Integrated waste water management for a small river basin - A case study

In Austria approximately 70% of the population is connected to sewerage and to biological waste water treatment plants. Whereas the urban areas are al ready provided with these facilities to a very high extent, effort is still needed in rural areas to meet the requirements of the Austrian legislation . The way, this task should be solved has provoked much controversy. It is mainly the question, whether centralised or decentralised sewage disposal s ystems are preferable from the ecological and economical point of view, tha t became a political issue during the last 5 years. The Institute for Water Quality and Waste Management was asked to elaborate a waste water manageme nt concept for the Lainsitz River Basin, a mainly rural area in the north o f Austria discharging to the Elbe river. Both ecological and economical asp ects should be considered. This paper presents the methodology that was app lied and the criteria which were decisive for the selection of the final so lution. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd on behalf of the IAWQ. A ll rights reserved.