A Systems Approach to Sustainable Sanitation Challenges in Urbanising China (SASSI)
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Manchester
Department Name: Environment, Education and Development
Abstract
Sanitation systems are entangled with social, technical and ecological systems at smaller and larger scales. How they are planned, implemented, managed, maintained and used has impact on sustainability outcomes. The transformation of national sanitation infrastructures, although usually implemented with the aim to improve human well-being, 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. Such outcomes can depend on factors as diverse as context-specific resource availability, everyday practices and local value, belief and norm systems.
The overall aim of this project is to contribute to improved human well-being as the overarching goal of the Sustainable Development agenda. It aims to enhance our understanding of complex human-environment interactions and their sustainability outcomes. It will highlight the need for sustainable sanitation systems in dense urban environments (SDG12, SDG10); support efforts to develop sanitation infrastructures that are culturally appropriate, more inclusive, economically viable and less wasteful (SDG6, SDG11); contribute to reducing inequalities in promoting sustainable sanitation for low-income areas (SDG10, SDG12); and help progress the improvement of living standards for the poor (SDG11) and the reduction of common health risks associated with the lack of appropriate sanitation (SDG3).
The project will define and advance a systems approach for sanitation which situates basic human functions within wider human ecosystems of critical social, economic and environmental resources and social institutions, cycles and order. It will study possible sustainability outcomes across different sanitation systems (such as service-networked or sewage-based sanitation), environments (e.g., urban, peri-urban, rural) and temporal scales (to account for time lags, increased scale and pace and the indirect effects of sanitation) using various analytical approaches and state-of-the-art modelling.
The project has four interlinked objectives:
Obj1. 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)
Obj2. To reveal the interactions between different sanitation systems and the Sustainable Development Agenda, SDGs and their targets
Obj3. To co-develop with stakeholders models and tools to support informed decision making in sanitation towards sustainable development
Obj4. To build transdisciplinary capacity in sanitation research, design, planning, implementation, management and maintenance
The project will focus on Shanghai (China) as a prime example of urban transformation. The mega-city offers opportunities to study the entanglement of co-evolving urban, peri-urban and rural environments at varying stages of infrastructural development. We will collect quantitative and qualitative data to understand infrastructural transitions over time and explore how possible context-specific policy- or design-focused interventions may contribute to sustainable development goals. Scenario building will allow us to consider plausible futures whilst taking into account possible uncertainties.
The project will offer the comprehensive and transdisciplinary understanding of sustainability outcomes related to transitions in sanitation systems that is often missing from existing studies. The collaboration of investigators and members of the Advisory Board in academic (UoM, MMU, UoA, Tongji, UoT, UOx), applied (EAWAG, Sustainable Sanitation, Desire Lines) and policy-driven (UNU-IIGH) research with complementary strengths will add significant value to the project. It will facilitate the effective communication of findings to a wide range of end-users.
The overall aim of this project is to contribute to improved human well-being as the overarching goal of the Sustainable Development agenda. It aims to enhance our understanding of complex human-environment interactions and their sustainability outcomes. It will highlight the need for sustainable sanitation systems in dense urban environments (SDG12, SDG10); support efforts to develop sanitation infrastructures that are culturally appropriate, more inclusive, economically viable and less wasteful (SDG6, SDG11); contribute to reducing inequalities in promoting sustainable sanitation for low-income areas (SDG10, SDG12); and help progress the improvement of living standards for the poor (SDG11) and the reduction of common health risks associated with the lack of appropriate sanitation (SDG3).
The project will define and advance a systems approach for sanitation which situates basic human functions within wider human ecosystems of critical social, economic and environmental resources and social institutions, cycles and order. It will study possible sustainability outcomes across different sanitation systems (such as service-networked or sewage-based sanitation), environments (e.g., urban, peri-urban, rural) and temporal scales (to account for time lags, increased scale and pace and the indirect effects of sanitation) using various analytical approaches and state-of-the-art modelling.
The project has four interlinked objectives:
Obj1. 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)
Obj2. To reveal the interactions between different sanitation systems and the Sustainable Development Agenda, SDGs and their targets
Obj3. To co-develop with stakeholders models and tools to support informed decision making in sanitation towards sustainable development
Obj4. To build transdisciplinary capacity in sanitation research, design, planning, implementation, management and maintenance
The project will focus on Shanghai (China) as a prime example of urban transformation. The mega-city offers opportunities to study the entanglement of co-evolving urban, peri-urban and rural environments at varying stages of infrastructural development. We will collect quantitative and qualitative data to understand infrastructural transitions over time and explore how possible context-specific policy- or design-focused interventions may contribute to sustainable development goals. Scenario building will allow us to consider plausible futures whilst taking into account possible uncertainties.
