Definition
An artificial wetland is a wetland constructed by humans. It consists of a water body that has a water table above or near ground level, which is to a large extent covered by vegetation.
Since artificial wetlands are created, they differ from wetlands which are made through restoration or developed in a natural process. The difference between a created and a restored wetland is not obvious since restored wetlands also include those that historically have been diked out through draining in order to make space for agricultural land. These wetlands can be restored relatively simply by stopping or significantly decreasing the drainage. Thus, what many laymen regard as a created wetland is in many cases actually a restored one. In other words, if a wetland has existed at the place within the past 100–200 years, the present wetland is a result of restoration.
There are various ways of describing the difference between a wetland and a pond. From an engineering perspective, the...
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Bibliography
Campbell, C. S., and Ogden, M., 1999. Constructed Wetlands in the Sustainable Landscape. New York: Wiley.
Kadlec, R. H., and Wallace, S. D., 2009. Treatment Wetlands. Boca Raton: CRC Press.
Reed, S. C., Crites, R. W., and Middlebrooks, E. J., 1995. Natural Systems for Waste Management and Treatment. New York: McGraw Hill.
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© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
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Persson, J. (2012). Artificial Wetlands. In: Bengtsson, L., Herschy, R.W., Fairbridge, R.W. (eds) Encyclopedia of Lakes and Reservoirs. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4410-6_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4410-6_5
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