Developing a transdisciplinary framework for sustainable water infrastructure solutions in Nigeria

Adeoti, Oluwagbemi Samuel

Developing a transdisciplinary framework for sustainable water infrastructure solutions in Nigeria

Adeoti, Oluwagbemi Samuel

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Publication Type:: Thesis
Issue Date:: 2026

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Adeoti, Oluwagbemi Samuel
dc.date.accessioned	2026-11-02T02:31:14Z
dc.date.available	2026-11-02T02:31:14Z
dc.date.issued	2026
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/197289
dc.description	University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology.	en_US.UTF-8
dc.description.abstract	This thesis develops a transdisciplinary, life cycle Sustainability Framework for Water Infrastructure in Nigeria, where almost half of existing schemes are non-functional and progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 6.1, universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water, remains slow. It integrates systematic review, field diagnostics, predictive modelling, smart-system evaluation, behavioural analysis and water-quality assessment into a unified, metric-driven framework. A systematic review of 15 studies generated 265 sustainability challenges across technical, financial, environmental, social and institutional factors. These informed field diagnostics across 1,696 communities, characterising borehole failure trajectories and their association with poverty and ownership. Of these, 49.8% lacked an improved source, and among those with boreholes almost half had failed, community-owned schemes failing at roughly half the rate of externally managed schemes, indicating that ownership and local accountability are central determinants of sustainability. The thesis introduces the Predictive Iterative Sustainability Model (PISM), integrating Viability Rating, Sustainability Rating (SR) and Self-Sustainability Rating (SSR). Tested in five water-poor communities, PISM produced viability scores of 63.95 to 67.91% and predicted SR values of 179 to 424%, enabling ex-ante risk classification before capital is committed. Smart Water Infrastructure (SWI) performance was evaluated over 1,095 days of IoT telemetry at a kiosk serving approximately 1,000 of an estimated 2,200 residents. The kiosk averaged 1,526 L per day, 7.63% of design capacity, achieving 100% SR and 97.1% reliability but 22% SSR, revealing underutilisation as a critical constraint. Behavioural analysis of 86 households and GIS-derived walking times found 16.3% adoption, each additional minute of walking reducing adoption odds by approximately 48%. These findings informed the Water Infrastructure Underutilisation Principle. Accredited testing of 40 parameters across 17 public boreholes showed 88.2% non-compliance, and rule-based simulation produced a low-cost proxy model for water-safety monitoring; treatment pilots at two SWIs demonstrated feasible pathways to safe drinking water in low-resource settings. The thesis synthesises this evidence into a novel, metric-driven sustainability framework spanning pre-construction diagnostics, treatment-ready and monitorable design, and post-construction operational, behavioural and water-safety feedback. It contributes this framework as a practical decision tool for sustainable water-service delivery in Nigeria, introduces PISM as a predictive planning tool, and develops the Water Infrastructure Underutilisation Principle to explain persistent non-use of functional infrastructure. Validated through SWI deployments across five communities with capacity to serve approximately 5,000 people, the framework is transferable and can be adapted and tested in comparable low-resource settings, supporting progress toward SDG 6.1.	en_US.UTF-8
dc.format	Thesis (PhD)
dc.language.iso	en_US	en_US.UTF-8
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rights	The author owns the copyright in this thesis including all reproduction and reuse rights for the work. The work may not be altered without the permission of the copyright owner. Attribution is essential when quoting or paraphrasing from this thesis.
dc.rights	© 2026 Oluwagbemi Samuel Adeoti
dc.rights	au.edu.uts.lib/cph
dc.title	Developing a transdisciplinary framework for sustainable water infrastructure solutions in Nigeria	en_US.UTF-8
dc.type	Thesis
utslib.copyright.status	open_access	*

Abstract:

This thesis develops a transdisciplinary, life cycle Sustainability Framework for Water Infrastructure in Nigeria, where almost half of existing schemes are non-functional and progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 6.1, universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water, remains slow. It integrates systematic review, field diagnostics, predictive modelling, smart-system evaluation, behavioural analysis and water-quality assessment into a unified, metric-driven framework. A systematic review of 15 studies generated 265 sustainability challenges across technical, financial, environmental, social and institutional factors. These informed field diagnostics across 1,696 communities, characterising borehole failure trajectories and their association with poverty and ownership. Of these, 49.8% lacked an improved source, and among those with boreholes almost half had failed, community-owned schemes failing at roughly half the rate of externally managed schemes, indicating that ownership and local accountability are central determinants of sustainability. The thesis introduces the Predictive Iterative Sustainability Model (PISM), integrating Viability Rating, Sustainability Rating (SR) and Self-Sustainability Rating (SSR). Tested in five water-poor communities, PISM produced viability scores of 63.95 to 67.91% and predicted SR values of 179 to 424%, enabling ex-ante risk classification before capital is committed. Smart Water Infrastructure (SWI) performance was evaluated over 1,095 days of IoT telemetry at a kiosk serving approximately 1,000 of an estimated 2,200 residents. The kiosk averaged 1,526 L per day, 7.63% of design capacity, achieving 100% SR and 97.1% reliability but 22% SSR, revealing underutilisation as a critical constraint. Behavioural analysis of 86 households and GIS-derived walking times found 16.3% adoption, each additional minute of walking reducing adoption odds by approximately 48%. These findings informed the Water Infrastructure Underutilisation Principle. Accredited testing of 40 parameters across 17 public boreholes showed 88.2% non-compliance, and rule-based simulation produced a low-cost proxy model for water-safety monitoring; treatment pilots at two SWIs demonstrated feasible pathways to safe drinking water in low-resource settings. The thesis synthesises this evidence into a novel, metric-driven sustainability framework spanning pre-construction diagnostics, treatment-ready and monitorable design, and post-construction operational, behavioural and water-safety feedback. It contributes this framework as a practical decision tool for sustainable water-service delivery in Nigeria, introduces PISM as a predictive planning tool, and develops the Water Infrastructure Underutilisation Principle to explain persistent non-use of functional infrastructure. Validated through SWI deployments across five communities with capacity to serve approximately 5,000 people, the framework is transferable and can be adapted and tested in comparable low-resource settings, supporting progress toward SDG 6.1.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/197289