System Dynamics Model for Urine Diversion in Wastewater Management

A 5-year simulation of wastewater treatment in Gotland, Sweden, modeling six scenarios including conventional configurations and progressive urine diversion adoption. The study, authored by Erika Cristina Francisco and published on figshare in 2026, assessed environmental performance through nitrogen and phosphorus emissions, marine eutrophication potential, water footprint, and carbon footprint. Results show urine diversion significantly reduced peak nutrient emissions and enabled nutrient recovery for fertilizer.

Use Cases

• Modeling the impact of decentralized urine diversion on nutrient emissions based on nitrogen and phosphorus discharge data.
• Evaluating wastewater system resilience under seasonal hydraulic stress based on tourism-driven population fluctuation simulations.
• Assessing freshwater conservation benefits based on avoided water abstraction metrics.
• Comparing environmental footprints of different sanitation strategies based on marine eutrophication potential, water footprint, and carbon footprint indicators.
• Supporting strategic decision-making for nutrient recovery in centralized wastewater management based on scenario analysis results.

Strengths

• Simulation spans a 5-year period representing tourism-driven population fluctuations.
• Analysis includes six distinct scenarios, including baseline, hydraulic stress, and three levels of urine diversion adoption.
• Environmental performance is assessed using multiple concrete metrics: nitrogen (0.030 kg m−3) and phosphorus (0.0018 kg m−3) discharges, marine eutrophication potential, water footprint, and carbon footprint.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The dataset is a single PDF file (204.6 KB), likely containing model outputs or descriptions rather than raw simulation data tables.

Provenance

Source

figshare

Collection Method

System dynamics modeling applied to the Visby wastewater treatment plant case.

Time Range

Simulation covers a 5-year period.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-29 05:40:52; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Gotland, Sweden.