A Food-Energy-Water Nexus approach for land use optimization

Towards the optimization of sustainable food-energy-water systems: A stochastic approach

As we approach a “Full Earth” of over ten billion people within the next century, unprecedented demands will be placed on food, energy and water (FEW) supplies. The grand challenge before us is to sustainably meet humanity’s FEW needs using scarcer resources. To overcome this challenge, we propose the utilization of the entire solar spectrum by redirecting solar photons to maximize FEW production from a given land area. We present novel solar spectrum unbundling FEW systems (SUFEWS), which can meet FEW needs locally while reducing the overall environmental impact of meeting these needs. The ability to meet FEW needs locally is critical, as significant population growth is expected in less-developed areas of the world. The proposed system presents a solution to harness the same amount of solar products (crops, electricity, and purified water) that could otherwise require ~60% more land if SUFEWS were not used—a major step for Full Earth preparedness.

Moving from theory to practice in the water–energy–food nexus: An evaluation of existing models and frameworks

Quantitative modeling of interconnections associated with sustainable food, energy and water (FEW) systems

Optimizing resource use efficiencies in the food–energy–water nexus for sustainable agriculture: from conceptual model to decision support system

Key points for green management of water-energy-food in the Belt and Road Initiative: Resource utilization efficiency, final demand behaviors and trade inequalities

Abstract. Agriculture is a key component of anthropogenic land use and land cover changes that influence regional climate. Meanwhile, in addition to socioeconomic drivers, climate is another important factor shaping agricultural land use. In this study, we compare the contributions of climate change and socioeconomic development to potential future changes of agricultural land use in West Africa using a prototype land use projection (LandPro) algorithm. The algorithm is based on a balance between food supply and demand, and accounts for the impact of socioeconomic drivers on the demand side and the impact of climate-induced crop yield changes on the supply side. The impact of human decision-making on land use is explicitly considered through multiple "what-if" scenarios. In the application to West Africa, future crop yield changes were simulated by a process-based crop model driven with future climate projections from a regional climate model, and future changes of food demand is projected using a model for policy analysis of agricultural commodities and trade. Without agricultural intensification, the climate-induced decrease in crop yield together with future increases in food demand is found to cause a significant increase in cropland areas at the expense of forest and grassland by the mid-century. The increase in agricultural land use is primarily climate-driven in the western part of West Africa and socioeconomically driven in the eastern part. Analysis of results from multiple scenarios of crop area allocation suggests that human adaptation characterized by science-informed decision-making can potentially minimize future land use changes in many parts of the region.

In this paper the author analyses agricultural land use changes in the urban shadow of the Sydney metropolitan region and clarifies their sustainability on a micro-scale using the example of Castlereagh area, Penrith City. Castlereagh area is situated around the western suburbs of Sydney city centre, and is characterised by competition between agricultural and urban land use. In this area, rural and agricultural land use has generally developed since the colonial period. Although definite changes from agricultural to urban land use are not apparent with the advancement of urbanization, some kinds of agricultural use have changed to others in terms of function and quality since the 1990s. This sustainability of agricultural land use changes based on land, climate, and historical conditions as a suitable region for agriculture, and accessibility to the urban market for agricultural products, and land use policy of city planning and land use zoning.In Castlereagh area dairy farming and sheep grazing have traditionally developed with advantageous land and climate conditions for grass production. In particular, suburban dairy farming was important for town milk production. Although there were a few trends of conversion from dairy farming to sheep grazing, because of a decreasing agricultural labour force, the framework of traditional pastoral farming still remained until the 1980s. Since the 1990s most aspects of pastoral farming have changed into horse raising, horticulture, and hobby farming with the enlargement of urban land use for residential and factory sites. Such farming has been most apparent among all kinds of land use in the 1990s.Under an environment of urban shadow, both horse raising and horticulture have developed due to their suitability for expanding urban land use and farmland subdivisions. Agricultural land use changes are supported by economic factors such as capital intensity and high profitability. On the other hand, hobby farming is less intensive and rather unprofitable, and is developed for the mental satisfaction of aged and the urban residents, rather than the advancement of urbanisation and land subdivision. Therefore, agricultural land use changes into hobby farming are supported by non-economic factors such as productive aging and mental satisfaction. On the whole, a series of agricultural land use changes are identified for their sustainability, and are supported by economic and non-economic factors. In particular, hobby farming plays an important role in holding back urban sprawl and maintaining agricultural land use.

