Facilitating Evidence-based Decision-making in Global Sustainability

Facilitating Evidence-based Decision-making for Global Health Outcomes
Sustainability impacts related to global health can be difficult to measure. This project introduces a methodology and scientific tool that will measure sustainability and community health indicators in near real-time using urban wastewater as a diagnostic matrix.

Using Urban Metabolism Metrology (UMM), global teams will obtain this near real-time data on the following sustainability metrics: 1) occurrence of toxic agents within urban environments, 2) related human exposures and toxic body burdens, and 3) the consumption of limited natural resources (e.g. phosphorus, rare earth materials) that pose threats to ecosystems and urban sustainability. Using UMM, the identification of these metrics will be used to inform programs and policies to reduce the threat of endocrine disrupters and drug-resistant bacteria globally, reduce the production and consumption of non-green chemicals that persist after wastewater treatment, and help manage the ongoing substance abuse crises around the globe.

The project will grow and scale the impact of UMM and improve global health outcomes by creating analytical Centers of Excellence and establishing new municipal partnerships in the United States, led by Arizona State University (ASU); Ireland, led by Dublin City University (DCU); United Kingdom, led by King’s College London (KCL); and Mexico, led by Tecnológico de Monterrey (Tec).

With one year of GCSO funding, this project will:

• Scale the number of UMM labs around the globe
• Scale the number of sustainability indicators tracked routinely
• Improve the data quality attained by participating labs
• Scale the number of institutions and municipalities utilizing UMM methodology
• Contribute to the size of the Human Health Observatory, the largest repository of UMM samples in the world
• Increase the percentage of the human population monitored by UMM
• Increase the number of fee-for-service UMM subscribers

GCSO Participants:
Arizona State University (ASU)

1. Rolf Halden, Biodesign Center for Environmental Health Engineering, ASU

Dublin City University (DCU)

1. Fiona Regan, Chemical Sciences, DCU

King’s College London (KCL)

1. Leon Barron, Analytical and Environmental Sciences, KCL

Tecnológico de Monterrey (TEC)

1. Roberto Parra, Engineering Science, TEC

Implementing Partners:

• City of Tempe
• City of Louiseville
• Thames Water
• Agua Trenaje
• Irish Water