Constructed Wetlands in South Korea: Current Status and Performance Assessment

Hyeseon Choi, Nash Jett DG. Reyes, Minsu Jeon and Lee-Hyung Kim
Additional contact information
Hyeseon Choi: Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Kongju National University, Cheonan City 31080, Korea
Nash Jett DG. Reyes: Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Kongju National University, Cheonan City 31080, Korea
Minsu Jeon: Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Kongju National University, Cheonan City 31080, Korea
Lee-Hyung Kim: Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Kongju National University, Cheonan City 31080, Korea

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 18, 1-19

Abstract: The efficiency of nature-based facilities is mostly evaluated in terms of their pollutant removal capabilities; however, apart from water purification functions, constructed wetlands also perform ecological, cultural, and environmental education functions. A multi-criteria performance index was developed in this study to evaluate the overall efficiency of constructed wetlands. A total of 54 constructed wetlands installed across South Korea were monitored to evaluate the pollutant removal performance of the facilities. A comparison between the conventional pollutant removal-based evaluation and the developed multi-criteria index was also performed to determine the key changes in the results of evaluation when different methods are employed. Among the different types of wetlands studied, hybrid systems were found to be the most effective in terms of pollutant removal due to their complex configurations and functions. Newly constructed treatment wetlands have unstable performance and thus, a stabilization period ranging from two to five years is required to assess the facility’s pollutant removal capabilities. As compared to the conventional pollutant removal-based efficiency evaluation, the comprehensive evaluation method provided a more strategic tool for identifying the facilities’ strengths and weaknesses. Generally, the multi-criteria performance index developed in this inquiry can be utilized as a general tool for evaluating the sustainability of similar nature-based facilities.

Keywords: constructed wetland; green infrastructure; land use and land-use changes; low impact development; nature-based solution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/18/10410/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/18/10410/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:18:p:10410-:d:638467

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().