The project will offer the comprehensive and transdisciplinary understanding of sustainability outcomes related to transitions in sanitation systems that is often missing from existing studies. The collaboration of investigators and members of the Advisory Board in academic (UoM, MMU, UoA, Tongji, UoT, UOx), applied (EAWAG, Sustainable Sanitation, Desire Lines) and policy-driven (UNU-IIGH) research with complementary strengths will add significant value to the project. It will facilitate the effective communication of findings to a wide range of end-users.
Planned Impact
This research has the potential to benefit multiple stakeholders, including policy-makers, government and others within the public, private and third sectors who are involved in the design, planning, implementation, management, maintenance and use of sanitation in rapidly urbanising China.
The knowledge and tools produced by this research will support the UN Sustainable Development Agenda and contribute to the achievement of SDG Goal 3 (healthy lives and well-being for all); Goal 6 (water and sanitation for all); Goal 10 (reduced inequalities); Goal 11 (inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable settlements); and Goal 12 (sustainable consumption and production), among others.
We will deliver an interactive decision making support tool that builds on scenario development and simulation to allow decision makers to view and understand complex human-environment interactions and consider the plausible future impacts of their actions (interventions), whilst taking into account possible uncertainties.
Cutting-edge modelling and decision making support tools will lead to cross-sectoral collaboration and improved planning, implementation and maintenance of sustainable sanitation across multiple scales of governance. This will be achieved through the mapping and visualisation of interlinkages between social, ecological and technical systems and the actors responsible for their management.
Donor organisations (e.g., ADB, AIIB) will be able to test alternative sanitation interventions and infrastructure investments for their impact on possible future trajectories and implied sustainability outcomes. This may influence and improve local and higher-level sanitation-related projects and policies.
International think tanks (e.g., ODI, UNU) and organisations who work on urbanisation and sanitation both within the United Nations system (e.g. UN-HABITAT, FAO, WHO, UNEP) as well as outside of it (e.g. ICLEI, LEDS-GP) will benefit from the potential of an integrated systems approach and digital technologies to address global sustainability challenges around, among others, resources, health and well-being.
The research will help in-country and international NGOs, such as the Yuting Foundation and World Toilet Organization, to strengthen their advocacy work and raise awareness at different levels of governance. It will inform the design of strategic programmes that target those most in need.
Local governments (neighbourhood, street, district and municipal level officials) will participate in the design and production of the research and will benefit from the interactive digital decision making support tool that responds to their immediate knowledge needs. The work will benefit service providers, such as the Water Division and Shanghai Urban Construction Investment Development Corporation, who provide water-based sanitation in Shanghai.
Ultimately, the project will benefit the citizens of Shanghai in improving provision and access to sustainable sanitation and enhancing the quality of the built and natural environment in the long term. The future replication of the research elsewhere in China and the world will enable more communities to benefit.
PhD and Early Career Researchers across the social and natural sciences will benefit from capacity building activities at the project opening and closing events and project workshops in China and the UK. This includes exposure to and involvement in the development of cutting-edge interdisciplinary methods for the analysis of multilayer networks.
Researchers across all levels of seniority and students associated with Complexity Planning and Urbanism (CPU) at the Manchester School of Architecture; the International Joint Lab for Sustainable Development and Urban Environment at Tongji University; and Gasparatos Lab at the University of Tokyo will benefit from research activities and enhanced opportunities for international collaboration.
The knowledge and tools produced by this research will support the UN Sustainable Development Agenda and contribute to the achievement of SDG Goal 3 (healthy lives and well-being for all); Goal 6 (water and sanitation for all); Goal 10 (reduced inequalities); Goal 11 (inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable settlements); and Goal 12 (sustainable consumption and production), among others.
We will deliver an interactive decision making support tool that builds on scenario development and simulation to allow decision makers to view and understand complex human-environment interactions and consider the plausible future impacts of their actions (interventions), whilst taking into account possible uncertainties.
Cutting-edge modelling and decision making support tools will lead to cross-sectoral collaboration and improved planning, implementation and maintenance of sustainable sanitation across multiple scales of governance. This will be achieved through the mapping and visualisation of interlinkages between social, ecological and technical systems and the actors responsible for their management.
