Performance and sustainability of a multi-stage free water surface constructed wetland under seasonal change and shock loading

Multi-stage constructed wetlands (CWs) are widely used for water quality improvement, especially in the treatment of wastewater. Many studies focus on their treatment efficiency under steady loading, but fewer studies consider their sustainability under variable conditions. This study examines the multi-stage CWs in the Hong Kong Wetland Park for their long-term performance and sustainability in terms of water quality under seasonal changes, storm events, and shock loadings of pollutants. The results show that the multistage design performs well and is stable under these changing conditions. In such multistage CWs, the type of units and some changing conditions (e.g., inflow concentrations, seasonal changes of vegetation, and water levels) also affect the performance of the whole system. Compared to individual CW, a multi-stage CW system could recover more quickly on dissolved oxygen (DO), and ammonia nitrogen (NH4), but slowly on biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and total phosphorus (TP). A pre-processing and buffering area is necessary to handle the shock loadings of BOD and TP in such a multistage CW system. Although water levels recover quickly in both, it is difficult to return to original water levels in multi-stage CWs compared to single ones. Besides, for sustainable operation, attention should be paid to the DO of the inlet, and aeration measures might be taken.