Sustaining Human Nutrition in an Increasingly Urban World

Abstract

The complex interaction between social, economic, and environmental processes coupled with transformations of the landscape primarily driven by urbanization have impacts on the access, availability, and distribution, of food. This has resulted in a global micronutrient deficiency and hunger. Given rapid urbanization and population growth, a more sustainable food system is necessary to feed more urban populations and provide adequate nutrition, especially in developing countries. Existing frameworks for modelling urban-environment interactions contain components related to food security, however, lack the specificity needed to evaluate the effects of land use decisions and agricultural production strategies on the health of local populations measured through metrics such as nutritional output. The research presented here proposes an urban nutrition (UN) extension to the previously published urban ecological economic system by developing a focused component that simulates scenarios of different degrees of urbanization and agricultural production techniques to improve the nutritional output of agricultural land, while considering the conservation of soil. This simulation approach was subsequently applied to the Toluca Metropolitan Zone, Mexico. Results showed that nutritional output would greatly increase when adding a variety of crops, even in scenarios where agricultural land is limited. The proposed extension can be used by decision makers worldwide to evaluate how landscape configurations and agricultural production systems affect the nutritional needs of the local population while fostering sustainable practices.