A planetary health model for reducing exposure to faecal contamination in urban informal settlements: Baseline findings from Makassar, Indonesia

[Display omitted] •We present a conceptual model of faecal exposure in urban informal settlements.•Transdisciplinary baseline data are shown from the RISE trial (Makassar, Indonesia).•Risks occur at a range of scales (individual, household, settlement levels)· Environmental and human health are inter-connected.•Inter-related impacts of urbanisation, environmental perturbations and climate change. The intense interactions between people, animals and environmental systems in urban informal settlements compromise human and environmental health. Inadequate water and sanitation services, compounded by exposure to flooding and climate change risks, expose inhabitants to environmental contamination causing poor health and wellbeing and degrading ecosystems. However, the exact nature and full scope of risks and exposure pathways between human health and the environment in informal settlements are uncertain. Existing models are limited to microbiological linkages related to faecal-oral exposures at the individual level, and do not account for a broader range of human-environmental variables and interactions that affect population health and wellbeing. We undertook a 12-month health and environmental assessment in 12 flood-prone informal settlements in Makassar, Indonesia. We obtained caregiver-reported health data, anthropometric measurements, stool and blood samples from children