Towards the "Constructed Wetlands Knowledge Platform" for sustainable development (CWetlandsData)

About 80% of all global wastewater is released untreated into the environment, which leads to a deterioration in water quality. Objectives 6.2 and 6.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to provide universal access to sanitation while improving water quality by halving the proportion of untreated wastewater and increasing its safe reuse.

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 initiated by UNU-FLORES is to be further developed in the present project by Leibniz University Hannover at the Institute of Botany (LUH-BOT) with the collaboration of the research centre l3S. In a first step, a user requirements analysis was carried out through a two-stage expert survey, which was distributed worldwide via social media and target networks. This enabled the definition of key parameters, information and functions to be implemented in the platform. From this, a predefined data infrastructure with about 70 CWs parameters was derived and implemented on a GIS-based pilot platform in cooperation with CentroGeo.

The Constructed Wetlands Knowledge Platform (CWKP), the main outcome of this project, will be a holistic web tool developed with the help of stakeholders. Stakeholders include communities, wastewater producing businesses, farmers, fishermen, sellers of agricultural products, cooperatives, consumers, etc. The platform can thus systematically summarize information on CWs that has been compiled with great expertise and is therefore relevant for decision-making. It is planned to link this globally unique complex source of information with the ongoing monitoring and reporting efforts of SDG6 custody organizations such as UN-Habitat and WHO for SGD 6.3.1 - Wastewater Treatment.
As a by-product of the participatory character of the project, the consortium partners also expect that the benefits of NbS and the high effectiveness of CWs for sustainable wastewater treatment can be communicated more widely and knowledge-based to more actors*, thus increasing the willingness to implement such projects. The guidelines, documentation and information materials made available on CWetlands can also make a significant contribution to raising awareness of NbS and its potential, thereby contributing to a more sustainable future, especially for the people living in CELAC cities.