Abstract
This paper outlines a research agenda on the development of analytical tools to support the analysis of integrated food, energy, and water (FEW) systems. The thrust of this agenda is on increasing awareness and building capacity on interdisciplinary data and mathematical modeling toward integrated planning and identification/evaluation of trade-offs and synergies in developing such systems. The research agenda consists of development of principles, algorithms, and model formulations for understanding and evaluating the potential of implementing FEW nexus approaches within a systems perspective. The proposed agenda also stresses the need for integrating areas of disciplinary expertise, the ability to identify and address shared needs of FEW stakeholders, and facilitating tailored analyses over different geographical regions and temporal scales. Outputs and products of this research are quantitative tools that focus on upstream sector planning in order to identify primary opportunities and constraints to food, energy, and water system development, indicating priorities for more detailed analysis as well as providing characterization of alternative system configuration that meet integrated FEW objectives. This research agenda should also result in an improved understanding of economic and social trade-offs among competing FEW priorities; responses to the research questions contained in this agenda are bound to support decision-making in integrated FEW system planning and particularly prioritization of FEW investments.
Highlights
This paper outlines a research agenda on the development of analytical tools to support the analysis of integrated food, energy, and water (FEW) systems
Is scarcity in either water, energy, or food caused by physical factors but there are social, political, and economic issues at play that affect the allocation, availability, and use of these resources
Recent reviews of existing integrated resource assessment and modeling literature focused on FEW systems (e.g., National Science Foundation (NSF) 2014; World Bank 2013; Asian Development Bank 2013; Cambridge Econometrics 2010) have shown that the analysis of individual systems is undertaken routinely but is often focused only on a single resource or has often been applied on an aggregated scale for use at regional or global levels and, typically, over long time periods
Summary
A number of modeling platforms have been developed to support assessment of energy sector development under different economic and environmental policy conditions and to support integrated resource development in the water sector. A commonly used model for water system planning is the Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) system, and for water scarcity and food security planning, the Global Policy Dialogue Model (PODIUM) is well established These and other models, in one way or another, lack the data and methodological components required to conduct an integrated policy assessment especially where these may be needed in a country/state/local policy context. They focus on one resource and ignore the interconnections with other resources, have overly simplified spatial representations, are grand policy Bresearch^ rather than shortterm applied Bpolicy^/decision support models, or analyze scenarios which are impractically long term
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