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

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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.

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使用不同室内观赏植物的灰水灌溉毛毡生活墙的性能

垂直绿化系统正在成为流行的基于自然的解决方案，包括在建筑环境中的植被。然而，其中一个主要问题是它们对水的需求。使用灰水进行灌溉是一种解决方案。虽然一些研究已经证明，使用活墙作为生物过滤器可以提高用于灌溉的灰水的质量，但灰水连续灌溉对植被的影响尚不清楚。这项工作的主要目的是利用不同的植物种类来评估室内生活墙的植被性能，这些墙完全用灰水灌溉。为此，将三种植物（Philodendron hederaceum， Spathiphyllum wallisii和Nephrolepis exaltata）种植在毡基活壁模块上进行了30周的测试。获得了5 d孵育期的主要水质参数(pH、电导率（EC）、主要阳离子和阴离子浓度、化学需氧量（COD）和生物需氧量（BOD5）等信息，并监测了植被的发育情况。三种植物对灰水连续灌溉的适应能力较好，但研究结束时，柽柳的绿化率略有下降。随着中水的循环，EC随着时间的推移而增加，但对植物的生长和外观没有明显的影响。这表明需要定期更换用于灌溉的灰水，或将灌溉活动包括在淡水中。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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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.