Rurality as a vehicle for Urban Sanitation Transformation (RUST)

在印度，向城市人口提供水、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。对于生活在非正式住区或贫民窟的6 500万人，以及生活在具有城市特征但在行政上被归类为农村地区的3亿多人来说，情况尤其如此。这些人中有很大一部分最近住在农村住宅，而有些人仍可能季节性地返回农村地区谋生。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，这种乡村性可以成为可持续城市转型的推动力，特别是在改善和生产卫生设施领域，这是印度特别迫切需要的领域。事实证明，农村社区与其自然环境的联系更为密切，部分原因是与城市社区相比，农村社区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资源利用的更敏感以及与露天排便有关的偏好有关。基于这一思路，本研究将试图了解城市人口、新城市化人口和农村人口在卫生和人类废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多的循环卫生系统，将废物视为一种资源，即在新兴城市化社区，与更稳定的城市地区相比，将废物视为农业肥料、回收产品等。我们将通过开发A1级超大城市海得拉巴的三个空间样带来进行这项研究。每个样带将覆盖海德拉巴从中心到特伦加纳农村地区的不同区域。本研究将采用参与性、定性和定量相结合的方法，评估生态系统服务、卫生和人类废物再利用的认识和做法，以及这些样带沿线的经济和体制因素。该研究的一个关键特征将是通过ESRI故事地图平台将这些数据整合到交互式地图上。这些数据将用于组织与政策和规划利益相关者的联合分析会议，以检查整个城市卫生设施的空间差异。通过这些工作，我们将共同设计新的政策和规划框架，将城市和农村卫生纳入一个整体系统。最终，该项目的目的是帮助制定可行的解决方案，使城市规划者、管理者和决策者能够通过更安全（改善公共卫生）和更高效（改善经济效益）的卫生系统向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.