Performance of a felt based living wall with greywater irrigation using different indoor ornamental species

IF 3.9 2区环境科学与生态学 Q1 ECOLOGY

Ecological Engineering Pub Date : 2025-02-01 DOI:10.1016/j.ecoleng.2025.107524

Víctor M. Fernández-Cabanás , Gina Patricia Suárez-Cáceres , Rafael Fernández-Cañero , Sabina Rossini-Oliva , Luis Pérez-Urrestarazu

{"title":"Performance of a felt based living wall with greywater irrigation using different indoor ornamental species","authors":"Víctor M. Fernández-Cabanás , Gina Patricia Suárez-Cáceres , Rafael Fernández-Cañero , Sabina Rossini-Oliva , Luis Pérez-Urrestarazu","doi":"10.1016/j.ecoleng.2025.107524","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Vertical greening systems are becoming popular nature-based solutions for including vegetation in the built environment. However, one of the main concerns regards to their water requirements. The use of greywater for their irrigation can be a solution. While several studies have proven that using living walls as a biofilter can improve the quality of the greywater applied for their irrigation, the effects on the vegetation of continuous irrigation with greywater are still unknown. The main objective of this work is the assessment of the vegetation performance using different plant species in indoor living walls exclusively irrigated with greywater. For that, three species (<em>Philodendron hederaceum</em>, <em>Spathiphyllum wallisii</em> and <em>Nephrolepis exaltata</em>) planted on felt-based living wall modules were tested for 30 weeks. Information regarding the main water quality parameters (pH, electrical conductivity (EC), concentration of major cation and anions, chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biological oxygen demand for an incubation period of 5 days (BOD<sub>5</sub>) were obtained and the development of the vegetation was monitored. The three species adapted well to the continuous irrigation with greywater, though <em>S. wallisii</em> showed a slight decrease in green cover at the end of the study. As the greywater was recirculated, EC increased with time, but no clear effects on growth and appearance were observed in the plants. This suggests the need of periodically replacing the greywater used for irrigation or including irrigation events with freshwater.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11490,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Engineering","volume":"212 ","pages":"Article 107524"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9000,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Ecological Engineering","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925857425000126","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ECOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Vertical greening systems are becoming popular nature-based solutions for including vegetation in the built environment. However, one of the main concerns regards to their water requirements. The use of greywater for their irrigation can be a solution. While several studies have proven that using living walls as a biofilter can improve the quality of the greywater applied for their irrigation, the effects on the vegetation of continuous irrigation with greywater are still unknown. The main objective of this work is the assessment of the vegetation performance using different plant species in indoor living walls exclusively irrigated with greywater. For that, three species (Philodendron hederaceum, Spathiphyllum wallisii and Nephrolepis exaltata) planted on felt-based living wall modules were tested for 30 weeks. Information regarding the main water quality parameters (pH, electrical conductivity (EC), concentration of major cation and anions, chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biological oxygen demand for an incubation period of 5 days (BOD₅) were obtained and the development of the vegetation was monitored. The three species adapted well to the continuous irrigation with greywater, though S. wallisii showed a slight decrease in green cover at the end of the study. As the greywater was recirculated, EC increased with time, but no clear effects on growth and appearance were observed in the plants. This suggests the need of periodically replacing the greywater used for irrigation or including irrigation events with freshwater.

查看原文本刊更多论文

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Ecological Engineering 环境科学-工程：环境

CiteScore

8.00

自引率

5.30%

发文量

293

审稿时长

57 days

期刊介绍： Ecological engineering has been defined as the design of ecosystems for the mutual benefit of humans and nature. The journal is meant for ecologists who, because of their research interests or occupation, are involved in designing, monitoring, or restoring ecosystems, and can serve as a bridge between ecologists and engineers. Specific topics covered in the journal include: habitat reconstruction; ecotechnology; synthetic ecology; bioengineering; restoration ecology; ecology conservation; ecosystem rehabilitation; stream and river restoration; reclamation ecology; non-renewable resource conservation. Descriptions of specific applications of ecological engineering are acceptable only when situated within context of adding novelty to current research and emphasizing ecosystem restoration. We do not accept purely descriptive reports on ecosystem structures (such as vegetation surveys), purely physical assessment of materials that can be used for ecological restoration, small-model studies carried out in the laboratory or greenhouse with artificial (waste)water or crop studies, or case studies on conventional wastewater treatment and eutrophication that do not offer an ecosystem restoration approach within the paper.