Rurality as a vehicle for Urban Sanitation Transformation (RUST)

在印度，向城市居民提供水、卫生和能源等基本服务仍然是一项重大的公共政策和规划挑战。对于居住在非正式住区或贫民窟的6500万人，以及生活在具有类似城市的特征但被行政归类为农村的地区的3亿多人来说，情况尤其如此。这些人中有相当一部分人最近住在农村，而有些人可能仍会季节性地回到农村地区谋生。在这种情况下，他们与农村地区保持着牢固的社会经济和文化联系。该项目认为，这种农村地区可以成为可持续城市转型的驱动力，特别是在改善和生产性卫生设施领域，这是印度特别迫切需要的领域。农村社区已被证明与其自然环境更紧密地联系在一起，部分原因是与城市社区相比，他们的生计往往更依赖自然环境。这种与自然环境的相对接近与对适当的资源使用以及与露天排便有关的偏好的更敏感有关。基于这一想法，这项研究将试图了解城市、新城市化和农村人口在卫生和人类排泄物管理方面是否存在重大差异。例如，它将研究是否有可能建立更循环的卫生系统，将废物视为一种资源，即与较固定的城市地区相比，在新城市化社区将废物视为农业、回收产品等的化肥。我们将通过开发三个A1级特大城市的空间横断面来进行这项研究：海得拉巴。每个样带将覆盖海得拉巴的不同区域，从中心到泰兰加纳的农村地区。这项研究将使用参与性、定性和定量相结合的方法来评估生态系统服务、卫生和人类排泄物再利用的观念和做法，以及这些样带沿线的经济和体制因素。这项研究的一个主要特点是通过ESRI故事地图平台将这些数据整合到互动地图上。这些将用于与政策和规划利益攸关方组织联合分析会议，以检查全市卫生设施的空间差异。通过这些活动，我们将共同设计新的政策和规划框架，使城市和农村卫生设施成为一个整体系统。归根结底，该项目旨在帮助制定可行的解决方案，使城市规划者、管理人员和政策制定者能够通过更安全(改善公共健康)和生产性(改善经济效益)的卫生系统为城市人口提供更好的服务。

Delivering basic services, for example, water, sanitation and energy, to urban populations remains a significant public policy and planning challenge in India. This is especially the case for the 65 million people living in informal settlements or slums, as well as over 300 million people living in areas which have urban-like features but are administratively classified as rural. A significant proportion of these people were recently living in rural dwellings whilst some may still seasonally migrate back to rural areas for livelihood. In such cases, they retain strong socio-economic and cultural ties to rural areas.This project believes that this rurality can be a driving force for sustainable urban transformation, especially in the area of improved and productive sanitation, which is an area of particularly acute need in India.Rural communities have been shown to be more closely connected to their natural environment, partly because their livelihoods are often more dependent on it, as compared to urban communities. This relative closeness to the natural environment has been connected to more sensitivity around appropriate resource use as well as preferences related to open defecation. Building on that thinking, this research will try to understand whether there are major differences in urban, newly-urbanised and rural populations in relation to sanitation and human waste management. For example, it will examine whether there is potential for more circular sanitation systems that views waste as a resource i.e. as a fertiliser in agriculture, recycled products etc in newly-urbanised communities as compared to more settled urban areas.We will approach this research through developing three spatial transects of a Tier A1 megacity: Hyderabad. Each transect will cover the different zones of Hyderabad from the centre out into the rural areas of Telangana. This study will use a combination of participatory, qualitative and quantitative methods to assess ecosystem services, sanitation and human waste reuse perceptions and practices, and economic and institutional factors along each of these transects. A key feature of the research will be the integration of this data onto interactive maps through the ESRI Story Maps platform. These will be used to structure co-analysis sessions with policy and planning stakeholders to examine spatial differences in sanitation across the city. Through these exercises we will co-design new policy and planning frameworks that will bring together urban and rural sanitation into a holistic system. Ultimately, the project is designed to help develop workable solutions that will enable urban planners, managers and policy-makers to provide better services to urban populations with safer (improved public health) and productive (improved economic benefits) sanitation systems.