CRITICAL DESIGN PARAMETERS FOR CONSTRUCTED WETLANDS NATURAL WASTEWATER TREATMENT SYSTEMS

Constructed wetlands, also known as natural treatment systems, are designed for wastewater treatment especially inrural sections. They are used primarily for domestic wastewater treatments of small communities. Influent wastewater istreated in specially design basins containing graded substrate material and planted with aquatic plants. Since there areseveral physical, chemical and microbiological processes happening in these basins, a special attention should be paidfor design parameters of these systems. Improper design and operation may result in serious failures and malfunction ofthe system. Instead of simple or general design parameters, site-specific parameters considering local climate, sitetopography, influent wastewater characteristics and locally available materials should be taken into consideration bothto have optimum operation and to minimize the system costs. Proper operation, maintenance and monitoring processesshould also be performed in these systems since the success of the system is not totally depend on design parameters. Inthis study, critical design parameters of constructed wetlands were assessed and potential mistakes made in design ofconstructed wetland systems of Kayseri province of Turkey were provided and solutions were proposed for alreadyexisting problems.