TY - JOUR
T1 - Advancing the Sponge City Agenda
T2 - evaluation of 22 plant species across a broad range of life forms for stormwater management
AU - Fowdar, Harsha
AU - Payne, Emily
AU - Deletic, Ana
AU - Zhang, Kefeng
AU - McCarthy, David
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to acknowledge the contribution of our funding partners and collaborators, Monash University, Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions (DJPR), Jiangsu Easthigh Airport Hi-tech Industrial Park Co. Ltd. (Easthigh) and Dajiang Environment Corporation (Dajiang). We thank Richard Williamson, Anthony Brosinsky, Kiri Mason, Gordon Privitera, Christelle Schang, Rebekah Henry, Tina Hines, Penny Galbraith for technical support. We are most grateful and sincerely thank Yussi Delgado, Timothy Lim, Haowen Jin, Kah Yean Ng and Lucy Lu for their assistance for the plant sampling. Our thanks also goes to all undergraduate and postgraduate students who have assisted during the various sampling campaigns.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2022/2
Y1 - 2022/2
N2 - In 2012, China introduced the Sponge City Agenda as a solution to challenges such as increasing urbanisation and population growth, leading to urban flooding and water pollution. The initiative requires new nature-based technologies tailored for Chinese conditions. Biofiltration or bioretention systems have proven to be promising technologies to mitigate stormwater pollution. Plant selection form a key component of system design. However, to date plant selection research has been limited, largely focusing on Australian native species monitored under a limited number of wetting and drying patterns. To address this gap, a large scale laboratory study was undertaken to test the hydraulic and treatment performance of 22 plant species, native to or common to Jiangsu Province, China, over a period of 15 months under varying frequency of inflows (corresponding to 3, 15 and 22 antecedent dry days). A wide variation in system infiltration capacity (up to 8-fold), nitrogen removal (up to 5-fold during wet conditions and up to 10-fold during dry conditions, between 20% and 80%) and phosphorus removal (up to 2-fold, between 35% and 95%) was found across plant species. In regards to heavy metals, plant-related contributions were observed for Cd, Ni and Zn removal (up to 90% removal overall). Overall, this study shows that while plants are not universally effective, a range of plant species, across a broad range of life forms, encompassing flowering herbs, reeds, shrubs, grasses, sedges, climbing plants and trees, can be used for effective stormwater treatment in China and elsewhere. It points to plant morphological and physiological characteristics being more important parameters and suggest future work investigate the relationship between plant evapotranspiration, water dynamics (incl. Antecedent drying), root traits and pollutant removal to advance the sustainable use of plants for stormwater treatment.
AB - In 2012, China introduced the Sponge City Agenda as a solution to challenges such as increasing urbanisation and population growth, leading to urban flooding and water pollution. The initiative requires new nature-based technologies tailored for Chinese conditions. Biofiltration or bioretention systems have proven to be promising technologies to mitigate stormwater pollution. Plant selection form a key component of system design. However, to date plant selection research has been limited, largely focusing on Australian native species monitored under a limited number of wetting and drying patterns. To address this gap, a large scale laboratory study was undertaken to test the hydraulic and treatment performance of 22 plant species, native to or common to Jiangsu Province, China, over a period of 15 months under varying frequency of inflows (corresponding to 3, 15 and 22 antecedent dry days). A wide variation in system infiltration capacity (up to 8-fold), nitrogen removal (up to 5-fold during wet conditions and up to 10-fold during dry conditions, between 20% and 80%) and phosphorus removal (up to 2-fold, between 35% and 95%) was found across plant species. In regards to heavy metals, plant-related contributions were observed for Cd, Ni and Zn removal (up to 90% removal overall). Overall, this study shows that while plants are not universally effective, a range of plant species, across a broad range of life forms, encompassing flowering herbs, reeds, shrubs, grasses, sedges, climbing plants and trees, can be used for effective stormwater treatment in China and elsewhere. It points to plant morphological and physiological characteristics being more important parameters and suggest future work investigate the relationship between plant evapotranspiration, water dynamics (incl. Antecedent drying), root traits and pollutant removal to advance the sustainable use of plants for stormwater treatment.
KW - Biofiltration
KW - Green façades
KW - Phytoremediation
KW - Rain gardens
KW - Urban green infrastructure
KW - Water quality
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85121152850&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ecoleng.2021.106501
DO - 10.1016/j.ecoleng.2021.106501
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85121152850
SN - 0925-8574
VL - 175
JO - Ecological Engineering
JF - Ecological Engineering
M1 - 106501
ER -
