CAREER: Integrated Municipal Sanitation Systems

University Of Virginia Main Campus, Charlottesville VA

Investigators

Abstract

99854318 Louis The proposed research has two main goals. The first is to make the performance of municipal sanitation services (water supply, wastewater treatment and solid waste management) accountable to their stakeholders (the public, the service providers and government regulators). The second is to assure the capacity to satisfy demand for these services over the long term in cities of both developed and developing countries. The PI notes the general practice of providing municipal sanitation services independently with little integration across the disciplines of water supply, wastewater treatment and solid waste management and sees this as a key failing. He proposes to develop a systems approach to the development and delivery of integrated sanitation services and posits that an integrated approach holds out the promise of more cost-effective delivery through identification of economies of scale, waste reduction and increased recycling and re-use of resources. This project has three main areas of activity: (1) empirical research, (2) education and (3) outreach. These activities are centered on a systems approach to evaluating and planning municipal sanitation services. The approach treats the services as components of an integrated system and analyzes their technical, administrative and institutional parameters as functional requirements of the system. The proposed research plan involves the development of an understanding of the functional and operational objectives of the component services. The PI will compare the functional objectives, as set out in relevant laws and regulations, and the views of the main stakeholders with performance measures to assess achievement of objectives and to identify and evaluate options for improvements. Since the integration of these services requires the seamless sharing of information among them, the PI will also analyze the role, requirements and opportunities for information technology in integrating and improving service. The educational program of this project complements the research by offering two new courses, graduate internships and outreach projects. These will build the human infrastructure necessary for context-driven, integrative approaches to the design and management of municipal sanitation services. The research and education components will be enhanced by an outreach component aimed at recruiting students of color, women and students from developing countries to channel the approaches presented in this project back to their home communities. In addition, the project will host a web-based forum on municipal sanitation problems and solutions and collaborate with other domestic and foreign academic institutions on related research and development projects. ***