A Monte Carlo Model for WWTP Effluent Flow Treatment through Enhanced Willow Evapotranspiration
Abstract
:To enter water and not to get water |
Foivos Delivorias, Artist |
1. Introduction
- How can actual monthly ET rates and associated effluent flow provide for irrigation purposes in a willow plantation?
- How critical is the use of willow cropping factors gathered by a specific monitoring period (four years)? Given the limited monitoring period, can a probabilistic approach be beneficial to provide naturalized monthly willow surface plantation runoff for quantifying its influence on the water quality of adjacent rivers during low natural flows?
- Can different types of datasets such as from rain gauges to remote sensing PET products support effective solutions even in small-scale environmental engineering problems?
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Study Area
2.1.1. Monthly Rainfall Gauge and River Network Description
2.1.2. Remote Sensing PET Monthly Dataset
2.1.3. Willows Monthly Cropping Coefficients
2.2. Monte Carlo Monthly Water Balance Model Set-Up
- Monthly precipitation is input into the water balance model.
- A portion of the monthly rainfall is withdrawn as soil moisture based on the Met Éireann approach for poorly drained areas, which is summarized as follows: Soil moisture saturates on wet winter days, with water surplus drained at very slow rates, around 0.5 mm per day. The minimum Soil Moisture Deficit (SMD) is set at minus 10 mm. When SMD is greater than 10 mm, Actual Evapotranspiration (AE) is less than Potential Evapotranspiration (PE), decreasing linearly to zero when SMD reaches a theoretical maximum of 110 mm.
- Actual site runoff includes the following: (a) The monthly net proportion of rainfall minus soil moisture and minus willow actual evapotranspiration; (b) The effluent flow from WWTP, for which two scenarios have been set up associated with 500 PE, and two scenarios relevant to wastewater flows of 120 L/PE/day and 150 L/PE/day.
- Due to the high uncertainty of the willows’ monthly cropping pattern and monthly effluent flows, monthly random values based on the specified upper and lower limit monthly cropping factors and two wastewater scenarios have been set up. A total number of 100 monthly water balance models have been generated and the results are discussed below.
- The final model step refers to the exceedance probability density of the monthly plant surface runoff against low flow estimates (Q95 and Q99) at the adjacent tributary for quantifying the likelihood of the river’s quality deterioration.
3. Results
3.1. Actual Monthly Evapotranspiration Rates
3.2. Monthly Surface Runoff Rates
3.3. Actual Runoffs Withdraw Monthly Rates
3.4. Runoff Results vs. Minimum River Flow
4. Discussion
- A challenging problem in environmental engineering is the lack of long-term observations of several parameters related to a specific geoscience task. In this case, the limited information of crop monthly variation is crucial for developing a reliable modeling approach. Thus, a probabilistic Monte Carlo approach has been introduced using as random variables the monthly crop willow factors based on previous surveys in Ireland. The high uncertainty nature of these factors and their strong dependence on local meteorological conditions proves that the role of probabilistic modeling approach is necessary even though in this attempt, the probabilistic model did not consider the stochastic nature of the other meteorological variables such as rainfall and potential evapotranspiration. Future models are encouraged to use full stochastic frameworks and freely available integrated computational tools [33,34,35]. In this study, special attention has been given to Willow ET, which is a factor of local meteorological conditions, willow species, and willow management. Following a global review of 57 scientific studies across 16 countries [16] there is a clear linear regression of the water supply and Willow ET rate. The same review concludes that a critical threshold of plant density is 5 plants/m2 since for higher plant densities, ET rates are not linearly correlated.
- An important part of this study is the integration of rainfall gauge records along with PET remote sensing dataset in real world problems. Potential Evapotranspiration remains a challenging meteorological variable even in countries with advanced meteorological networks like Ireland. The recent advantages of using recent PET remote sensing dataset [36] could provide benefits in several tasks of geosciences as the “Electronic Age” offers new and attractive opportunities to hydrologists for remote sensing (RS) of hydrological data [37] as well as offers perspectives in the domain of forest hydrology [38]. In this study, the use of a recent remote sensing PET dataset in a small-scale model highlights its benefit for further use in other geoscience disciplines.
- The idea of the expansion of the paradigm on a national scale appears to be attractive and will benefit Irish environmental biodiversity which is key for National Policy [41], recognizing the vital role of ecological engineering in the design of sustainable ecosystems that integrate human society with its natural environment for the benefit of both [42].
- The natural WWTP treatment systems appear to be attractive, efficient, and low-cost solutions [43,44]. In conjunction with modern water reuse options [45], they could especially benefit decentralized communities by decreasing the pressure in natural water bodies. Monte Carlo approaches seem to be very promising in dealing with multiple uncertainty environmental engineering problems [46].
5. Conclusions
Funding
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Tegos, A. A Monte Carlo Model for WWTP Effluent Flow Treatment through Enhanced Willow Evapotranspiration. Hydrology 2024, 11, 134. https://doi.org/10.3390/hydrology11090134
Tegos A. A Monte Carlo Model for WWTP Effluent Flow Treatment through Enhanced Willow Evapotranspiration. Hydrology. 2024; 11(9):134. https://doi.org/10.3390/hydrology11090134
Chicago/Turabian StyleTegos, Aristoteles. 2024. "A Monte Carlo Model for WWTP Effluent Flow Treatment through Enhanced Willow Evapotranspiration" Hydrology 11, no. 9: 134. https://doi.org/10.3390/hydrology11090134