Modeling Wastewater Evolution and Management Options under Variable Land Use Scenarios

The development of a reliable decision support system and predictions for water quantity and quality often require a reasonable level of environmental and hydrological simulations at various geographic scales. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model offers distributed parameter and continuous time simulation, and flexible watershed configuration and with the adoption of geographic information system (GIS) technology, a user-friendly and interactive decision support system can be developed for wastewater management. In this chapter, we evaluated the spatio-temporal evolution of wastewater contaminants in an environmentally degraded watershed through integrated field-based investigations and modeling approach. Later, management options were identified to improve the watershed health and agro-environment. The results of the modeling study exhibited variable responses of surface runoff and water quality to different scenarios of land use change. Temporal wastewater analysis indicated a significant impact of seasonality on the contaminants’ population levels. The adopted approach would prove effective in evaluating better management options to reduce negative impacts of wastewater and contaminants for sustainable agro-environment in future