SASSI: A Systems Approach to Sustainable Sanitation Challenges in China
Sanitation infrastructure is entangled with social, technical and ecological systems at different spatial and temporal scales. The planning, implementation, management, maintenance and use of sanitation systems have substantial implications for sustainability.
Such sustainability outcomes can depend on factors as diverse as context-specific resource availability, everyday practices and local values, beliefs and norms. Expanding sanitation systems is key to sustainable development transitions, considering that Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 has a strong focus on sanitation.
More importantly, sanitation systems are linked with multiple other SDGs and create substantial interlinkages between SDGs. Even though sanitation systems are usually implemented with the aim of improving human well-being, transitions in national sanitation infrastructures may carry adverse implications for human health, social relations and environmental sustainability.
Yet, there is a lack of systematic and integrated evidence on the sustainability outcomes of transitions in sanitation systems, especially in (rapidly) developing countries.
Aims & Objectives
The overall aim of this interdisciplinary project is to enhance our understanding of the complex human-environment interactions in sanitation systems and their sustainability outcomes in rapidly developing countries. This can contribute knowledge and best practices to improve human well-being, which is the overall focus of the Sustainable Development agenda. The project has four interlinked objectives:
- To understand the components of (and their interaction within) different types of sanitation systems as well as how sanitation systems interact with other social, technical and environmental systems (system of systems)
- To reveal the interactions between different sanitation systems and the Sustainable Development Agenda, SDGs and their targets
- To co-develop with stakeholders models and tools that support informed decision making in sanitation towards sustainable development
- To build transdisciplinary capacity in sanitation research, design, planning, implementation, management and maintenance
People
Principal Investigator: Deljana Iossifova, Alexandros Gasparatos
Co-Investigators: Ulysses Sengupta, Nir Oren, Murilo da Silva Baptista, Feng Luan, Nannan Dong, Hongbin Chen
Advisory Board: Em Clara Greed, Sarah Ichioka, Jochen Monstadt, Nikolas Rose, Tim Schwanen, Jose Siri
Publications
Iossifova, D. et al. (2022). Infrastructuring with Care in Cities of the Global South. In: Iossifova, D., Gasparatos, A., Zavos, S., Gamal, Y., Long, Y. (eds) Urban Infrastructuring. Sustainable Development Goals Series. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-8352-7_19