Advancing on the promises of techno-ecological nature-based solutions: A framework for green technology in water supply and treatment

Abstract

Nature-based solutions (NBS) are increasingly proposed for effectively and adaptively addressing societal challenges such as water security and natural disasters. However, NBS that are exclusively reliant on natural processes are not fit-for-purpose for the provision of safe drinking water – some range of built technology is required. There is a wide spectrum of techno-ecological NBS – ‘green technologies’ – that are fit-for-purpose in the treatment and distribution of safe drinking water. A framework was developed to enable an accurate and transparent description of the ‘green’ attributes of technology – including green infrastructure – in the water industry. The framework differentiates technology ‘greenness’ by relatively examining key attributes that may cause environmental impacts across the technology's life cycle through the lens of the environmental setting in which it is applied. In the water industry, green technology can be described by four main attributes: natural-resource basis, energy consumption, waste production, and footprint. These attributes are closely linked and must be considered relative to the biophysical and human environments in which they are applied and the other technologies to which they are being compared. The use of the framework can facilitate techno-ecological decision-making that strives to address diverse stakeholder priorities – including the influence of sociocultural factors on the green technology preferences of individuals, groups, or communities.

Nature-based solutions for water management: insights to assess the contribution to urban resilience

“…This set of studies allowed to conclude and highlight the need to compile more information on NBS to create an evidence base to promote the implementation of this type of solution. The NBS practical implementation may be challenging due to the existing differences from traditional systems (Blackburn et al 2021). In the context of urban resilience, some NBS studies were carried out focusing on some Ecosystem Services Particularly for stormwater management, the NBS regulating role for urban surface runoff (Zölch et al 2016) and the benefits of NBS for water pollution control (Liquete et al 2016) were analysed.…”

Buffer Effects in Submersed Denitrifying Biofilter

“…Biological denitrification methods are considered promising [Khera et al, 2021]. Biological denitrification results in minimal carbon emissions into the biosphere [Blackburn et al, 2021]. A number of studies describe the use of microbiological cleaning [Issayeva et al, 2022], incl.…”

Biological filtration is resilient to wildfire ash-associated organic carbon threats to drinking water treatment

“…25,26 These DOC-associated post-fire treatment concerns emphasize the need for water supply and treatment resilience, potentially in the form of techno-ecological approaches, to respectively mitigate these threats at the source and/or in treatment plants. 27,28 Biologically-mediated drinking water treatment technologies may offer treatment resilience in buffering altered aquatic DOC concentrations and character after wildfire. While conventional filtration focuses solely on achieving particle and pathogen removal and requires pre-treatment by chemical coagulants for effective operation even when source water quality is high, 29 biological filtration offers additional treatment benefits, including reductions of taste and odor compounds, NOM, and therefore regulated disinfection byproducts.…”

“…32,33 Biological filtration processes range from classical-biofiltration in an otherwise conventional treatment plant (i.e., preceded by coagula-tion/flocculation/clarification and sometimes advanced oxidation processes such as pre-ozonation)-to slow sand filtration (SSF) that is typically operated without chemical or other types of pre-treatments. 28,32 Thus, while they may include physico-chemical filtration that relies on synergies between particle size, media depth, media size, particle destabilization by coagulation, and media roughness, [35][36][37][38] biodegradation, biotransformation, adsorption, and bioregeneration may also contribute to treatment. Critically, however, biological filtration performance is not directly proportional to the amount of biomass present; 31,39,40 thus, lab-and pilot-scale assessments remain critical to demonstrating biological treatment capabilities.…”