The banana tree circle as a nature-based solution for sustainable greywater management: A new design model

Abstract

The banana tree circle (BTC) is a low-cost system for local greywater management, using a natural treatment and disposal process, providing additional resource recovery benefits. However, there are no standard design criteria for BTC that would allow for quality control of its efficiency and sustainability, and little is currently known about the full-scale performance of BTC. Based on the scoping literature review of 31 documents in the scientific database and eight documents from grey literature, a standard design model was proposed for the BTC technology based on the concept of water balance, greywater flows, rain, infiltration, and evapotranspiration. The first two steps of the BTC design were determining the areas required for infiltration and evapotranspiration. A cylindrical form trench, the soil percolation rate, and the hydraulic loading rate were considered for the infiltration area. The banana trees’ evapotranspiration rate was taken into consideration for the evapotranspiration area. The proposed model was applied in a case study where we used a trench with 0.8 m depth and 1.5 m diameter. This study proposes a standard design criterion for the BTC based on environmental factors, and the scoping of the literature provides the basis for future studies to evaluate its environmental sustainability. HIGHLIGHTS A model for standard design criteria of banana tree circles (BTC) is proposed.; Key parameters are greywater flow, soil percolation, and evapotranspiration rates.; Infiltration and evapotranspiration areas can be optimized using modeling.; The standard design criteria allow for better control of the performance of BTC.; Tools are provided to validate the BTC as solution for greywater management.;

Keywords

• ecological sanitation
• evapotranspiration system
• low-cost solution
• permaculture
• sustainable sanitation
• wastewater reuse