ANNUAL CONGRESS 2025

Collaborative GIS for Sustainable Waste Management. The Case of Ulaanbaatar in the 3R4UB Project

Not scheduled

20m

Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul

Oral Track 17 | PUBLIC SPACE

Speaker

Francesco Stefano Sammarco (Department of Architecture (DiARC) of University of Naples Federico II)

Description

The increasing frequency and intensity of climate-related events have highlighted the fragility of urban areas, generating complex challenges in public spaces within cities. Communities are expressing a growing need to rapidly adapt urban environments to ongoing changes through a renewal process that integrates physical interventions in spaces with new housing models capable of responding to the demand for more inclusive, sustainable, and intelligent solutions. Solid waste management is a crucial issue that involves the environment, economy, and society, affecting public health, climate change, and urban sustainability (Rodic & Wilson, 2017; Wilson, 2007). In this context, the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated these dynamics: on one hand, it has increased inadequate waste management due to disruptions in collection services and insufficient infrastructure; on the other hand, it has reduced commercial and industrial waste due to the temporary suspension of economic activities (UNEP, 2020b; Sharma et al., 2020).
From this perspective, collaborative planning approaches (Healey, 2003) and the application of citizen science (Haklay et al., 2020; Robinson et al., 2018) could improve citizens' responses to these dynamics by actively contributing to data collection and the definition of solutions for transformative actions at the urban level. This process, in the context of waste management planning, includes capacity-building activities aimed at providing tools and knowledge to promote virtuous, sustainable, and inclusive behaviours (Vohland et al., 2021). Promoting responsible behaviour among producers and consumers requires forward-thinking and collaborative decision-making, a particularly complex challenge in developing countries where adequate waste management infrastructure is lacking and awareness of 3R practices: reduce, reuse, recycle (Esposito De Vita et al., 2023; Memon, 2010).
This paper is part of the international project “The 3Rs for a sustainable use of natural resources in Ulaanbaatar (3R4UB)”, which aims to integrate waste management, civic participation, stakeholder dialogue and green financing by developing an innovative method that enhances communication and science to foster collaboration between citizens and public authorities. The city of Ulaanbaatar (UB), the capital of Mongolia, faces significant challenges related to rapid urbanization, informal settlements (gher) and inefficient municipal solid waste management.
Currently, waste management planning in UB is hindered by fragmented data and the lack of tools that integrate social, environmental, and infrastructural dynamics. Moreover, the urban context is characterized by a division into three distinct "cities": (1) Planned city, inherited from the Soviet period; (2) Informal city, characterized by gher settlements; (3) City in motion, where semi-nomadic conditions persist. Each of these urban forms presents specific needs and challenges, requiring an adaptive and multisectoral strategy.
The research methodology, named Ulaanbaatar Spatial Sustainable Waste Management (UBSWM), aims to activate a collaborative decision-making process that integrates GIS tools and participatory practices to map waste flows, identify waste collection hubs (understood as new neighbourhood facilities), and develop environmental awareness strategies. The integration of quantitative data, such as infrastructure mapping and mobility flows, with qualitative data, such as photojournalism and the awareness strategy in schools, has enabled the construction of a multi-scalar narrative of urban dynamics. This approach has given voice to the cultural diversity of UB, transforming it into a strength for the implementation of adaptive and transferable solutions.
The research findings represent a replicable model to address the challenges of waste management in cities with similar characteristics, offering new perspectives for the creation of more sustainable and equitable public spaces. Among the research outputs, the development of an open-access ArcGIS StoryMaps platform is planned, which will not only provide an updatable tool to present the project’s findings but also serve as a means for sharing knowledge with the involved stakeholders and local communities, reinforcing dialogue and co-production of knowledge.

References

Esposito De Vita, G., Visconti, C., Ganbat, G., & Rigillo, M. (2023). A Collaborative Approach for Triggering Environmental Awareness: The 3Rs for Sustainable Use of Natural Resources in Ulaanbaatar (3R4UB). Sustainability, 15(18), 13846.
Haklay, M., Motion, A., Balázs, B., Kieslinger, B., Greshake Tzovaras, B., Nold, C., Dörler, D., Fraisl, D., Riemenschneider, D., & Heigl, F. (2020). ECSA’s characteristics of citizen science: Explanation notes.
Memon, M. A. (2010). Integrated solid waste management based on the 3R approach. Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management, 12, 30–40.
Robinson, L. D., Cawthray, J. L., West, S. E., Bonn, A., & Ansine, J. (2018) Ten principles of citizen science. In Citizen science: Innovation in open science, society and policy (pp. 27–40). UCL Press.
Rodic, L., e D.C. Wilson (2017) Resolving Governance Issues to Achieve Priority Sustainable Development Goals Related to Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries. (Sustainability 9, no. 3: 404. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9030404).
Sharma, H. B., Vanapalli, K. R., Samal, B., Cheela, V. R. S., Dubey, B. K., & Bhattacharya, J. (2021) Circular economy approach in solid waste management system to achieve UN-SDGs: Solutions for post-COVID recovery. Science of the Total Environment, 800, 149605.