promaco 2012 - 13th International Conference on Wetland Systems for Water Pollution Control

The use of constructed wetlands in water pollution control has been a matter of considerable interest and research from the early eighties. While most of the work has focused on the use of wetlands as polishing systems and on removal of nutrients, metals and pathogens, research has also revealed their application for primary wastewater treatment ("French systems") and sludge stabilisation.
Reuse of wastewater and stormwater for non-potable purposes has become necessary due to increasing demand on high quality water. Wetlands have proven to reliably achieve efficient treatment processes, satisfying non-potable reuse requirements. This is of extreme importance in the Australian context, where most of the water is used in agriculture. Besides, population pressure and declining rainfall patterns in
some areas have led to degradation of natural wetlands and groundwater dependent ecosystems.
Treatment wetlands are now a well established technology. There are several thousand wetland systems treating municipal, agricultural and industrial wastewaters in North America and Europe and a rising number of systems treating point source and non-point source pollution globally. These wetland systems have a wide variety of engineering designs, wetted areas, flow rates, influent and effluent quality, hydraulic properties and monitoring requirements. The information from this operational treatment experience can be used to form design guidelines for wetland systems. Further research is necessary in areas of system longevity, pollutant removal process dynamics and system modelling.
The major aim of the Conference is to bring together researchers and professionals to discuss new evelopments and exchange experiences in the field of constructed wetland systems. The Conference will highlight the latest improvements and achievements in the treatment of urban storm water runoff, domestic and municipal wastewaters, agricultural and industrial effluents.
The success of several IWA Conferences organised by the ETC demonstrates our capacity to organise the 13th International Conference on Wetlands Systems for Water Pollution Control. We have long been encouraging and disseminating research on treatment wetlands. Murdoch organised an International Workshop on Wetland Systems for Wastewater Treatment in 1996. We have published papers in the field of Constructed Wetlands, Decentralised Systems and Environmental Technologies.