title: Improving health in cities through systems approaches for urban water management.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  As human populations become more and more urban, decision-makers at all levels face new challenges related to both the scale of service provision and the increasing complexity of cities and the networks that connect them. These challenges may take on unique aspects in cities with different cultures, political and institutional frameworks, and at different levels of development, but they frequently have in common an origin in the interaction of human and environmental systems and the feedback relationships that govern their dynamic evolution. Accordingly, systems approaches are becoming recognized as critical to understanding and addressing such complex problems, including those related to human health and wellbeing. Management of water resources in and for cities is one area where such approaches hold real promise.
  
  
  RESULTS
  This paper seeks to summarize links between water and health in cities and outline four main elements of systems approaches: analytic methods to deal with complexity, interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity, and multi-scale thinking. Using case studies from a range of urban socioeconomic and regional contexts (Maputo, Mozambique; Surat and Kolkata, India; and Vienna, Austria).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We show how the inclusion of these elements can lead to better research design, more effective policy and better outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands. L.C.Rietveld@tudelft.nl.
authors.forename: L C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Rietveld
authors.affiliation: United Nations University International Institute for Global Health, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Siri
authors.affiliation: Public Health Engineering Department, Government of West Bengal, Kolkata, India.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Chakravarty
authors.affiliation: Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Arsénio
authors.affiliation: Austrian Institute of Technology, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Biswas
authors.affiliation: School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal, India.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chatterjee
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D011634:Public Health; D014504:Urban Health; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid; D018508:Water Purification