Hi Dorothee, Marcus, Paresh and others,
Thank you very much for following up this thread and providing useful links to tools, publications, case studies, and to your own ongoing projects. It's been quite a while since I started this work and I've not shared any results as I still have some analysis to do with regards to the various tools I identified so far in my search. One aspect I am especially interested in, is the extent to which tools (or some aspects of them) can be used across sectors including sanitation, (solid) waste management and perhaps even manure management. This is more so because my work focuses on resource recovery and from that perspective, there is a lot in common between these and related sectors.

I do think there is scope to explore collaborations on some aspects of this work and how these tools can contribute (or not:)) to planning in an urban context. I will definitely be looking forward to your upcoming publication Dorothee with the results from interviews with practitioners, and I will get in touch to discuss more details and potential collaborations bilaterally with you and also Marcus. 

Kind regards,
Daniel

Hi Daniel

As you are broadening the scope of the discussion. Here is a tool that colleagues of mine have been developping together with
practie partners: www.tdh.ch/en/projects/facet-mobile-appl...-public-institutions

And many of my partners also use the KoBo Toolbox: www.kobotoolbox.org/

Two other tools I came recently across but I have no experience with it:
- www.cwisplanning.com/
- sepecific to the context of WASH monitoring in Nepal: play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=np....appmenu&hl=en&gl=US

Cheers, Dorothee

Thanks for sharing your research Dorothee,

I look forward to reading your paper and value this important contribution to what is a limited field of academic research. 

Best wishes,

Marcus

Thank you for sharing these helpful links Paresh.

Thank you for sharing your paper Caroline,

I am researching in a similiar area and will read your paper with interest. I am exploring the wider use of ICT tools in the WASH sector and the potential for crowdsourced and citizen-led data initiatives. 

Best wishes,

Marcus

Hello Daniel.
As we would all agree, lack of data is a challenge across the developing world. We have used the following two tools (open source mobile applications) extensively to collect data required for sanitation planning and found them very useful.

1. OSM tracker - This app allows one to mark lines and points on google maps. We used it to map constructed and open drains in a few towns. the collected information was used to understand flows of wastewater and delineate wastewater sheds. The methodology is explained in this publication .  The app also allows to capture video, audio and photos.  
2. ODK toolkit - We used ODK Collect to carry out household surveys to understand waste management practices especially the types of OSS in use.  I found the bundling of questions and use of skip logic particularly useful. The questionnaire can also be developed in excel. This report  includes some details of how we used the tool. My colleagues in Nutrition group have used COBO toolkit for similar work.

Besides, I am aware that CEPT University has developed tools including a dashboard for monitoring of FSM services; see here  and here  for some of their work.

Hope this is useful. 

Regards
paresh 

Hi Daniel

We recently published a review of tools for sanitation system selection in the context of strategic environmental sanitation planning / city sanitation planning: doi.org/10.2166/washdev.2020.062

For this research, I looked into many other tools as well but I found little evidence that people actually use ICT tools because of a lack of access (knowledge of them), time, and capacity.  This is what I found it recently through a serious of interviews with more than 20 sanitation planning engineering experts, planners, researchers, and project coordinators from all over the world (still working on writing up the conclusions in more detail, but publications coming out soon!)...
Often institutions and implementing organizations have their own procedures /tools how to do things and people are asked to follow those and this leads to a gap between academic development of tools and actual use in practice.

On the other hand, interactive ICT tool have a huge potential for training, capacity building, and awareness raising what eventually could lead to a better planning practice. But every tool will only perform as good as the planning process is actually locally led (local leadership) and backed up with (1) time for planning (2) funding for follow up. I wrote about this here: doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.111004

Another overview which I found useful (but quite old and therefore little focus on ICT...) is here:  www.ircwash.org/resources/mapping-water-...sustainability-tools

