Sanitation under challenge: contributions from the social sciences

This paper reviews the contribution the social sciences can make to the challenge of providing access to sustainable sanitation services and infrastructures for billions of people, in both the over- and underdeveloped parts of the world. The paper reviews and discusses three particular social scientific topics relevant for the sanitation challenge: the nature of socio-technical change, the issue of multilevel governance, and the role of the citizen-consumer. It is argued that sanitation is as much a social as it is a technical issue, and that the role of social scientific knowledge needs to be strengthened and given more attention in this context. The key contribution from the social sciences is to be found in its capacity to help widen the narrow, technical definitions of sanitation by including actors and their needs and belief systems, and by highlighting the alternative socio-technical tools and governance arrangements that are instrumental in moving beyond some of the dead-end roads of traditional water engineering and sanitation provisio

Drinkwater innovaties voor de huishoudelijke eindgebruiker: inventarisatie van praktijkvoorbeelden

KIWA Waterresearch coördineert het Bedrijfstakonderzoek (BTO) voor de drinkwatersector. In het kader van het BTO is de onderzoekslijn Client 21 opgezet, waarbinnen verschillende klantgerelateerde kennisvragen aan bod komen. Toekomstig klantgedrag is één van die kennisvragen. Om inzicht te verkrijgen in toekomstig klantgedrag laat Kiwa Water Research het onderhavige onderzoek ‘gedragspraktijk watergebruik’ uitvoeren, waarvan dit rapport het eerste product i

Over Spoelen en Vermalen : bewonersonderzoek naar percepties and gebruikerservaringen van het project Waterschoon in Sneek

Op dit moment zijn er een aantal demonstratieprojecten gaande in Nederland waarin alternatieve vormen van sanitatie (nieuwe sanitatie) worden toegepast. Een van de meest vooruitstrevende projecten is het Waterschoon project in Sneek. Hier worden 230 huurwoningen gerealiseerd (bouwproject Noorderhoek) waarbij toiletten en keukenvermalers voor organisch afval worden aangesloten op een vacuümsysteem en een vergistingsinstallatie in de wijk. Het project bouwt voort op de ervaringen van een demonstratieproject met vacuüm toiletten bij 32 woningen in Lemmerweg-Oost in Sneek

Managing plastic waste in East Africa: Niche innovations in plastic production and solid waste

This paper assesses the uptake of environmental innovation practices to cope with plastic waste in Kenyan urban centres at the interface of solid waste management and plastic production systems. The Multi Level Perspective on Technological Transitions is used to evaluate 7 innovation pathways of plastic waste prevention, reuse or recycling. An assessment is made as to whether the innovations lead to changes in the regimes of waste management and plastic production and eventually an integrated regime for plastic production and reuse. The study comprises of a review of policy documents and statistics, site visits and in-depth interviews with main actors involved in plastic waste related innovation. The comparative analysis of social network building, actor expectations and learning processes in the 7 innovation routes reveals that Kenya is still far from having a well-aligned plastic production-cum-waste regime that enables plastic waste prevention, recycling and handling practices. Innovations by yard shop owners and home grown industries contribute to an aligned plastic waste recycling regime, where PET exporters, bio-degradable plastic sellers and CBO collectors fail to do so. All innovation actors face a lack of governmental recognition and guidelines to close the loop of plastic production and waste handling

Energizing The Life Sciences at WUR

This document presents the state of the art of energy research and education at Wageningen University & Research and outlines our ambitions to contribute to the energy transition. The working paper was written by the WUR Energy Alliance – a recently established network of researchers from all Science Groups at Wageningen University & Research. The WUR Energy Alliance currently consists of 50+ researchers with proven track record and genuine interest in excellent research and education on energy-related issues within the broader WUR domain. The material is derived from the study of WUR energy research projects and a series of meetings with Wageningen University & Research staff

Phosphorus recovered from human excreta: A socio-ecological-technical approach to phosphorus recycling

This article provides a comprehensive and cross-disciplinary overview of the phosphorus cycle through the wastewater and agri-food system. While mineral phosphorus stocks are finite, the use of mined phosphorus is accompanied with many losses, leading to pollution of water bodies. Recovering phosphorus from human excreta can contribute to more efficient use of phosphorus to ensure its availability for food production in the future. Phosphorous can be recovered through different recovery technologies and consequently used in agriculture via different recycling routes. Each recycling route has its own particularities in terms of interactions with technologies, actors and the environment to bring the recovered phosphorus back into agriculture. In this literature review, we adopt a socio-ecological-technical approach to map three phosphorus-recycling routes, via municipal sewage sludge, struvite recovered from municipal wastewater and source-separated urine. We firstly show that improvements are still needed in all three routes for achieving high P recovery efficiency, and a combination of these recycling routes are needed to achieve maximum recovery of phosphorus. Second, we identify key issues for each recycling route that currently limit the use of recovered phosphorus in agriculture. We indicate where interaction between disciplines is needed to improve recycling routes and identify gaps in research on how recovered phosphorus accesses agriculture

De energiesector als lichtend of verblindend voorbeeld?

