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Urban Sanitary Engineering Lab
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The lab tracks viruses in water to protect the safety of urban water.
AboutAbout the lab
Protecting water from viruses, from tap water to sewage.
The Urban Sanitary Engineering Lab studies the microbiological safety of urban water, focusing mainly on viruses in water.
Waterborne infectious diseases tend to be seen as a problem of developing countries, but even in developed countries, delivering sufficiently safe water is not easy.
Looking across drinking water supply, the water environment, and sewage together, the lab traces where disease-causing microorganisms come from and where they go.
On that basis, it aims to make urban water safe through environmental engineering technologies.
Key terms
- Microbiological safety
- The state in which water does not contain disease-causing viruses or bacteria at dangerous levels
- Wastewater-based epidemiology
- A method of examining pathogens in wastewater to grasp the spread of infectious diseases in a community
- Reclaimed water
- Wastewater that has been treated to a high standard so that it can be used again
NewsLab news
An undergraduate student received the Student Poster Presentation Award (Lion Award) at the 60th Annual Meeting of the Japan Society on Water Environment
Prof. Katayama received the Environmental Technology/Project Award at the Environmental Engineering Research Forum
An undergraduate student received the Dean's Award of the Faculty of Engineering (Research) and the Department of Urban Engineering Outstanding Graduation Research Award
An undergraduate student received the Student Poster Presentation Award (Lion Award) at the 59th Annual Meeting of the Japan Society on Water Environment
A doctoral student received the Best Oral Presentation Award at SEAWE-14
ResearchResearch themes
Across drinking water supply systems, sewerage, and the water environment, the lab clarifies how pathogenic viruses are transported and how long they persist. On that basis, it aims to achieve the microbiological safety of urban water through environmental engineering technologies.
*Illustrative imageTracking the spread of infection through wastewater
The lab is developing methods to detect the genetic material of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater. Testing wastewater can be used for wastewater-based epidemiology, which grasps the state of infection in a community or facility.
*Illustrative imageAssessing virus risk at bathing beaches
At waterfronts such as Tokyo Bay, it has become clear that conventional indicators such as E. coli alone cannot adequately manage the risk of viral infection. The lab proposes risk management frameworks that use new virus indicators.
*Illustrative imageSafety of reclaimed water used as drinking water
As a last resort against water scarcity, efforts to use reclaimed wastewater as drinking water are advancing in places such as California in the United States. The lab evaluates its safety, focusing on how well viruses, a key challenge, can be removed by treatment.
*Illustrative imageVirus safety management for drinking water supply
To ensure virus safety in drinking water supply, the lab selects the virus indicators that should be measured and develops methods to measure them. It aims for management frameworks that can be used in the water safety plans created by water utilities.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Urban Sanitary Engineering Lab consist of faculty, technical assistants, and doctoral and master's students.As of 2026
- ProfessorHiroyuki KatayamaPublications ↗
- Associate ProfessorTakashi Hashimoto
- Project Assistant ProfessorCecilia BurzioPublications ↗
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Kanamachi-water purification plant-Edo river” Mayuno / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Tracking the spread of infection through wastewater: “Noroviruses” Dr Graham Beards / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Assessing virus risk at bathing beaches: “Odaiba beach at dusk” Syced / CC0 (cropped)
- Safety of reclaimed water used as drinking water: “Reverse osmosis desalination plant” James Grellier / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Virus safety management for drinking water supply: “Kanamachi-water purification plant” Mayuno / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (International Wastewater Epidemiology Lab): “Hyperion Sewage Treatment Plant aerial view” Downtowngal / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Water Environment Control Lab): “Lake Kasumigaura from Kasumigaura City 04” Σ64 / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Socio-Ecological Systems Lab): “Aeration tank activated sludge process STP Bengaluru India” Vraj Acharya, WELL Labs / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Environmental Quality Risk Management Lab): “oil-puddle” Roger McLassus 1951 / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
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