Assessment of Water Purification Capacity of Vegetation Mats for the Reduction of Nonpoint-Source Pollution Loads

: The purpose of this study was to develop water-purification vegetation mats consisting of the eco-friendly materials and to validate their water purification capabilities with the objective of reducing nonpoint pollution into streams. The developed vegetation mats are made of coconut fiber shell and filling consisted of zeolite, diatomaceous earth or a mixture of calcinated foam media. The bench scale assessment of the water purification capability of the three filling materials showed that the removal efficiencies of suspended solid (SS), total nitrogen (T-N) and total phosphorus (T-P) were higher in the foam media than in zeolite or diatomaceous earth. From the results of the field experiment, the removal efficiencies of the vegetation mats filled with the foam media were 60.1% in SS, 32.2% in T-N and 20.2% in T-P. Therefore the vegetation mats filled with the foam media calcinated from zeolite and diatomaceous earth should have higher efficiencies in controlling the nonpoint source pollutions in streams.