Exploring the role of human behaviours and spatial design factors in moderating respiratory infectious disease transmission in shared sanitation

Project Title continuation: facilities
The research challenge is to investigate how the interactions between patterns of behaviour and the spatial design in shared sanitation facilities moderates the risk of respiratory infectious disease transmission.
Existing research regarding disease transmissions in shared sanitation facilities focuses on modelling the risk of transmissions through QMRA approaches, however there is a knowledge gap in understanding how people's behaviours and interactions within shared sanitation spaces moderates the risk of respiratory disease transmissions. Additionally there is limited knowledge on the most effective methods for observing and recording archetypal behaviours and interactions in shared sanitation facilities.
The project will be carried out in the following steps:
1. Conducting a systematic literature review to explore the literature on the influence of human behaviours and spatial design on respiratory infectious disease transmission
2. Carrying out formative research in the UK to develop observational tools for observing and identifying archetypal behaviours, social interactions and interactions with the physical space.
3. Carrying out observational research in India, to investigate how patterns of behaviours and interactions translate in different categories of shared sanitation facilities in high density low income areas. To also carry out research to establish how shared toilet behaviours and attitudes were moderated during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The impact of this project will be:
a. To contribute to the body of knowledge by providing evidence of the marginal risks of respiratory infectious disease transmission in shared sanitation facilities;
b. To enable advice and guidance to be given to local authorities on prioritising design features in shared sanitation facilities to reduce the risk of respiratory infectious disease transmissions.

Water-WISER will train a cohort of 50 British research engineers and scientists and equip them to work in challenging environments both in the low-income settings of rapidly growing poor cities and in the changing urban environment of the UK, Europe and other regions with a historic endowment of aging infrastructure. The vision is for a generation of engineers with the skills to deliver the trans-disciplinary innovations needed to ensure that future water, waste and sanitation infrastructure is resilient to the stresses posed by rapid urbanisation, global climate change and increasingly extreme natural and man-made disasters. Our alumni will address the urgent need to re-imagine urban spaces as net contributors to ecological and environmental well-being rather than being net users of vital resources such as energy, nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon. These new leaders will be an essential resource if the UK is to deliver on its commitment to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 6 which calls for universal access to safely managed water and sanitation services, within planetary and local ecological boundaries. This next generation of research engineers will enable UK-based engineering consultancies, manufacturers, and utility companies to grow their share of the expanding global market for water and waste services, for example; in the water services industry from 3% to 10% (an increase of £33 billion per annum) by 2030, and attract significant inward investment.
The research which Water-WISER cohorts enable will form the basis of new innovations in the design and delivery of resilient infrastructure and services. Innovations developed by Water-WISER graduates will inform how growing cities are designed and built in the global south and will be used to inform the re-engineering and replacement of the aging infrastructure on which the UK's water and waste services are currently reliant. Our alumni will form the new generation of leaders who will play a central role in securing a larger share of the international water and waste management consultancy market to UK consultancies. The network of expertise and skills created by Water-WISER will enhance potential for collaborations between major UK players (for example strengthening links between UK consultancy, the Department for International Development, and leading UK water agencies such as WaterAid and Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor) and between UK companies and partners in the global south including international investors such as the World Bank, European Investment Bank, African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and the International Finance Corporation. Graduates of Water-WISER will enter industry, academia and development agencies having spent a substantial period (minimum of six months) embedded in an industry or development partner organisation delivering their field-based research. Water-WISER students will thus gain a unique combination of trans-disciplinary training, field experience and cohort networking; they are destined for leadership roles in UK and international engineering and development consultancies, academia, international development banks, international agencies such as the United Nations and international non-governmental organisations.