Nutrient fluxes from domestic wastewater: A national-scale historical perspective for the UK 1800–2010

Naden, Pamela S.; Bell, V. A.; Carnell, E.J.; Tomlinson, Sam; Dragosits, Ulrike; Chaplow, J.S.; May, Linda; Tipping, Edward

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.02.037

Cited by 44 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Whilst the majority of standing waters in Scotland meet WFD GES targets, the PLUS+ tool suggests that there are a number of catchments where remediation measures need to be introduced. These measures include the stripping of P from wastewater at treatment works [8], improvements in land management practices in intensively managed areas [56], and the use of sensitive ground preparation techniques in forested areas. Our initial findings provide important evidence beyond SEPA's monitored catchments of the number of catchments in Scotland that are potentially at risk of failing to meet GES, and this will have wider relevance to many stakeholder groups.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In many parts of the world, P inputs to water have risen throughout the twentieth century [3][4][5][6][7]. This is due to increasing discharges from point sources such as wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) [8], aquaculture [9], and losses from diffuse sources such as agricultural land [3,10], septic tanks [8,11], and migratory birds [12]. In Europe, legislation to support the implementation of the Water Framework (WFD), Urban Waste Water Treatment (UWWT), and Habitats Directives has set waste water treatment and water quality standards for the P concentrations in discharges and standing waters to address this problem.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An Assessment of the Performance of the PLUS+ Tool in Supporting the Evaluation of Water Framework Directive Compliance in Scottish Standing Waters

Donnelly

Helliwell

May

et al. 2020

IJERPH

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Phosphorus is one of the main causes of waterbodies in Scotland being at less than good ecological status (GES) in terms of the water framework directive (WFD). In Scotland, there are more than 8000 standing waters, defined as lakes and reservoirs that have a surface area of more than 1 hectare. Only about 330 of these are monitored routinely to assess compliance with the WFD. The export coefficient tool PLUS+ (phosphorus land use and slope) has been developed to estimate total phosphorus (TP) concentrations in the unmonitored sites; modelled values are then compared to WFD target concentrations for high, good, moderate, poor, and bad status to assess compliance. These type-specific or site-specific targets are set by the regulatory authority and form part of a suite of physical, chemical, and ecological targets that are used to assess GES, all of which must be met. During development, the PLUS+ tool was applied to 323 monitored catchments and 7471 unmonitored catchments. The efficacy of the tool was assessed against TP concentrations observed in 2014 and found to perform well in the rural catchments. 51% of standing waters had the same modelled and observed WFD class (i.e., High, Good, Moderate, Poor, Bad), and a further 40% of standing waters had a modelled WFD class that was within one class of observed water quality. The tool performed less well in catchments with larger inputs of TP from urban sources (e.g., sewage). The greatest deviations between measured and modelled classes were explained by the shortage of information on wastewater treatment works, fish farms, migratory birds, levels of uncertainty in TP measurements, and the amount of in-lake re-cycling of P. The limitations of the tool are assessed using data from six well documented case study sites and recommendations for improving the model performance are proposed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Assessment of the Performance of the PLUS+ Tool in Supporting the Evaluation of Water Framework Directive Compliance in Scottish Standing Waters

Donnelly

Helliwell

May

et al. 2020

IJERPH

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“…With regard to carbon, Eatherall, Warwick, and Tolchard () considered the impact of sewage discharges on the DOC concentration in the Yorkshire Ouse catchment but did not actually sample final effluent from STWs, and so the study could not quantify the flux of DOC from STWs relative to other fluvial carbon fluxes. Naden et al () did include organic carbon in their model of historical fluxes of nutrients from sewage treatment plants, but their numbers were based on loads to the treatment plants and the efficiency of the plant, and they had no observations relative to organic carbon. Therefore, this plausibly large, and controllable, source of labile carbon has not been examined in the context of its contribution to fluvial carbon and also to atmospheric greenhouse gases (GHGs).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The importance of sewage effluent discharge in the export of dissolved organic carbon from U.K. rivers

