Applying the sustainable system-of-systems framework: wastewater(s) in a rapidly urbanising South African settlement

Abstract

Addressing wastewater infrastructure needs in urban informal settlements must simultaneously address legacies of past failures, current aspirations and constraints, as well as increasingly changing needs related to global environmental change. This study applied the Sustainable System-of-Systems framework for ergonomics and human factors to gain a better understanding of how small in-situ constructed wetlands could be a form of greywater treatment infrastructure in an informal settlement. Using 24 months of interviews, surveys, workshops and photo-ethnographic observations, we identified that the rapidly changing nature of parent (e.g. residency transience and land ownership) and sibling (e.g. housing and drinking water) systems put pressure on the target wetland system to adapt, often decreasing its capacity to deliver the service of water cleaning. Greywater treatment was not a common goal among stakeholders involved in the nested hierarchy system which likely contributed to the constructed wetlands needing to adapt to remain relevant. Practitioner summary: The value of the Sustainable Systems-of-Systems framework for ergonomics/human factors professionals in determining the sustainability of an ergonomics/human factors intervention is demonstrated using a greywater treatment system case study for an urban informal settlement. Understanding the variety of stakeholder goals and the pace of change in related systems was key to a sustainable intervention.