Constructed wetland for the treatment of wastewater from the Checchi & Sons winery

Description: A constructed wetlands system for wastewater management has been implemented. In the first stage, a French system (with "French" vertical-flow reed-bed filters - RBF) of purification has been implemented. The second stage consists of four horizontal subsurface flow basins (HF), confluent into the Free Water Surface (FWS) CW. The effluent is finally reused for irrigation. (IRIDRA, 2021).

Country: Italy

City: Castellina in Chianti (SI)

City size: 99.8 km²

Population: 2859 (municipality population 2017)

start: 2001 - upgraded in 2009

Timeframe: No Data

Phase: Completed

Nature-based solutions (NBS) : Yes

Initiator: Checchi & Sons winery - Dott.ssa Miria Bracali

Website source: http://iridra.eu/attachments/article/112/Cecchi.pdf

Latitude: 43.4179

Longitude: 11.21864

Co-benefits

Increased provisioning of ecosystem goods (e.g. Food, water, etc)

Yes, through treated wastewater reuse for irrigation.

Biodiversity conservation or increased biodiversity

The CW may provide a new wildlife habitat and exploit the ecological benefits of the CWs apart from their function as a treatment facility (Knight, 1997; Stefanakis, 2019). The main characteristics of the CW (i.e., presence of water and vegetation) make it suitable for the creation of a new ecological habitat, by attracting wildlife species, especially birds, and establishing a green area (Stefanakis, 2019).

Increased quality and quantity of green and blue infrastructures

Yes

Sustainable urbanisation

As natural treatment technology, CWs can be categorised as sustainable systems, fulfilling sustainability criteria such as effective sanitation, contribution to public health and hygiene aspects, environmental protection and safeguarding of natural resources. (Stefanakis, 2015). The number of treated person equivalent is 1900 PE. (IRIDRA, 2021).

Improved aesthetic value

Yes

Original problems

Drought and heat risk

Investigations of mutation in the compound occurrence of drought and heat conditions have identified many hotspots of compound drought and extreme heat conditions in Europe. These include, among others, France, Benelux countries, Italy and Balkan Peninsula. Trend detection has shown that these areas were characterized by a rising trend in the compound occurrence of drought and heat extremes. (Bezak, Mikos, 2020).

Low aesthetic value

Yes

SDGs

Good health and well-being (SDG3)

Yes

Clean water and sanitation (SDG6)

Yes

Industry, innovation and infrastructure (SDG9)

The plant represents the introduction of an innovation on the national scene, as it uses a particular technique (French system - vertical-flow reed-bed filters (RBF)) of purification to upgrade the previous system, consisting in a hybrid constructed wetlands system (constructed wetlands with horizontal subsurface flow (HF) & constructed wetlands with free water surface (FWS)); thanks to this improvement, wine production has greatly increased since the first system was implemented (IRIDRA, 2021).

Sustainable cities and communities (SDG11)

Yes

Climate action, resilience, mitigation and adaptation (SDG13)

Yes, the main characteristic of CWs is very low greenhouse gas emission (Stefanakis et al., 2014; Stefanakis, 2015).

Terrestrial biodiversity (SDG15)

Yes

Reference: Bezak, N., Mikos, M. (2020). Changes in the Compound Drought and Extreme Heat Occurrence in the 1961–2018 Period at the European Scale. Water 2020, 12, 3543. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.3390/w12123543.

IRIDRA (2021). Nature-based solutions - Wineries. Information obtained: 2021-02-19. Available at: http://www.iridra.eu/en/applicazioni-en/cantine-vinicole-en.html.