Donor organisations (e.g., ADB, AIIB) will be able to test alternative sanitation interventions and infrastructure investments for their impact on possible future trajectories and implied sustainability outcomes. This may influence and improve local and higher-level sanitation-related projects and policies.
International think tanks (e.g., ODI, UNU) and organisations who work on urbanisation and sanitation both within the United Nations system (e.g. UN-HABITAT, FAO, WHO, UNEP) as well as outside of it (e.g. ICLEI, LEDS-GP) will benefit from the potential of an integrated systems approach and digital technologies to address global sustainability challenges around, among others, resources, health and well-being.
The research will help in-country and international NGOs, such as the Yuting Foundation and World Toilet Organization, to strengthen their advocacy work and raise awareness at different levels of governance. It will inform the design of strategic programmes that target those most in need.
Local governments (neighbourhood, street, district and municipal level officials) will participate in the design and production of the research and will benefit from the interactive digital decision making support tool that responds to their immediate knowledge needs. The work will benefit service providers, such as the Water Division and Shanghai Urban Construction Investment Development Corporation, who provide water-based sanitation in Shanghai.
Ultimately, the project will benefit the citizens of Shanghai in improving provision and access to sustainable sanitation and enhancing the quality of the built and natural environment in the long term. The future replication of the research elsewhere in China and the world will enable more communities to benefit.
PhD and Early Career Researchers across the social and natural sciences will benefit from capacity building activities at the project opening and closing events and project workshops in China and the UK. This includes exposure to and involvement in the development of cutting-edge interdisciplinary methods for the analysis of multilayer networks.
Researchers across all levels of seniority and students associated with Complexity Planning and Urbanism (CPU) at the Manchester School of Architecture; the International Joint Lab for Sustainable Development and Urban Environment at Tongji University; and Gasparatos Lab at the University of Tokyo will benefit from research activities and enhanced opportunities for international collaboration.
Publications
Iossifova D.
(2020)
Healthy Cities in an Urban Age? Public Health and the Emergent Metropolis
Hong H
(2020)
Eco-industrial parks in China: Key institutional aspects, sustainability impacts, and implementation challenges
in Journal of Cleaner Production
Ebi KL
(2020)
Transdisciplinary Research Priorities for Human and Planetary Health in the Context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
in International journal of environmental research and public health
Long Y
(2021)
Negligible impacts of early COVID-19 confinement on household carbon footprints in Japan.
in One earth (Cambridge, Mass.)
Jarzebski M
(2021)
Ageing and population shrinking: implications for sustainability in the urban century
in npj Urban Sustainability
Iossfiova D
(2022)
Die Konjunktur der Komödie im China der Gegenwart: Stücke und Zugänge
Liu Q
(2023)
Socio-metabolic practices and heterogeneous sanitation infrastructures in urbanizing China
in Transactions in Planning and Urban Research
Long Y
(2024)
Assessing urban livability in Shanghai through an open source data-driven approach
in npj Urban Sustainability
| Description | The research project examined urban sanitation and sustainability, focusing particularly on infrastructural transformations in China. The findings challenge conventional approaches to sanitation infrastructure and highlight the complex socio-material dynamics that shape access, sustainability, and everyday practices. A significant finding concerns the persistence of heterogeneous sanitation infrastructures in Chinese cities, particularly in older and under-serviced urban areas. While large-scale, networked sanitation systems remain the dominant model in urban planning, empirical evidence from Shanghai demonstrates that decentralised and service-based sanitation infrastructures continue to play a crucial role in many communities. Research in Shanghai's older neighbourhoods shows that constraints related to urban density, land tenure, and heritage preservation prevent full integration into centralised sewerage networks, leaving many residents reliant on shared, informal, or adapted sanitation solutions. The project also revealed the inequalities embedded within sanitation provision and access. The uneven distribution of sanitation facilities in Shanghai creates differentiated sanitation practices across socio-economic and spatial divides. Migrant workers and lower-income urban residents, for instance, often face significant constraints in accessing 'modern' sanitation due to systemic exclusions linked to housing policies and infrastructure investments. These inequalities are further exacerbated by socio-metabolic hierarchies that privilege some groups while marginalising others. The research identified cases where residents were reluctant to improve sanitation facilities in rental housing due to fears that infrastructural upgrades would diminish the likelihood of state-led compensation and resettlement, thus perpetuating infrastructural neglect. Another key insight relates to the contradictions in China's sanitation modernisation policies, particularly the 'Toilet Revolution'. While the policy has led to increased investment in sanitation infrastructure, its implementation remains uneven, often reinforcing a technocratic vision of modernisation that fails to account for local infrastructural and social realities. The emphasis on large-scale, water-borne sanitation assumes a uniform