Distribution and characteristics of wastewater treatment plants within the global river network
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Published:2022-02-09
Issue:2
Volume:14
Page:559-577
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ISSN:1866-3516
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Container-title:Earth System Science Data
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language:en
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Short-container-title:Earth Syst. Sci. Data
Author:
Ehalt Macedo HeloisaORCID, Lehner BernhardORCID, Nicell Jim, Grill Günther, Li Jing, Limtong Antonio, Shakya Ranish
Abstract
Abstract. The main objective of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs)
is to remove pathogens, nutrients, organics, and other pollutants from
wastewater. After these contaminants are partially or fully removed through
physical, biological, and/or chemical processes, the treated effluents are
discharged into receiving waterbodies. However, since WWTPs cannot remove
all contaminants, especially those of emerging concern, they inevitably
represent concentrated point sources of residual contaminant loads into
surface waters. To understand the severity and extent of the impact of
treated-wastewater discharges from such facilities into rivers and lakes, as
well as to identify opportunities of improved management, detailed
information about WWTPs is required, including (1) their explicit geospatial
locations to identify the waterbodies affected and (2) individual plant
characteristics such as the population served, flow rate of effluents, and level
of treatment of processed wastewater. These characteristics are especially
important for contaminant fate models that are designed to assess the
distribution of substances that are not typically included in environmental
monitoring programs. Although there are several regional datasets that
provide information on WWTP locations and characteristics, data are still
lacking at a global scale, especially in developing countries. Here we
introduce a spatially explicit global database, termed HydroWASTE, containing 58 502 WWTPs
and their characteristics. This database was developed by combining national
and regional datasets with auxiliary information to derive or complete
missing WWTP characteristics, including the number of people served. A
high-resolution river network with streamflow estimates was used to
georeference WWTP outfall locations and calculate each plant's dilution
factor (i.e., the ratio of the natural discharge of the receiving waterbody
to the WWTP effluent discharge). The utility of this information was
demonstrated in an assessment of the distribution of treated wastewater at
a global scale. Results show that 1 200 000 km of the global river
network receives wastewater input from upstream WWTPs, of which more than
90 000 km is downstream of WWTPs that offer only primary treatment.
Wastewater ratios originating from WWTPs exceed 10 % in over 72 000 km of
rivers, mostly in areas of high population densities in Europe, the USA, China,
India, and South Africa. In addition, 2533 plants show a dilution factor of
less than 10, which represents a common threshold for environmental concern.
HydroWASTE can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.14847786.v1 (Ehalt Macedo et al., 2021).
Funder
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Publisher
Copernicus GmbH
Subject
General Earth and Planetary Sciences
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