Worrall

Howden

Burt³

et al. 2019

Hydrological Processes

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The flux of fluvial carbon from the terrestrial biosphere to the world's oceans is known to be an important component of the global carbon cycle, but within this pathway, the flux and return of carbon to the river network via sewage effluent has not been quantified. In this study, monitoring data from 2000 to 2016 for the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration, biochemical oxygen demand, and chemical oxygen demand of the final effluent of sewage treatment works from across England were examined to assess the amount of DOC contributing to national‐scale fluvial fluxes of carbon. The study shows that the median concentration of DOC in final effluent was 9.4 compared with 4.8 mg C/L for all surface waters for the United Kingdom over the study period and that the DOC in final effluent significantly declined over the study period from 11.0 to 6.4 mg C/L. Rivers receiving sewage effluent showed a significant, on average 19%, increase in DOC concentration downstream of sewage discharges. At the scale of the United Kingdom, the flux of DOC in final effluent was 31 ktonnes C/year with a per capita export of 0.55 kg C/year and compared with an average annual flux of DOC from the United Kingdom of 859 ktonnes C/year, that is, only 3.6% of national‐scale flux. The lability of this DOC was limited, with only 7.4% loss of final effluent DOC concentration over in‐stream residence times of up to 5 days. The direct decline in DOC concentration from sewage treatment works was not large enough on its own to explain the declines observed in DOC concentration in U.K. rivers at their tidal limit.

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“…primary, secondary or tertiary). These data were combined with a 297 mean annual per capita export of P and N in untreated sewage of 0.52 kg P and 4.5 kg N and nutrient 298 retention efficiencies for the different treatment types, both derived from a recent UK-wide review 299(Naden et al 2016), to give an estimated annual N and P output for each WWTW. N and P outputs 300 from individual WWTWs were then summed to give an annual load from WWTWs per catchment.…”

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confidence: 99%

National scale evaluation of the InVEST nutrient retention model in the United Kingdom

Redhead

May

Oliver

et al. 2018

Science of The Total Environment

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164

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A wide variety of tools aim to support decision making by modelling, mapping and quantifying ecosystem services. If decisions are to be properly informed, the accuracy and potential limitations of these tools must be well understood. However, dedicated studies evaluating ecosystem service models against empirical data are rare, especially over large areas. In this paper, we report on the national-scale assessment of a new ecosystem service model for nutrient delivery and retention, the InVEST Nutrient Delivery Ratio model. For 36 river catchments across the UK, we modelled total catchment export of phosphorus (P) and/or nitrogen (N) and compared model outputs to measurements derived from empirical water chemistry data. The model performed well in terms of relative magnitude of nutrient export among catchments (best Spearman's rank correlation for N and P, respectively: 0.81 and 0.88). However, there was wide variation among catchments in the accuracy of the model, and absolute values of nutrient exports frequently showed high percentage differences between modelled and empirically-derived exports (best median absolute percentage difference for N and P, respectively: ±64%, ±44%). The model also showed a high degree of sensitivity to nutrient loads and hydrologic routing input parameters and these sensitivities varied among catchments. These results suggest that the InVEST model can provide valuable information on nutrient fluxes to decision makers, especially in terms of relative differences among catchments. However, caution is needed if using the absolute modelled values for decision-making. Our study also suggests particular attention should be paid to researching input nutrient loadings and retentions, and the selection of appropriate input data resolutions and threshold flow accumulation values. Our results also highlight how availability of empirical data can improve model calibration and performance assessment and reinforce the need to include such data in ecosystem service modelling studies.

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Nutrient fluxes from domestic wastewater: A national-scale historical perspective for the UK 1800–2010

Cited by 44 publications

References 42 publications

An Assessment of the Performance of the PLUS+ Tool in Supporting the Evaluation of Water Framework Directive Compliance in Scottish Standing Waters

An Assessment of the Performance of the PLUS+ Tool in Supporting the Evaluation of Water Framework Directive Compliance in Scottish Standing Waters

The importance of sewage effluent discharge in the export of dissolved organic carbon from U.K. rivers

National scale evaluation of the InVEST nutrient retention model in the United Kingdom

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