Urban sustainability is a key to achieving the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs). Secure and efficient provision of food, energy, and water (FEW) resources is a critical strategy for urban sustainability. While there has been extensive discussion on the positive effects of the FEW nexus on resource efficiency and climate impacts, measuring the extent to which such synergy can benefit urban sustainability remains challenging. Here, we have developed a systematic and integrated optimization framework to explore the potential of the FEW nexus in reducing urban resource demand and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Demonstrated using the Metropolis Beijing, we have identified that the optimized FEW nexus can reduce resource consumption and GHG emissions by 21.0 and 29.1%, respectively. These reductions come with increased costs compared to the siloed FEW management, but it still achieved a 16.8% reduction in economic cost compared to the business-as-usual scenario. These findings underscore the significant potential of FEW nexus management in enhancing urban resource efficiency and addressing climate impacts, while also identifying strategies to address trade-offs and increase synergies.

A food-energy-water nexus meta-model for food and energy security

The article considers regional problems of agricultural land use and possible solutions. Unfinished land transformations – land-share quasi-ownership that not allocated, incomplete real estate cadaster where half the information on the location of agricultural land plots is missing, loss of project agricultural land use and land management infrastructure, as well as the absence of policy on regional agriculture and rational agricultural land use led to the corresponding results.

The world’s urban population is expected to nearly double by 2050, making urbanization one of the most disruptive developments of the 21st century. On a global-to-local scale, ensuring a secure and reliable supply of food energy and water (FEW) resources for all humans is a major challenge in such a scenario. While much attention has recently been focused on the concept of FEW security and the interactions between the three sectors, there is no universally acceptable framing of the concept due to the fact that latest studies are mainly focused on individual FEW sectors, with not much investigation into how they interact. This research aims to create a localized framework based on the principles of the emerging concept of the Circulating Ecological Sphere (CES), introduced by the government of Japan, for a limited number of security indicators and dimensions. It began with a thorough study of the relevant literature using the PRISMA method, identification of gaps in local indicators for urban areas in each of the existing frameworks, and the proposal of a new indicator framework that tackles collective FEW security in urban environments is made accordingly. The authors have applied a special mechanism for filtration of this literature dataset in the context of Nagpur City in accordance with data availability and case study context. To test the applicability of the indicator set, it has been applied to the specific case of Nagpur. Both online and offline surveys were conducted to collect data, and subsequently a weighted mean method was adopted to analyze the data and derive values for the indicator set.

To achieve a sustainable supply and effectively manage water, energy and food (WEF) demand, interactions between WEF need to be understood. This study developed an integrated model, capturing the interactions between WEF at end-use level at a household scale. The model is based on a survey of 419 households conducted to investigate WEF over winter and summer for the city of Duhok, Iraq. A bottom-up approach was used to develop this system dynamics-based model. The model estimates WEF demand and the generated organic waste and wastewater quantities. It also investigates the impact of change in user behaviour, diet, income, family size and climate.The simulation results show a good agreement with the historical data. Using the model, the impact of Global Scenario Group (GSG) scenarios was investigated. The results suggest that the ‘fortress world’ scenario (an authoritarian response to the threat of breakdown) had the highest impact on WEF.

As the global population soars from today’s 7.3 billion to an estimated 10 billion by 2050 of which 400 million to the US, the demand for Food, Energy and Water (FEW) are expected to more than double. Such an increase in population and consequently, in the demand for FEW resources will undoubtedly be a global challenge. Food, energy and water for smart sustainable cities involve a multi-scale challenge problem. The three dynamic interacting infrastructures require a mathematical framework for analyzing such a large complex system. Technology innovation at the nexus and quantifying the nexus are two critical solutions in this research area. This paper focuses on quantifying and modeling the nexus by proposing a Leontief input-output model. It further uses network analysis to investigate the networks of FEW interdependencies from the input-output model.

Strategies that target food security issues through the preservation of agricultural land are presently a focal point at the global level, particularly strategies that prevent agricultural land loss (no net land take). On the other hand, conflicts over land use, as well as the high value of land in urban areas, challenge the development of sustainable agriculture. Starting from the broadly adopted premise that planning affects land use change, especially agricultural land change, and that the Spatial Plan of the Republic of Serbia directly affects land use on the strategic-developmental and general regulatory level, the authors analyse the framework of the physical, planning and institutional capacities for sustainable agriculture and agricultural land use in Serbia. In their results, the authors provide: (1) an evaluation of new sustainable approaches for agriculture and agricultural land use planning and (2) a systematization of planning solutions at the strategic-developmental and general regulatory level regarding agricultural land use planning in Serbia for the period 2021–2035.KeywordsSustainable agricultureSpatial planningAgricultural landLand use planningSerbia