In a global scenario marked by a water crisis advancing faster than countries’ capacity to adapt, Beijing has become an emblematic case of planetary urgency: rising temperatures, altered monsoon patterns, overexploited aquifers, and demographic pressure demanding more water than natural systems can replenish. The city has lost more than 40% of its surface water resources over the past three decades, and its dependence on the South‑to‑North Water Transfer has reached critical levels, evidencing a water market under structural stress. In this context, the district of Shunyi, located northeast of the capital, between 40.13°N and 116.65°E, faces a challenging combination of accelerated urbanization, industrial expansion, and progressive water‑quality deterioration in the Wenyu River basin, whose flows have been compromised by historical discharges, urban runoff, and extreme climatic variability.
Against this backdrop, the Shunyi Water Resources Utilization Plant Upgrading and Expansion Project emerges as a strategic response aimed at transforming not only a hydraulic asset but the entire logic of water‑resource management across the sub‑basin. Its strategic objective is to convert a limited, technologically outdated facility into a hydrological regeneration engine capable of producing 100,000 m³/day of treated water meeting Class III surface‑water quality, equivalent to the daily consumption of over 250,000 residents of Beijing, and sufficient to sustain the ecological flow of the Chaobai River during dry months. The intervention seeks to resolve the chronic shortage of regenerated water for industrial, urban, and environmental uses while reducing dependence on primary extractions and lowering pollutant loads that undermine basin resilience.
The project site, located south of Yuzhuang village in Gaoliying township, within Shunyi district, sits at a strategic node where urban infrastructure, emerging residential areas, and ecological corridors connecting the Wenyu to the Chaobai River converge. The initiative is grounded in the urgent need to halt water‑quality degradation, relieve pressure on surface‑water sources, generate reliable alternative supplies, and ensure a stable ecological flow to restore the hydrological function of the fluvial system. Without this modernization, the district would face increased risks of supply shortages, higher energy costs associated with external water transfers, and continued loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services.
The project brings together a collaborative ecosystem that includes the Shunyi district government as owner, Beijing Hengfeng Municipal Engineering and Beijing Jiuan Construction Investment Group as implementers, specialized AAO‑MBR technology providers, membrane manufacturers, regulatory agencies, hydrological authorities, and local operators responsible for daily oversight. This collaborative model ensures technical robustness and enables transparent governance supported by third‑party verification.
Its alignment with Water Positive is reflected in three core principles: additionality, by generating new regenerated water that did not exist in the baseline; intentionality, by being designed from the outset to increase net water availability in a critical basin; and traceability, ensured through continuous measurement, multiparameter sensors, SCADA systems, and verifiable reporting that quantifies both volumetric and water‑quality benefits (VWB) linked to the restoration of the Chaobai River. This project does more than treat water: it redefines how a megacity manages its most limited resource, demonstrating that reuse infrastructure is one of the most powerful levers to secure future water availability in severely stressed regions.
The project originates from a clear technical and strategic gap within Beijing’s water system: the inability of existing infrastructure to efficiently and reliably process growing volumes of urban wastewater while simultaneously generating secondary water resources to reduce pressure on overexploited primary sources. This opportunity arises as Shunyi’s water demand increases by more than 6% annually, driven by real‑estate expansion and logistical density around the international airport, while conventional supply declines due to climate variability, reduced runoff, and stricter regulatory limits on abstraction and discharge.
Modernizing the plant transforms a declining operational system into a high‑value hydrological asset through AAO‑MBR processes and ozone disinfection capable of converting pollutant loads into regenerated water suitable for environmental uses. The system processes 100,000 m³/day, stabilizes removal of BOD, COD, and nutrients above regulatory thresholds, and reduces sludge generation by more than 50% compared with conventional technologies. Immediate impacts include significantly lower pollutant discharge into the Wenyu River, reduced emissions linked to sludge management, substitution of freshwater extractions, and provision of a continuous flow to restore the ecological regime of the Chaobai River.
In the short term, the plant will improve energy efficiency through optimized aeration, reduce effluent‑quality variability, and deliver stable regenerated water even during dry periods. In the medium term, it will help stabilize the district’s water balance, reduce pressure on inter‑basin transfers, and strengthen response capacity to extreme events. In the long term, it will support the progressive recovery of the Chaobai River’s ecological function.
The environmental challenge stems from high concentrations of nutrients, solids, and organic matter in the existing effluent due to outdated equipment, insufficient aeration, suboptimal recirculation, and lack of automation. Added to this are tightening discharge regulations, risk of non‑compliance penalties, and vulnerability to sudden hydraulic loads during storm events intensified by climate change.
Underlying causes include legacy design limitations from an older plant built before current environmental standards, unanticipated urban growth increasing hydraulic loads, lack of hydraulic redundancy, fragmented monitoring, and budget constraints delaying upgrades. In this scenario, collaborating companies play a critical role: developers, operators, membrane suppliers, automation specialists, and verifiers contribute the technical and operational capacity needed to turn the plant into a benchmark for circular‑water systems. For companies leading such solutions, returns include accelerated ESG compliance, stronger positioning in regulated markets, competitive differentiation, access to green finance, and alignment with new environmental taxonomies prioritizing reuse and resource regeneration.
