Natural Wetlands and Waste management in Rural area

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Hi everyone.

I want to assess the links between wetland and sanitation issues in rural area and find out where the solid and liquid waste produced in a village end up.

I used Google earth to make a map of land usage in the village (Landscape),  then Recorded the GPS position of boreholes, toilets, waste dump places in villages, then outline channels that collect rainwater into wetland.

The point is I am not that good in statistics, and am not sure how to analyse the data I collected to assess role played by Natural Wetlands in waste management. 

Your idea and comments are most welcome.

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17 Answers

  2. I think you can use a coloured solution..for all connections of sewer system(you can begin from houses..or manholes..or pumping stations...inject the coloured solution ..then follow)..after dividing your area into squares..that can be controlled..then you can follow this coloured solution until the place that collect all.. This method is used by hydologists..to follow up any contamination in the ground water

  3. Dear Seriba, Here is some additional info .. Pdf by US EPA. I feel your original question rather seems broad. You probably need to go a site specific requirement- I see you are located in Japan. Your target region / site in question is also in Japan? PDF. This is a thorough assessment of a constructed wetland. You see all the variables that are required to assess the wetland function - natural or not. Can be a useful source of data collection sample. http://water.epa.gov/type/wetlands/restore/upload/constructed-wetlands-design-manual.pdf

  4. Dear Seriba, I believe the answer by Reza Hosseini sums up all the requirements that answer your question. The most critical data sets are the hydrological data and the different sources of pollution. Once you have both you can calculate how much of the waste is being transported through the hydrological cycle.

  6. before it reaches to the point you are searching in, there is decrease in the concentration as a reslt of interaction to various waste host objects, plants, water channels, other orthropogenic activities. Since a researcher must focus on the fact that untill the waste (S/L) reaches to a specific place its concentration and lethal activity is mitigated, even is has affected many things that a researcher usually ignores...

  7. Hi Seriba If there are a lot of domesticated animals such as goats and cattle, ecoli may not be a good indicator as you may not be able to separate between human and animal faecal contamination, unless you undertake quite complex microbial source tracking. Possibly you may not be interested in separating between animal and human contamination and may only want to see the total faecal contamination. This makes life much easier. As there is not much fertiliser usage, nitrogen also could be a good indicator of contamination. There is no 'magic' statistical method that can give you the answer that you want. I am sorry, I just cannot suggest such a method. What you are trying to do is quite complex. Please have a look at the following paper. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/4016/1/4016.pdf Possibly you can follow a similar procedure, install shallow monitoring wells along the groundwater flow paths to the wetland do some testing of the water collected in the groundwater wells. A simple mathematical calculation should give you an approximate idea of the amount of contamination flowing into the wetland

  8. Aren't we forgetting something? Rural conditions all around the world are different. Unless you have pinpointed a geographical area, I don't think statistical figures in one part of the world will suit other parts. If data is not available then it is vital to accomodate correction factors for culture, at least, in the results for them to be worthwhile. Again, what will be the distance of the natural wetland from the center of the area? There should be a minimum radial figure beyond which the natural wetland effect will be or should be nullified, in the interests of accuracy. just my 2c. All the best

  9. All the comments are good. I will venture that you will have some data needed which would be extremely difficult to collect. I live right in the center of a whole lake ecosystem with many wetlands and a rural town, two to sixty meters elevated above the wetlands and not on the same plane where rivers would flow. There are small streams which turn into torrents when big rains come but many times these are dry or has very limited travel. since there is no direct line of affluent/sewer matter flowing into the wetlands, we are unable to determine a case. The rural areas all have pit sewers and obviously affect the ground water. The point where your info starts getting diluted is the following. If you talk of a wetland as a reed base which filters the water, these are effective to clear polluted waste like liquid sewage. If your wetland consists of a peat layer which is between 500mm and 2000mm thick you have no idea how to formulate the content which moves in and out of that basin. If the town was elevated directly above and in line with the river system, the outcome would look very different. My local town has its own sewer works but it handles only the local hospital sewage. To determine exactly how much of the overflow in the pit system walks into the repository of clean water in undetected. Now, I have just indicated some aspects which would influence your data on an extreme level. At best you will come out with a guess and even that could be off target. I hope you get better advice than mine but keep it going folks, it is interesting to see the correlation in different aspects of the projects.

  10. We talk about the watershed, but also a topographic relationship, it should instead be interested in the feeding area ( related to soil science and geology - soil and subsoil). Wetlands are important purifier with a stable pollution over time (biological adaptation) but pollution load inapropriate breaks this balance. It is then necessary to divide this pollution for its better integration.

  11. Hi Seriba; Interesting project. A couple of questions to you as we are also working on installing a collection network and wetland in a village. How are people collecting the sewage and greywater in yours? Also you said rainwater is going to the wetland can I ask why? Is it because you have open drains carrying the sewage and greywater or is there some other reason? Sanjay

  12. Following data is needed.

    You should find out all sources of pollution from inhabitants, agriculture and industry produced in the basin of wetland so at least you need following data:

    1. Topography and bathymetry in wetland.
    2. General geology (geological units and their lithology)
    3. Hydrological and climate data including:
      1. Precipitations
      2. Climate data (temp., wind, …)
      3. Basin physiography
      4. Groundwater info (water table, chemical data)
      5. The inflow (surface and groundwater and precipitations) and outflow (evaporation, water extraction and …)
    4. Population of inhabitants in basin, amount of wastewater and garbage (flowing into the wetland)
    5. Agricultural pollutions: fertilizers, toxins, cropping and …
    6. Livestock: type, population and amount of waste generation
    7. Industrial pollution: type and amount of pollution generation

    Having these data you can select a proper model like DIPSIR and use the collected data in model, then analysis the problem (if exist).

    Good luck

  13. I agree with Mr. Goonetilleke. I am assuming you want to find out how well these wetland work. Can I suggest you read a very interesting study "Performance of a natural wetland treatment system for wastewater management, by Knight, McKim and Kohl, published by WPCF journal, Volume 59 Number 8 pages 746 and other publications including the US EPA. Good luck

  15. Land use and topographic data alone is not going to answer your question. You will need population data, wetland inflow and outflow data as well as inflow and outflow water quality data - nutrients, e.coli at the minimum. The extent of statistical analysis that you need to undertake is going to be totally dependent on what questions you are looking to answer.

  16. http://www.google.rs/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CB0QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vin.bg.ac.rs%2FSDM%2Fdokumenti%2Fmonografija%2Fdata_s%2FP_4.pdf&ei=y2H_VIeWGcX5ywPciIHQBA&usg=AFQjCNF3lNDBnPOHTGX7SUadZFqNbpdAcA&sig2=TRhgJNW1Qq_kZYsMu1FNMg&bvm=bv.87611401,d.bGQ Also check http://www.nobel.rs/zagadjena-voda-i-bolesti.php Skype : burnnotice00381