An examination of the factors involved in agricultural reuse: technologies, regulatory and social aspects

Factors that impacts agricultural reuse are examined in the paper. The objective of this work is to assess the factors involved in agriculture reuse by presenting a comparison of three wastewater treatment plants used for food crop irrigation: Adelaide, South Australia; Foggia, South Italy and Monterey, California. An analysis of the driving forces for reuse, regulatory requirements, and other factors affecting the water reuse systems is described. A comparison of treatment technologies and costs is also performed including pretreatments, biological steps, filtration, sedimentation and disinfection options. As a consequence of global warming that has increased the frequency and severity of natural disasters like the drought, the impacts of climate change and seasonality is discussed in the paper. A possible scenario of the future trend for agriculture reuse including the influence of the increase in urban water use, the increase in salinity and the acceptability of products is lastly considered.