Currently I am also planning to test the tool based by ifak called SAmpSONS in order to see how it might complements the tool that we developed here at Eawag based on the Compendium called Santiago (SANitation sysTem Alternative GeneratOr) .
I am also working on developing a simplified easy accessible of Santiago, a interactive version of the Compendium of Sanitation Systems and Technologies with local appropriateness and sustainability dashboard. The aim is to link international knolwedge on technologies and systems with local conditions and the tool should be used for training and awareness raising or as a visual support during participatory planning workshops:  www.eawag.ch/en/department/sandec/projec...planning-sanichoice/

Send me an email if you would like to chat

Cheers, Dorothee

Hi Caroline,
Thanks for the link to your paper. I found it relevant for my work, especially with respect to tools for operations and monitoring for sanitation systems. Also has some good insights for what other sectors the digital transformation framework could be applied to.

Regards,
Daniel

Hi Daniel,
Just seeing this post now! I published this paper last year about the role of ICTs in some Container Based Sanitation service providers, which might be interesting for you.
www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/3/752
Best,
Caroline Saul

+++++++++

Digital Transformation as an Enabler for Advanced Services in the Sanitation Sector
Caroline Jennings Saul and Heiko Gebauer

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Leveraging Digitalization for Advanced Service Business Models: Challenges and Opportunities for Circular Economy)

Abstract

People in Base of the Pyramid markets still face difficulties when it comes to sanitation. Container-based Sanitation (CBS) services represent a promising advanced sanitation service. Despite the observed outcomes of CBS services, organizations face obstacles when providing these services. To overcome these obstacles, digital transformations of these services are being carried out. We rely on multiple case studies to understand these digital transformations. Our findings highlight (1) the challenges these case organizations faced before engaging in the digital transformation, (2) their individual digital transformation pathways, and (3) a general framework for digital transformations in BoP markets.

Hi Elisabeth,
Thanks for your comments.

I hadn't looked through the sub-category you have highlighted. I think I looked more broadly at the top-level categories and didn't expect ICT-related posts under "Markets, Finance and governance". I will take a closer look now though. I'm not looking out for FSM tools only but I guess it is because I saw the planning tools aspect of the category and though the post might fit there better. Though I'm beginning to think that perhaps it fits better in the ICT and mobile tools sub-category now.

I haven't gotten many responses yet from online sources, apart from what is in the literature but I will be sharing what I find along the way.

Regards,
Daniel

Hi Daniel,

You posted this question into the sub-category on FSM - does that mean you are mainly interested in ICT-based tools for FSM only?

We do have another sub-category on the forum where we have discussed ICT-based tools a bit more broadly. We have called it "Mobile phones, ICT for sanitation (Information and communications technology)"
See here:
forum.susana.org/197-mobile-phones-ict-f...nications-technology

Maybe you had already browsed through there and found nothing of relevance, or maybe you hadn't seen it yet. Just thought I should bring it to your attention.

Do let us know what you find as this is likely to be an important topic for the future.

Kind regards,
Elisabeth

Dear Colleagues,
I am looking into the various ICT-based tools that people use within the sanitation sector for the planning and management of technologies and systems that cover the entire service chain from user interface to treatment and final end-use or disposal. I am curious to know what various tools are being used around the world, especially by practitioners, so I'm grateful for any suggestions, directions, links etc to what you know is being used.

These could be tools used for one or more of the following objectives: diagnostics, planning, technology selection, designing, sustainability assessment/evaluation, operating and monitoring, decision-support etc. I am also interested in learning more about tools used in the (solid) waste management sector due to the similarities with the sanitation sector. I am aware that there is some work that has been done to review various tools e.g. by Rémi Kaupp at WaterAid and the Pacific Institute but I am interested in knowing more about others that may not have been captured in earlier work and specifically ICT-based tools.

Your suggestions will be helpful for the work my colleagues and I are doing at SEI on the REVAMP tool which is focused on resource recovery but we are interested in exploring and generating synergies or complementarity with other tools that are being used in the sector, as opposed to being stand-alone and/or duplicating what others have already done.

Please share your thoughts/suggestions/connections etc.

Regards,
Daniel