Review of global sanitation development

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Public Health
• Water Resources

Background:

• The UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have spurred focus on innovative, sustainable sanitation, particularly for low-income regions.
• Global sanitation research has seen a significant increase in publications from 1992 to 2016, indicating growing interest in the field.
• Despite sanitation challenges being more severe in developing countries, the majority of research originates from developed nations, notably the USA.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the background, current situation, challenges, and perspectives of global sanitation research.
• To evaluate trends and identify key areas within the sanitation research landscape.

Main Methods:

• Bibliometric analysis of publications from 1992 to 2016.
• Word cluster analysis using data from the Science Citation Index EXPANDED (SCI-EXPANDED) and Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) databases.

Main Results:

• Sanitation is a multidisciplinary field with a rising publication output.
• While commercialized technologies like composting and anaerobic digestion are reliable, they struggle with socio-political integration.
• Emerging innovative technologies (e.g., Microbial Fuel Cells, struvite precipitation) are nearing market readiness (TRL 8).

Conclusions:

• Holistic sanitation solutions are urgently required, integrating technological reliability with economic feasibility, government support, social acceptance, and local adaptability.
• Innovations in sanitation techniques are crucial for disease prevention by managing contaminants and microorganisms in human excreta.
• Effective sustainable solutions involve hygienization of excreta, resource recovery, and micro-pollutant removal.