Design and Development of Two Novel Constructed Wetlands

Constructed Wetlands (CWs) are among the few natural treatment systems that can guarantee an efficient wastewater treatment and an appealing green space at the same time. However, they require large areas for their construction, which is not available in many cases.

In this thesis, two domestic wastewater treatment options were designed and studied with the purpose of having a low space requirement: the Duplex-CW and the Constructed Wetoof (CWR). The Duplex-CW is a hybrid CW composed of a vertical flow CW on top of a horizontal flow filter. The stacked arrangement is the key for reducing the CW footprint. The CWR is a shallow HF CW placed on the roof of a building, thus it does not occupy any land.

Several modifications and improvements have been tested, in addition to the study of the treatment performance, in order to select the most appropriate Duplex-CW and CWR design. Overall, this thesis contributes to the development of two efficient domestic wastewater treatment technologies. The Duplex-CW area requirement is still higher than many CWs and therefore further improvements are necessary. The CWR is the foremost option to save land areas since it requires 0 m² of land per person equivalent.

Maribel Zapater Pereyra was born in Piura, Peru on the 26^th January 1984. She graduated from the School of Civil Engineering in 2005 from the University of Piura, Piura, Peru. Afterwards, she moved to Israel for her MSc. studies. In 2009 she obtained her MSc in Desert Studies from the University of the Negev, Sde Boqer, Israel. In 2010 she initiated her PhD research in The Netherlands with the aim of designing and developing novel constructed wetlands with low space requirement.

During her PhD studies, she participated in different international conferences and supervised six MSc. students. She was also involved in internships with the company ECOFYT (The Netherlands) and with the University of Stuttgart (Germany). Ms. Zapater Pereyra has eight years of laboratory experience, a large experience in international conferences, an expanded international network and she has published several scientific publications, including proceedings and peer-reviewed journals. She continues to be an active young professional with an interest in the applied sector of sanitary and environmental engineering.