Daniel Isaac Waya Ddiba

Bio

I am an environmental engineer and researcher based at the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), and also affiliated with KTH Royal Institute of Technology at the Department of Sustainable Development, Environmental Science and Engineering (SEED). My work over the past decade lies at the intersection of urban infrastructure and natural resource management. I combines research and capacity development activities with an emphasis on the social-technical aspects of urban water, sanitation, waste management and the circular economy. My most recent projects focus on understanding the conditions that can accelerate the transition to circular sanitation and waste management systems in urban areas, including developing tools for infrastructure planning in multi-stakeholder contexts as well as comprehensive sustainability and governance assessments.

My professional experience includes projects spanning across the East Africa region, South America, Europe and Asia, in research, consulting and practice and I co-lead the working group on productive sanitation and food security in the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance. My academic background includes degrees in planning and decision analysis (Licentiate) as well as civil and environmental engineering (MSc & BSc). When not thinking about things like pee & poo and their linkages with sustainable development, I enjoy reading a good book, walking in the woods, or visiting with friends. I am also an avid musician and play multiple instruments.

Research interests

The overarching goal of my work is to generate knowledge and insights that contribute towards strategies for sustainable development in urban contexts. I combine applied scientific research and capacity development activities to tackle contemporary challenges at the intersection of urban infrastructure and natural resource management, with a focus on the social-technical aspects of urban water, sanitation, waste management and the circular economy. My training in engineering as well as planning and decision analysis, and my international experience enable me to bring interdisciplinary approaches to my work, weaving in both quantitative and qualitative methods, and provide me with tools to easily translate scientific output into policy and practice within multi-stakeholder settings.

My work at KTH

Since 2018, I'm enrolled as a PhD student in the Division for Sustainability Assessment and Management at KTH SEED, under the supervision of Göran Finnveden, Elisabeth Ekener and Sarah Dickin. My research aims at contributing towards accelerating the transition to a circular and bio-based economy by identifying the factors that hinder or facilitate the implementation of resource recovery from urban organic waste streams and how city-level estimates, and sustainability assessment of resource recovery potential can contribute to urban waste and resource planning processes. The research is embedded within the UrbanCircle project in a collaboration between KTH and the Stockholm Environment Institute, where I work as research associate.

Under the portfolio links on the right, you can download an up-to-date copy of my CV and view further details about my projects as well as a comprehensive list of my publications.