Constructed wetlands are recognized as viable potential technology for reducing pollution load and improving quality of water and wastewater. The use of river diversion wetlands is gaining place for improving quality of river and stream water. However, the design criterion for this category of wetlands has not been fully established, and there is a need to optimize existing approach to enhance operational performance. This chapter presents a step-by-step approach for the design of a typical river diversion constructed wetland intended to remove some pollutants and improve river water quality. The approach focused mainly on water quality objective and outlined simple criteria, guidelines, and model equations for the design procedure of a new river diversion constructed wetland. The design of constructed wetlands is generally an iterative process based on empirical equations. Thus, this approach combines simple equations and procedure for estimating the amount of river water to be diverted for treatment so as to assist the designer in sizing the wetland system. The novel approach presented may be useful to wetland experts as some of the procedures presented are not popular in wetland studies. However, this may improve existing river diversion wetlands’ design and development.
Part of the book: Inland Waters