Framework Proposal for Achieving Smart and Sustainable Societies (S3)

Thalía Turrén-Cruz,Miguel Ángel López Zavala

doi:10.3390/su132313034

Abstract

This article introduces a Smart and Sustainable Societies (S3) framework, based on what is necessary to achieve the UN agenda by 2030. The proposed model is based on the integration of three smart strategies: (1) water provision that consists of the use of greywater and rainwater; (2) sanitation provision that comprises the nutrients recovery from excreta and organic solid waste and; (3) resource-oriented agriculture that conceives the use of the water provision system for the production of food with the use of nutrients recovered from the sanitation system. The S3 framework has the potential to increase the well-being, human development, water availability, food safety, poverty alleviation, and healthy environments of societies through the provision of safely managed basic services as well as the recycling of nutrients and water to achieve sustainability at household and community levels.

Highlights

Due to the establishment of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the necessity of achieving them or at least achieving significant advances by 2030, many initiatives have been developed, with some significant accomplishments already [1,2,3]
The provision of basic services has been as public services, so municipalities are responsible for providing drinking water, sanitation, and waste management services to the population; many of them lack the expertise and management capacity to provide these services adequately, which results in governmental support to manage provision systems
It is a fact that some countries have developed more infrastructure than others; the economic, political, and cultural factors, the production of various frameworks with a very specific narrowed approach, the lack of focus on the preferences of users and context necessities, and the deficiency of policies and economic mechanisms oriented to design and support profitable-sustainable strategies, have limited their appropriation [13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,35]

Summary

Introduction

Due to the establishment of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the necessity of achieving them or at least achieving significant advances by 2030, many initiatives have been developed, with some significant accomplishments already [1,2,3]. Economic, political, and cultural factors; the production of various frameworks with a very specific narrowed approach; the lack of focus on the preferences of users and context necessities; and the deficiency of policies and economic mechanisms oriented to design and support profitablesustainable strategies, are some of the factors that have limited the appropriation of the solutions implemented [13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20] This has led to the undeniable fact that the world is not on the way to achieve SDGs. The main challenges of the United Nations (UN) Agenda are to end hunger and poverty, to accomplish food security, to end all forms of malnutrition, to develop rural areas, to increase sustainable agriculture and fisheries, to achieve universal health coverage and the full human potential, to ensure access to equal healthcare, to reduce and recycle waste, and to use water and energy efficiently by 2030. A deep review and analysis of the literature was conducted to integrate the proposed framework; analysis and discussion of the elements of the framework were completed

Methodology

Current Approaches and Initiatives

Water and Sanitation

Agriculture and Food Security

Value System

Proposed value system of the Sof