Water reuse is an increasingly important aspect of sustainable water management. Treatment wetlands have a massive potential for providing water for reuse in future circular and smart cities. This workshop will present the status of treatment wetlands in terms of water reuse (both within the EU and internationally), identify barriers to implementation, and explore the steps needed to accelerate the uptake of treatment wetlands for water reuse. An outcome of the workshop will be the formation of a group of authors willing to produce a white paper on treatment wetlands and water reuse.

Organiser: Dr. Jaime Nivala (INRAE Lyon, France), Dr. Pedro Carvalho (Aarhus University, Denmark)

Technical advancements of green walls may be achieved by researchers and entrepreneurs alone, however, the social, financial and legislative barriers require the concerted effort of a range of stakeholders and experts to solve them.
After a brief intro to the state of the art, a public sector representative will outline the legislative framework and imminent barriers. Experiences with citizen engagement will complete the picture.
Based on these insights, speakers and participants will embark on an interactive open panel discussion, to integrate perspectives and potentially uncover new solutions and stakeholder collaborations that enable the green wall community to reach new orbits.

Organiser: Dr. Marco Hartl (COST Action Circular Cities “Green wall cluster”)

Hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) isomers and transformation products are serious environmental problems around the world. HCH production across Europe has led to more than 40 mega-sites of waste, exceeding 250.000 tons. Most of the sites are not contained and a source of diffuse pollution. Wetland+ has been developed to treat HCHs compounds effectively.
The workshop aims at presenting the results of the first two full sites constructed in the Czech Republic and Poland, treating HCH polluted water leaching from large deposits.
Additionally, we will present an inventory of existing sites around the world where the technology can be of use.

Organiser: Dr. Carlos Arias (Aarhus University, Denmark)

The objective of the workshop is to present the result of the PAVITR project where Indian and EU partners are developing cost-effective & sustainable solutions to tackle water challenges and ensure the provision of safe water reuse and the recovery of resources form wastewaters.
PAVITR develops management strategies to enable monitoring of pollution real-time, Most of the technologies implemented are treatment wetland based that can adapt to Indian needs while effectively treating polluted waters.
The projects will assess and validate different wastewater and water management plans, technical aspects, financial, environmental and institutional sustainability to build capacities building capacity

Organiser: Dr. Carlos Arias (Aarhus University, Denmark)

About 80% of all global wastewater is released untreated into the environment. Objectives 6.2 and 6.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to provide universal access to sanitation and improvement of water quality. Constructed Wetlands (CWs), a nature-based solution (NbS), can contribute to these goals. There is currently little knowledge about the contribution of CWs to the global amount of treated wastewater. The global Constructed Wetlands Knowledge Platform was already installed and is currently further developed. We would like to involve the expertise of the workshop participants to develop the database according to the demands of users and stakeholders.

Organiser: Prof. Dr. Jutta Papenbrock (Leibniz University Hannover, Germany)

The journey will start with a briefing and debate about the potential of closing urban water and nutrient cycles through the application of nature-based solutions (NBS). In a further step the participants will identify challenges, opportunities/driving forces and solutions for the increased integration of NBS in our urban environment in the frame of an interactive “speed boat activity”. Finally, an action-plan for future endeavours will be developed, including recommendations on necessary project proposals, research activities, policy, funding schemes, and how to strengthen collaboration with stakeholders, all in order to get our cities shipshape and resilient for future challenges.

Organisers: Dr. Marco Hartl, Maria Wirth, Tamara Vobruba, Johannes Kisser (alchemia-nova, Vienna, Austria)