model that does not easily translate to all urban contexts, particularly those with entrenched service-based sanitation systems. A broader contribution of the project lies in its conceptualisation of sanitation as a dynamic, socio-eco-technical process rather than a fixed infrastructural category. Drawing on urban metabolism and practice theory, the findings demonstrate how sanitation is entangled with everyday practices, political economies, and infrastructural histories. This perspective moves beyond simplistic notions of infrastructural progress to acknowledge the multiple ways in which people inhabit, adapt to, and contest sanitation infrastructures. Finally, the research was concerned with the importance of interdisciplinary approaches to sanitation and sustainability. By integrating urban studies, environmental science, and infrastructure planning, the findings highlight the need for policies that prioritise flexible, context-sensitive interventions rather than standardised infrastructural solutions. In doing so, the project makes a critical contribution to ongoing debates on sustainable urbanisation, infrastructural justice, and the politics of everyday sanitation. |
| Exploitation Route | The outcomes of this research project offer multiple avenues for application and impact across academic, policy, and practice domains. The findings on heterogeneous sanitation infrastructures, socio-metabolic practices, and infrastructural inequalities in urban China provide a foundation for more context-sensitive and sustainable approaches to urban sanitation. Future research, policy interventions, and design strategies can build on these insights in several ways. Academically, the research contributes to ongoing debates in urban studies, environmental sustainability, and infrastructure planning by problematising the assumed universality of networked sanitation systems. The conceptual frameworks developed-including the socio-metabolic lens and the emphasis on infrastructuring as an ongoing, dynamic process-can be extended to other urban contexts, particularly in rapidly urbanising regions of the Global South. Scholars working on urban infrastructure, sanitation, and sustainability can draw on these insights to further investigate the intersection of socio-technical systems, policy interventions, and everyday practices. For policymakers and urban planners, the findings highlight the need for more adaptive, localised, and inclusive approaches to sanitation provision. The critique of one-size-fits-all infrastructure solutions, particularly in the context of China's 'Toilet Revolution', underscores the importance of engaging with the lived realities of urban residents. Government agencies and international organisations working on sanitation and sustainable urban development can integrate these findings into policy frameworks that move beyond purely technical or engineering-driven models towards more socially responsive infrastructure planning. The research also has practical implications for NGOs, development practitioners, and urban designers working on sanitation and public health. The emphasis on decentralised and service-based sanitation models suggests that alternative approaches-such as community-managed sanitation systems, ecological sanitation, and hybrid infrastructural configurations-may be more effective and sustainable in certain urban environments. These findings could inform sanitation-focused interventions that prioritise community engagement, cultural appropriateness, and environmental sustainability. Beyond the urban sanitation sector, the study's broader insights into infrastructural inequalities and urban metabolism can inform wider discussions on sustainable development, particularly in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The research highlights how sanitation is entangled with other infrastructural systems, such as housing, water supply, and waste management, and suggests that integrated, cross-sectoral approaches will be necessary to achieve meaningful and lasting improvements in urban livability. Finally, the methodological innovations developed in this project-particularly the use of open-source spatial data to assess urban infrastructure-can be adapted and applied by researchers and practitioners seeking to evaluate infrastructure provision in other cities. The spatially explicit, data-driven approach to identifying priority areas for intervention provides a replicable model for assessing urban livability and infrastructural accessibility in different geographical contexts. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy Construction Environment |
| Description | International transdisciplinary workshop 'Infrastructure for fragmented Cities' |
| Amount | £50,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Manchester |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2020 |
| End | 12/2020 |
| Description | Towards Healthy China 2035: Sustainable Urban Sanitation Infrasystems in the Yangtze River Delta |
| Amount | £24,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | British Council |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2020 |
| End | 12/2020 |
| Description | Healthy Cities Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Some 100-120 people attended the Healthy Cities conference, organised at the University of Manchester. Of these, 20-25 were representatives from government, charities, business and the third sector, whilst the majority of the others were early career researchers. Some members of the general public attended the public events. The transdisciplinary discussions during the 3-day event sparked ideas among researchers and non-academic delegates. We are currently working with some of them to translate their knowledge needs into appropriate research questions and a funding proposal for a collaborative project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://www.healthycities2019.com |