The project is conceived as a hybrid solution combining advanced grey infrastructure, green components, and a digital monitoring layer, aligning with VWBA’s green/grey infrastructure classification. The main treatment train integrates pre‑treatment, AAO biological processing, membrane bioreactors (MBR), ozone disinfection, and final polishing through constructed wetlands and an ecological reservoir. With a capacity of 100,000 m³/day, this configuration ensures stable solid‑liquid separation, high nutrient removal, and consistent regenerated‑water quality to sustain ecological flows and reduce pressure on primary sources.
This technology was selected due to its compact footprint, high efficiency, and ability to consistently meet Class III standards, something unachievable with conventional activated sludge or basic secondary treatment. AAO‑MBR offers high process efficiency, low spatial footprint, and stability under hydraulic variability typical of monsoon climates. Ozone enhances disinfection and reduces micro‑contaminants, while wetlands and the reservoir add hydrological buffering and final polishing.
Benefits include producing more than 36.5 million m³/year of regenerated water, significant reductions in BOD, COD, TSS, and nitrogen, and over 50% less sludge than traditional systems. This strengthens the ecological flow of the Chaobai River, reduces nutrient loads downstream, and enhances biodiversity linked to wetlands. Social benefits include improved water security, lower sanitary risks, and creation of specialized technical employment.
Economically and reputationally, modernization improves energy efficiency, reduces OPEX, and facilitates access to green finance. The solution is fully aligned with Water Positive and VWBA, ensuring additionality and traceability through flow meters, quality sensors, SCADA, and external audits. Risks, such as membrane fouling, equipment failure, hydrological variability, or social acceptance, are mitigated through technological redundancy, backup power, contingency protocols, and coordinated governance.
Modular design supports future expansion and climate resilience, while the integration of engineered and natural systems provides adaptability to extreme flows. Scalability allows replication across other Beijing districts and similar urban basins, provided clear reuse regulations, local technical capacity, and strong public‑private partnerships are in place.
The project is executed through phased intervention combining a main modernization effort with iterative optimization cycles. A baseline diagnosis characterized inflows, pollutant loads, equipment performance, and automation levels through intensive sampling, flow measurements, and laboratory analysis, providing a robust quantitative reference. The AAO‑MBR‑ozone treatment train, wetlands, and ecological reservoir were then designed with KPIs covering removal efficiency, energy consumption, regenerated volumes, and ecological‑flow contributions.
Execution included upgrading pre‑treatment, rehabilitating AAO tanks, installing MBR modules, integrating the ozone system, and constructing wetlands and the reservoir. Monitoring infrastructure, flow meters, online probes, IoT sensors, and SCADA, was deployed. Commissioning involved capacity tests, variable‑load trials, aeration and recirculation adjustments, and KPI verification through continuous monitoring and periodic sampling.
Traceability is ensured through clear hydraulic sectorization, flow and quality measurements from influent to ecological discharge, and a digital platform that stores, analyzes, and reports data, including documentation for external verifiers and regulators under VWBA. Governance assigns roles across the operator, asset owner, technology providers, and external verifiers for operation, maintenance, control, and validation.
Preventive maintenance includes daily inspections, membrane cleaning schedules, blower and pump reviews, wetland biological management, and reservoir structural checks. Monitoring tracks regenerated water, ecological contributions, pollutant removal, and energy efficiency, enabling continuous comparison of with‑ and without‑project scenarios. Mechanisms for continuous improvement include data‑driven operational adjustments and technological updates to ensure long‑term environmental and hydrological benefits.
The project fully modernizes the existing plant to create a high‑performance water‑regeneration system capable of producing stable‑quality alternative water and sustaining ecological flows in a chronically stressed basin. It integrates AAO biological treatment, MBR separation, ozone disinfection, polishing wetlands, and an ecological reservoir. The technical flow, pre‑treatment, biological removal, membrane separation, advanced disinfection, and natural treatment, supports 100,000 m³/day of capacity and more than 36.5 million m³/year of regenerated water at Class III quality.
This solution responds to degraded water quality, reduced baseflow, and increasing pressure on primary sources by providing a reliable alternative supply that substitutes extractions, lowers pollutant loads, and restores ecological flows. Compared with the baseline, the modernized plant offers operational stability, higher contaminant removal efficiency, and unprecedented traceability. Expected impacts include improved trophic status, reduced sludge‑related emissions, strengthened wetland biodiversity, lower sanitary risks, and increased climate resilience.
Strategically, the project is a cornerstone for the region’s Water Positive roadmap, generating additional, intentional, and verifiable volumetric benefits under VWBA, supporting ESG commitments, SDGs, Science Based Targets for Water, NPWI, and ESRS E3. Its technological and governance configuration is replicable across other stressed urban basins in northern China and similar cities, provided clear reuse regulation and strong public‑private partnerships.
The final expected impact includes tangible improvement of the basin’s water balance, greater climate resilience, creation of specialized technical employment, and enhanced water security for communities and productive sectors, sending a strong signal to investors, clients, and society about the pivotal role of advanced water reuse in transitioning toward a regenerative and resilient water economy.
