ABSTRACT
Five recent handbooks provide useful syntheses of existing knowledge concerning the design of new wetlands; however, the existing database from operational wetland treatment systems is growing so fast that these handbooks may be quickly outdated by new empirical results. The primary goal of the wetlands treatment database is to provide information that will allow effective designs, cost-efficient construction, and reliable operation of new wetland treatment systems. A second goal of the wetland treatment database is to provide a research tool for scientific investigations into the subject of wetlands ecology. A third goal of the wetlands treatment database is to help establish standardization of the monitoring and reporting efforts in wetland treatment systems nationwide. Seven individual database files on the use of North American wetlands for water quality treatment have been developed. Data quality is an important consideration when preparing a database from numerous sources of information.
