Improving health in cities through systems approaches for urban water management

Improving health in cities through systems approaches for urban water management

Rietveld, L.C.
Siri, J.G.
Chakravarty, I.
Arsenio, A.M.
Biswas, R.
Chatterjee, A.

Civil Engineering and Geosciences

Water Management

2016-03-06

Background: As human populations become more and more urban, decision-makers at all levels face new challenges related to both the scale of service provision and the increasing complexity of cities and the networks that connect them. These challenges may take on unique aspects in cities with different cultures, political and institutional frameworks, and at different levels of development, but they frequently have in common an origin in the interaction of human and environmental systems and the feedback relationships that govern their dynamic evolution. Accordingly, systems approaches are becoming recognized as critical to understanding and addressing such complex problems, including those related to human health and wellbeing. Management of water resources in and for cities is one area where such approaches hold real promise. Results: This paper seeks to summarize links between water and health in cities and outline four main elements of systems approaches: analytic methods to deal with complexity, interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity, and multi-scale thinking. Using case studies from a range of urban socioeconomic and regional contexts (Maputo, Mozambique; Surat and Kolkata, India; and Vienna, Austria). Conclusion: We show how the inclusion of these elements can lead to better research design, more effective policy and better outcomes.

city planning
systems theory
urban health
urban sanitation
waterborne diseases
water supply
recreation

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d6736f07-5aa6-451a-bd60-45e8cb9d5e03

BioMed Central

1476-069X

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12940-016-0107-2

Environmental Health, 15 (Suppl 1), 2016

Institutional Repository

conference paper

© 2016 The Author(s)
Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)