Glen T. Daigger, Helen X. Littleton
As we begin the new century, many developed and developing countries face fresh challenges, including wastewater infrastructure that must continue to evolve and adjust to population growth and changes in the economy, environment, regulations, and technology. Development of a vision and plan for a sustainable wastewater infrastructure is critical at the planning stage to guide the long-term achievement of enhanced performance by wastewater systems. It involves a broad vision of engineering design in terms of treatment capacity, effluent concentration, and biosolids management to accommodate changes over the life of the system. However, in many cases the sustainability of the design has not been considered, particularly in the rapidly growing economies of some developing countries.
This paper addresses sustainability of wastewater infrastructure from a variety of perspectives, includng a discussion on the topic sustainability and the "building block" approach to wastewater treatment facility planning and design to achieve greater sustainability. These topics are addressed with a particular focus on China, where rapid economic growth has triggered many environmental issues.
Read the full paper: Develop a Building Block Strategy in Sustainable Wastewater Treatment Design (PDF)