De energiesector wordt in de watersector veelvuldig genoemd als voorbeeld voor de transitie richting een circulaire economie. In hoeverre werkt dit verhelderend of juist verblindend? In deze literatuurstudie laten de auteurs hun licht schijnen op de energiesector als voorbeeld wanneer het gaat om de introductie van nieuwe decentrale technieken. Vanuit zowel een technologisch, economisch, sociaal-cultureel als een institutioneel perspectief brengen de auteurs de contextuele systeemveranderingen die van invloed kunnen zijn op toepassing van decentrale technieken in kaart. Hiermee worden de overeenkomsten en verschillen tussen energie- en watersectoren helder en ontstaat ruimte voor relativering en nuance

Energie- en waterbesparing: Hoe zit het met de actiebereidheid van Nederlanders?

Luchtvervuiling, natuuraantasting, en vooral klimaatverandering zijn vrijwel dagelijks voorpaginanieuws. Voor de aanpak ervan kijkt de overheid naar bedrijven, maatschappelijke organisaties en ook burgers. Het afgelopen decennium deden termen als energieke samenleving (Hajer, 2011), participatiesamenleving (Troonrede 2013) en doe-democratie (Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken, 2013) hun intrede. Beleidsmatig krijgt de maatschappelijke betrokkenheid vorm via bijvoorbeeld initiatieven verpakt als Green Deals1 (Gooskens et al, 2016), Klimaattafels en Regionale Energie Strategieën.2 Zo is het volgens de afspraken in het ontwerp Klimaatakkoord (uit eind 2018) de bedoeling dat op termijn 50% van de elektriciteitsproductie in handen is van lokale partijen.3,4 De burger wordt hierin niet alleen meer gezien als consument, afnemer of belastingbetaler, maar als medeverantwoordelijke voor de (duurzame) productie, beheer en opslag van met name elektriciteit. Ook in andere sectoren zoals water, voedsel en transport is deze tendens zichtbaar. Burgers worden uitgedaagd na te denken over de implicaties voor milieu en klimaat bij hun uiteenlopende keuzes rond voedsel (‘een dagje zonder vlees’), manier van reizen (‘vliegschaamte’), verwarmen (‘graadje lager’), koken (‘van het gas af’) tot tuininrichting (‘onttegelen’) en waterbeheer (‘minuutje korter douchen’)

Aortic microcalcification is associated with elastin fragmentation in Marfan syndrome

Marfan syndrome (MFS) is a connective tissue disorder in which aortic rupture is the major cause of death. MFS patients with an aortic diameter below the advised limit for prophylactic surgery (<5 cm) may unexpectedly experience an aortic dissection or rupture, despite yearly monitoring. Hence, there is a clear need for improved prognostic markers to predict such aortic events. We hypothesize that elastin fragments play a causal role in aortic calcification in MFS, and that microcalcification serves as a marker for aortic disease severity. To address this hypothesis, we analysed MFS patient and mouse aortas. MFS patient aortic tissue showed enhanced microcalcification in areas with extensive elastic lamina fragmentation in the media. A causal relationship between medial injury and microcalcification was revealed by studies in vascular smooth muscle cells (SMCs); elastin peptides were shown to increase the activity of the calcification marker alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and reduce the expression of the calcification inhibitor matrix GLA protein in human SMCs. In murine Fbn1C1039G/+ MFS aortic SMCs, Alpl mRNA and activity were upregulated as compared with wild-type SMCs. The elastin peptide-induced ALP activity was prevented by incubation with lactose or a neuraminidase inhibitor, which inhibit the elastin receptor complex, and a mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase-1/2 inhibitor, indicating downstream involvement of extracellular signal-regulated kinase-1/2 (ERK1/2) phosphorylation. Histological analyses in MFS mice revealed macrocalcification in the aortic root, whereas the ascending aorta contained microcalcification, as identified with the near-infrared fluorescent bisphosphonate probe OsteoSense-800. Significantly, microcalcification correlated strongly with aortic diameter, distensibility, elastin breaks, and phosphorylated ERK1/2. In conclusion, microcalcification co-localizes with aortic elastin degradation in MFS aortas of humans and mice, where elastin-derived peptides induce a calcification process in SMCs via the elastin receptor complex and ERK1/2 activation. We propose microcalcification as a novel imaging marker to monitor local elastin degradation a