Thanks to Italian Alpine Club (CAI) to support this research. 

ENVIRONMENTAL, TECHNICAL AND ECONOMIC FEASIBILITY OF THE TREATMENT OF THE WASTEWATER OF THE ITALIAN ALPINE CLUB REFUGES BY TREATMENT WETLANDS

Alps and Apennines preserve relevant biodiversity, landscape, and cultural values. The context and the fragility of mountain ecosystems in the actual climate change scenario highlight the need to reduce human impact on the environment, making local communities more responsible, with an urgent call to managers and users of mountain accommodations for environmental protection. One of the priorities concerns the wastewater produced by decentralized facilities, even more if these contexts are framed within protected areas.

The present work investigates potentials and limits in the implementation of constructed wetlands wastewater treatment systems (CWs), in a selected representative sample of eleven refuges, identified by Italian Alpine Club (CAI) technical offices (CSC, CCROA, CCTAM) within the context of protected natural areas extended to the national territory, from North to South.

Firstly, an assessment of water use and consumptions data is presented, with a particular emphasis on the weekly and monthly oscillations due to the seasonality of such activities. This assessment leads to the design of Horizontal flux CWs. Thus, an economic evaluation of such design is proposed, distinguishing between different scenarios of accessibility and the geological configuration on the construction area. Finally, an analysis of the suitable vegetation species to use in CWs for each case study is presented. 

Results positively confirm the technical and environmental feasibility of such decentralized solutions in most cases and highlight the categorization in different economic classes, in function on the unit cost of CWs, greatly depending on site accessibility. A set of plant species was chosen for each refuge, depending on local biodiversity and ecosystems.

This preliminary research represents a remarkable opportunity to significantly increase raise awareness among facility managers and to make effective implementation of wastewater treatment in the mountains with a systematical approach, which has so far been carried out without a national dialogue among different realities. As a potential reference model, the work is not intended as a feasibility project and does not represent any constraint of implementation, but it establishes a reference system for the possible realization of CWs plants for CAI mountain shelters.