Assessment of high-value near-term engineering innovations for Indian sanitation

Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 2020

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Donlon, Elliott S.(Elliott Seto)
Other Authors: Amos G. Winter, V.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/129008
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author Donlon, Elliott S.(Elliott Seto)
author2 Amos G. Winter, V.
author_facet Amos G. Winter, V.
Donlon, Elliott S.(Elliott Seto)
author_sort Donlon, Elliott S.(Elliott Seto)
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description Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 2020
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spelling mit-1721.1/1290082021-01-06T03:01:23Z Assessment of high-value near-term engineering innovations for Indian sanitation Donlon, Elliott S.(Elliott Seto) Amos G. Winter, V. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering Mechanical Engineering. Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 2020 Cataloged from student-submitted PDF of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (pages 61-64). This study presents the Sanitation Needs and Innovation (SaNI) framework for identifying underserved populations and gaps between their sustainable sanitation requirements and sanitation system performance. Safe, sustainable sanitation is a vital, frequently unmet need - especially in low and middle-income countries. In India alone, economic losses from poor sanitation are estimated to be $53.8 billion annually, or 6.4% of the country's 2006 GDP. Too often, sanitation solutions fail to address the full problem due to the complexity of constraints imposed by the environment, available technology options, and the many different stakeholders involved. Several frameworks have been established to distill possible solution paths, such as technoeconomic analysis and multi-criteria analysis (MCA). However, technoeconomic analyses alone do not consider the multitude of other facets that contribute to sustainable sanitation, and MCAs are often very context-specific, non-quantitative, and used primarily for comparative purposes. The SaNI framework enables analysis of cost of sanitation systems vs. population density to yield underserved populations and perform an MCA-like analysis to determine whether other, non-monetary, sustainable sanitation requirements are met. A case study applying this framework to the Indian context identifies population densities between 10,000 and 23,000 people/km² as regions where current technologies fail to meet cost requirements. The test case demonstrates quantitatively that septic tanks, a ubiquitous on-site sanitation method, are likely to be unsuitable for people with lower-than-average available land areas and abilities to pay. By quantifying the deficiencies of current sanitation technologies, the proposed framework can guide the development of the next generation of truly sustainable solutions. by Elliott S. Donlon. S.M. S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering 2021-01-05T23:12:42Z 2021-01-05T23:12:42Z 2020 2020 Thesis https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/129008 1227044311 eng MIT theses may be protected by copyright. Please reuse MIT thesis content according to the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy, which is available through the URL provided. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 64 pages application/pdf a-ii--- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Mechanical Engineering.
Donlon, Elliott S.(Elliott Seto)
Assessment of high-value near-term engineering innovations for Indian sanitation
title Assessment of high-value near-term engineering innovations for Indian sanitation
title_full Assessment of high-value near-term engineering innovations for Indian sanitation
title_fullStr Assessment of high-value near-term engineering innovations for Indian sanitation
title_full_unstemmed Assessment of high-value near-term engineering innovations for Indian sanitation
title_short Assessment of high-value near-term engineering innovations for Indian sanitation
title_sort assessment of high value near term engineering innovations for indian sanitation
topic Mechanical Engineering.
url https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/129008
work_keys_str_mv AT donlonelliottselliottseto assessmentofhighvalueneartermengineeringinnovationsforindiansanitation