Landscape architects are beginning to collaborate with environmental engineers to focus on natural, decentralized wastewater treatment systems for small and large-scale developments. The on-site systems, which combine landscape design and engineering, typically can reduce potable water use by 50% and discharge into sewers by up to 70%. But even supporters of decentralized constructed wetlands, which have only a backup tie-in to municipal utilities, list several obstacles to their development.
Decentralized constructed wetlands (DCWs) have “huge implications from the standpoint of development in areas of existing infrastructure overcapacity,” said Anthony M. Sease, director of business development for Natural Systems Utilities (NSU), Englewood, N.J., at the 2010 American Society of Landscape Architects Annual Meeting & Expo, which drew a record 5,242 registrants to Washington, D.C., on Sept. 10-13.