Development of an Index System for Public Toilets Based on HRWS-PS Theory and Improvement Strategies

As an integral part of the urban public health infrastructure, public toilets play a significant role in shaping a city’s image. With the advancement of the economy, people have increasingly higher expectations for public toilets. While existing standards primarily focus on physical indicators, there is still room to incorporate measures that prioritize humanistic care. Therefore, based on the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation in Public Spaces (HRWS-PS) standards, this study develops a comprehensive index system for public toilets with a specific emphasis on humanistic care, utilizing expert questionnaires and employing methods such as the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and entropy weight, and highlights safety and quality as paramount concerns for users, followed by usability and accessibility as secondary needs. Acceptability, which encompasses additional amenities, depends on meeting these secondary needs through solid basic design and construction practices. Affordability, related to consumer costs, is comparatively less demanding. By applying this framework, an analysis of the current state of upgrading urban public toilets in Shijiazhuang was conducted, leading to recommendations for improvements across four key areas: environmental sanitation, architectural design, infrastructure development, and urban planning. The final results provide practical insights for evaluating and suggesting enhancements to ongoing toilet revolution initiatives and urban basic service facilities while also informing urban renewal efforts and designs.