-23011604, 23134509 Fax: +91-40-23010120, 23010145 E-mail: mnvsl@uohyd.ernet.in
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