Eco-innovations by AWR Research Team for urban water environment improvement

Updated on April 3, 2018

On April 2, 2018, Shaanxi Daily specifically reported the eco-innovations by AWR Research Team for urban water environment improvement.

Special report by Shaanxi Daily

The AWR research team, led by Prof. Xiaochang Wang, President of the Int’l AWR Center and director of AWRERI, has made significant advancements through the national major science and technology project entitled "Technological Research for Nitrogen/Phosphorus Removal and Eutrophication Control in Urban Lakes". The innovations made provide a technological framework to support urban water quality assessment and water environmental improvement.

In the recent years, the aesthetic quality of cities has seen considerable improvements through the restoration of municipal lakes. Nonetheless, water quality deterioration significantly impacts the landscape effect of the urban lakes due to the problem of eutrophication and extremely long lake water retention. These problems, consequently, have become critical for the quality of the urban water environment.

The research team carried outfield research on 189 urban lakes in 26 provinces and cities to establish a water quality evaluation system for municipal lakes. Furthermore, a technical guide for urban lake eutrophication control and landscape quality assurance was developed. Moreover, a theoretical framework for water cycle metabolism was developed for new urban water environment systems.

Besides, the research team has developed new technologies for urban water pollution reduction and self-purification enhancement and achieved good results in demonstration projects. The technology of "Enhanced endogenous denitrification biofiltration", applied at the Tianjin Harbor Eco-Wetland Park, is utilized for the efficient denitrification treatment of urban water inflows. Also, an enhanced eco-treatment system was developed to upgrade WWTP effluent quality to prevent eutrophication of the landscape water.

Project of Tianjin Harbor Eco-Wetland Park 

Moreover, the technologies of "step floating floor for ecological denitrification and phosphorus removal" and "multi-stage pond chain for biochemical & physicochemical treatment" improved the capacity of urban water self-purification. These technologies are applied in the Longhong stream of West Lake and play an important role in nutritive salt control in the Lake inflow. 

Project of Longhong stream of West Lake

Additionally, to meet the requirements of the “Eight-Rivers Regeneration” Project in Xi’an, the research team developed a water supply plan based on the concept of water cycle management, which provided technical support for water resources security. Furthermore, based on the implementation of the "Three-year action plan for water pollution control in Weihe River," the team provided technical schemes for upgrading and reconstruction of twenty municipal sewage plants along Weihe River and applied the technology of integrated constructed wetlands for water quality improvement of Zaohe River.