Pollutant Removal Efficiency for Wetland (PREWet) Stormwater Quality Model Performance for Constructed Wetlands in Tropical Climate

Abstract

Rapid development has increased impervious areas which have largely contributed to the occurrence of flash floods and deterioration of the water quality. Constructed wetland, a component under the best management practice, has been used as an alternative for water quality enhancement in Malaysia. However, water quality is a major issue in evaluating the effectiveness of constructed wetland. Hence, concerted efforts are needed to establish water quality modeling for constructed wetland. The objective of this study is to assess the treatment performance of constructed wetland using the pollutant removal efficiency for wetland (PREWet) as the stormwater quality model. The parameters involved are biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), total phosphorus (TP), total nitrogen (TN), and total suspended solid (TSS). In order to achieve the objective of the study, water quality sampling was conducted in 2012 at a small scale constructed wetland, located at the Humid Tropic Centre, Kuala Lumpur. The removal rate value was identified and the results indicated 0.32 day−1, 0.4 and 0.3 m/s, 0.05 for BOD, TP, TSS, TN, respectively. The results from the water quality sampling were then used for model calibration and verification to assess the effectiveness of the model. The findings from this study would provide a better understanding on the performance of constructed wetland as stormwater improvement among the researchers and stormwater engineers.