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COURSE INFO PROVIDER: SWSPCP Webinar
COURSE TITLE: The use of constructed wetlands for treatment of agricultural drainage waters in the Czech Republic

INSTRUCTORS Professor Jan Vymazal

COURSE DESCRIPTION The use of constructed wetlands for treatment of agricultural drainage waters in the Czech Republic

Prof. Jan Vymazal
04/21/2022

ABSTRACT:
The non-point source pollution is a global problem affecting the safety of drinking water supply and aquatic habitats. Pollutants originating from agricultural runoff and drainage include sediment, nitrogen, phosphorus, pesticides, pathogens, salts, trace elements and dissolved organic carbon. However, the major problem is represented by elevated concentrations of nitrate. Wetlands can act as filters removing particulate material, as sinks accumulating nutrients, or as transformers converting nutrients to different forms such as gaseous forms of nitrogen. The ability of natural wetlands to retain nitrogen from freshwaters was recognized and reported since the 1970s. The use of constructed wetlands to remove nitrogen from agricultural drainage waters was first proposed during the late 1980s.
The current webinar will focus on the use constructed wetlands and vegetated drainage ditches to treat agricultural drainage waters in the Czech Republic. The experiments were carried out at various locations in the Czech Republic during the years 2014-2021. Both surface and subsurface flow constructed wetlands were built. In addition, naturally vegetated drainage ditch was valuated as well. The results revealed very high removal for nitrate with average values about 1000 kg N/ha yr for surface flow system and about 6000 kg N/ha yr for subsurface flow systems. The addition of woodchips proved to be effective as drainage waters in the experiments were rather poor in organics. The results obtained during the experiments are in a good agreement with results reported from other countries. Subsurface flow constructed wetlands are more effective for nitrate removal due to prevailing anoxic/anaerobic conditions in the filtration bed.

BIO:
Jan Vymazal graduated from the Institute of Chemical Technology in Prague, Czech Republic in 1980 and received the Ph.D. at ITC in 1985. Between 1985 and 1991 he was affiliated with Water Research Institute in Prague at the department of wastewater treatment. In 1991, Jan joined Duke University Wetland Center, North Carolina, USA as a visiting scholar. During his stay at Duke University until 1993 he focused on the wetland plant communities in Florida Everglades. Between 1994 and 2006 Jan worked as free-lance researcher focusing mostly on constructed wetlands for wastewater treatment. In 2007, he joined Faculty of Environmental Sciences at the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague. He is currently a head of Department of Applied Ecology and vice-rector for research and science. Jan has authored more than 160 papers indexed in Web of Sciences with over 10,500 citations and H-index of 46. He wrote two books and edited nine books on natural and constructed wetlands. He is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Ecological Engineering.

Credit Points: 0.06

SYLLABUS/TOPICAL OUTLINE 1) Magnitude of non-point source pollution as a global problem. (5 minutes). 2) Pollutants originating from agricultural runoff and drainage (5 minutes). 3) Constructed wetlands in treatment of pollution (10 minutes). 4) The use of constructed wetlands in the Czech Republic (10 minutes). 5) Efficacy of the types of wetlands used in the Czech Republic (15 minutes). 6) Questions and answers (15 minutes).

COURSE CONTACT

Louis Mantini
9225 CR49, Live Oak, FL 32060
lfm@srwmd.org
P: 386.362.1001
F: 386.362.1056

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