A review on China's constructed wetlands in recent three decades: Application and practice

Abstract Constructed wetlands (CWs) have been introduced to and developed in China for environmental engineering over the most prosperous three decades (1990–2020). To study the origin, development process, and future trend of CWs, this review summarized a wide range of literatures between 1990 and 2020 by Chinese authors. Firstly, the publication number over years, research highlights, and the author contributions with the most published papers in this field were conducted through bibliometric analysis. Secondly, the most principal components of CWs, substrates and macrophytes were summarized and analyzed. Thirdly, the typical application cases from traditional CWs, pond systems to combined pond-wetland systems were presented. In China, CWs were predominately distributed in the east of the so-called 'Hu Huanyong Line'. Therefore CWs were limited by the socio-economic level and climatic conditions. It is unquestionable that the overall level of China's CWs has improved significantly, and one of the most prominent features has started towards the plural pattern development. There has been a trend of large-scale or low-cost CW application in the recent years. However, lifecycle research and management are required for better strategies in the future.