Modelling the Potential Benefits of Irrigation with Nutrient-Rich Treated Municipal Wastewater Effluent for Growth of Loblolly Pine

Simple item page
dc.contributorKumar, Mukesh
dc.contributorHart, Justin L
dc.contributor.advisorElliott, Mark A.
dc.contributor.authorGunaydin, Serhat
dc.contributor.otherUniversity of Alabama Tuscaloosa
dc.date.accessioned2021-11-23T14:34:33Z
dc.date.available2021-11-23T14:34:33Z
dc.date.issued2021
dc.descriptionElectronic Thesis or Dissertationen_US
dc.description.abstractThis thesis research was initiated in the context of a wastewater management project in rural Alabama to investigate whether irrigation of loblolly pine (P. taeda) with nutrient-rich effluent generated by decentralized wastewater treatment systems could benefit the local forestry industry while addressing the wastewater management needs of underserved rural communities. In this study, the benefits of irrigation are considered in the local context based on recent years with actual precipitation, all wet years, and all dry years. Influent wastewater with nitrogen concentrations representative of the high, medium, and low strength municipal wastewater were included. Scenarios were tested for wastewater influent streams treated with three different nutrient removal levels relevant for decentralized wastewater treatment systems and representative of a range of nitrogen-removal performances. The growth of loblolly pine on the study site, modeled in FASTLOB annually for volume and mass over five-year intervals, is reported for all of these conditions (precipitation, influent wastewater strength, wastewater treatment efficiency) and compared with equivalent irrigation practices with pure water containing no nutrients. Irrigation with nutrient-rich wastewater treatment effluent yielded substantial benefits to loblolly pine growth (volume and mass) under all conditions tested. Over five years of growth, tree volume increased was 12.53% to 26.66 % greater with nitrogen plus phosphorous compared to irrigation with no nutrient; likewise, tree mass increased between 28.04% to 71.91% more. The greatest benefits to growth were modeled under low precipitation conditions, with poorly performing wastewater treatment technologies and high strength influent wastewater, because they yielded the highest net nitrogen loadings. It was observed that irrigation provided a higher contribution than expected. Even in the worst scenario in terms of fertilization, growth showed a significant increase. The study results show that this application will both increase land productivity and have positive effects on a big problem such as treated wastewater discharge.en_US
dc.format.mediumelectronic
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.otherhttp://purl.lib.ua.edu/181521
dc.identifier.otheru0015_0000001_0003960
dc.identifier.otherGunaydin_alatus_0004M_14614
dc.identifier.urihttp://ir.ua.edu/handle/123456789/8192
dc.languageEnglish
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of Alabama Libraries
dc.relation.hasversionborn digital
dc.relation.ispartofThe University of Alabama Electronic Theses and Dissertations
dc.relation.ispartofThe University of Alabama Libraries Digital Collections
dc.rightsAll rights reserved by the author unless otherwise indicated.en_US
dc.subjectIrrigation
dc.subjectLoblolly Pine
dc.subjectModeling
dc.subjectMunicipal Wastewater
dc.subjectWastewater reuse
dc.subjectWastewater treatment
dc.titleModelling the Potential Benefits of Irrigation with Nutrient-Rich Treated Municipal Wastewater Effluent for Growth of Loblolly Pineen_US
dc.typethesis
dc.typetext
etdms.degree.departmentUniversity of Alabama. Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering
etdms.degree.disciplineEnvironmental engineering
etdms.degree.grantorThe University of Alabama
etdms.degree.levelmaster's
etdms.degree.nameM.A.
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
u0015_0000001_0003960.pdf
Size:
2.27 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download
Collections
Theses and Dissertations
Theses and Dissertations - Department of Civil, Construction & Environmental Engineering