Towards sustainable wastewater treatment in Central America: a multi-criteria decision analysis
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| Auteurs: | , , , , |
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| Date de publication: | 2026 |
| Description: | Centralized wastewater treatment systems can improve wastewater management in urbanizing tropical ecotourism communities. The urban center of Monteverde, Costa Rica, faces numerous challenges in handling increasing wastewater loads resulting from population growth and tourism, which can overwhelm existing septic systems. Additionally, Monteverde stakeholders desire to integrate the recovery of energy, nutrients, and water during the treatment process. The overall goal of this study was to identify a suitable wastewater treatment scenario that reduces environmental, economic, and social impacts. Three centralized wastewater treatment scenarios were investigated: an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor with an activated sludge system, a UASB reactor with a constructed wetland (UASB-CW), and a UASB reactor with a trickling filter system (UASB-TF). Life cycle assessment and life cycle cost analysis were used to assess the environmental and economic impacts, respectively, of each scenario. Additionally, the social and technical aspects were investigated to achieve a holistic assessment approach using a modified version of the social, environmental, economic wastewater decision support system tool. The UASB-TF was identified as the most sustainable option because of its low capital costs, carbon footprint, eutrophication potential, and social and technical impacts. The UASB-CW was considered the least preferred option due to its high carbon footprint, high capital cost, and large land area requirements. This SEE tool can be used in other urbanizing tropical ecotourism communities for identifying sustainable wastewater treatment alternatives. |
| Pays: | Kérwá |
| Institution: | Universidad de Costa Rica |
| Repositorio: | Kérwá |
| Langue: | Inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:kerwa.ucr.ac.cr:10669/105328 |
| Accès en ligne: | https://hdl.handle.net/10669/105328 https://www.doi.org/10.1088/2634-4505/ae7b81 |
| Mots-clés: | Costa Rica Waste treatment Waste water Ecotourism Human activities effects Environmental impact assessment Sustainable development |