Keywords
food system
resource sustainability
ecosystem service
sustainable development
Categories
How to Cite
Abstract
Urban agriculture has the potential to contribute to urban sustainability through its interactions with food, water, and energy (FEW) resource flows, and thus needs to be evaluated and analyzed through an integrative rather than a siloed approach. This publication provides an overview of the concept of FEW nexuses in the urban context and describes the role of urban agriculture and its sustainability implications for FEW nexuses and resources. Specific local case studies provide examples. This publication provides a holistic, interdisciplinary lens to understand the crucial role and sustainability implications of urban agriculture, currently gaining momentum in the global research and policy agenda. The fact sheet should be useful to urban and regional planners and policy-makers engaged in the development of urban agriculture, as well as to Extension agents seeking to communicate the sustainability implications of urban agriculture.
References
Adger, W. N., T. P. Hughes, C. Folke, S. R. Carpenter, and J. Rockström. 2005. "Social-Ecological Resilience to Coastal Disasters." Science 309:1036–1039. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1112122
Allouche, J., C. Middleton, and D. Gyawali. 2014. "Nexus Nirvana or Nexus Nullity? A Dynamic Approach to Security and Sustainability in the Water-Energy-Food Nexus." Working paper, Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability, The Institue of Development Studies, Falmer, UK.
Armar-Klemesu, M. 2000. "Urban Agriculture and Food Security, Nutrition and Health." Growing Cities, Growing Food. Urban Agriculture on the Policy Agenda Deutsche Stiftung fur Internationale Entwicklung (DSE), Zentralstelle fur Ernahrung und Landwirtschaft, Feldafing, Germany. 99–118.
Bazilian, M., H. Rogner, M. Howells, S. Hermann, D. Arent, D. Gielen, P. Steduto, et al. 2011. "Considering the Energy, Water and Food Nexus: Towards an Integrated Modelling Approach." Energy Policy 39:7896–7906. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2011.09.039
Canning, P. N, A. Charles, S. Huang, and K. R. Polenske. 2010. Energy Use in the U.S. Food System. Economic Research Report 94. USDA Economic Research Service.
Chang, N.-B., U. Hossain, A. Valencia, J. Qiu, and N. Kapucu. 2020. "The Role of Food-Energy-Water Nexus Analyses in Urban Growth Models for Urban Sustainability: A Review of Synergistic Framework. Sustainable Cities and Society" 63:102486. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2020.102486
Daigger, G. T., J. P. Newell, N. G. Love, N. McClintock, M. Gardiner, E. Mohareb, M. Horst, J. Blesh, and A. Ramaswami. 2015. "Scaling Up Agriculture in City-Regions to Mitigate FEW System Impacts." publication number CSS15-47, Ann Arbor, MI: School of Natural Resources and Environment, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. University of Michigan
Deelstra, T., and H. Girardet. 2000. "Urban Agriculture and Sustainable Cities." Bakker N., Dubbeling M., Gündel S., Sabel-Koshella U., de Zeeuw H. Growing Cities, Growing Food. Urban Agriculture on the Policy Agenda. Feldafing, Germany: Zentralstelle für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft (ZEL):43–66.
Despommier, D. 2013. Farming up the City: The Rise of Urban Vertical Farms." Trends in Biotechnology 31:388–389. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tibtech.2013.03.008
Ericksen, P. J. 2008. "Conceptualizing Food Systems for Global Environmental Change Research." Global Environmental Change 18:234–245. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2007.09.002
FAO. 2013. Climate-Smart Agriculture Sourcebook. Available at: http://www.fao.org/docrep/018/i3325e/i3325e00.htm.
Goldstein, B. P., M. Z. Hauschild, J. E. Fernández, and M. Birkved. 2017. Contributions of Local Farming to Urban Sustainability in the Northeast United States." Environmental Science & Technology 51:7340–7349. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.7b01011
Gondhalekar, D., and T. Ramsauer. 2016. Nexus City: "Operationalizing the Urban Water-Energy-Food Nexus for Climate Change Adaptation in Munich, Germany." Urban Climate. 19:28–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2016.11.004
Grewal, S. S., and P. S. Grewal. 2012. "Can cities become self-reliant in food?" Cities 29:1–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2011.06.003
Hamilton, A., Mitchell, G., and Yli-Karjanmaa, S. 2002. "The BEQUEST Toolkit: A Decision Support System for Urban Sustainability." Building Research and Information 30 (2): 109–115. https://doi.org/10.1080/096132102753436486
Hoff, H. 2011. "Understanding the Nexus." Background Paper for the Bonn2011 Conference: The Water, Energy and Food Security Nexus. Stockholm Environment Institute, Stockholm.
Hussey, K., and J. Pittock. 2012. "The Energy–Water Nexus: Managing the Links between Energy and Water for a Sustainable Future." Ecology and Society 17. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-04641-170131
Lapola, D. M., R. Schaldach, J. Alcamo, A. Bondeau, J. Koch, C. Koelking, and J. A. Priess. 2010. "Indirect Land-Use Changes Can Overcome Carbon Savings from Biofuels in Brazil." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107 (8): 3388–3393. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0907318107
Lovell, S. T. 2010. "Multifunctional Urban Agriculture for Sustainable Land Use Planning in the United States." Sustainability 2:2499–2522. https://doi.org/10.3390/su2082499
Lovell, S. T., and J. R. Taylor. 2013. "Supplying Urban Ecosystem Services through Multifunctional Green Infrastructure in the United States." Landscape Ecology 28:1447–1463. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-013-9912-y
Mohareb, E., M. Heller, P. Novak, B. Goldstein, X. Fonoll, and L. Raskin. 2017. "Considerations for Reducing Food System Energy Demand While Scaling Up Urban Agriculture." Environmental Research Letters 12:125004. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa889b
Muller, M. 2007. "Adapting to Climate Change: Water Management for Urban Resilience." Environment and Urbanization 19:99–113. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956247807076726
National Research Council. 2013. Sustainability for the Nation: Resource Connections and Governance Linkages. Washington (DC): National Academies Press 124 p.
Ramaswami, A., D. Boyer, A. S. Nagpure, A. Fang, S. Bogra, B. Bakshi, Elliot Cohen, and A. Rao-Ghorpade. 2017. "An Urban Systems Framework to Assess the Trans-Boundary Food-Energy-Water Nexus: Implementation in Delhi, India." Environmental Research Letters 12:025008. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa5556
Ringler, C., A. Bhaduri, and R. Lawford. 2013. "The Nexus across Water, Energy, Land and Food (WELF): Potential for Improved Resource Use Efficiency?" Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 5:617–624. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2013.11.002
Romero-Lankao, P., T. McPhearson, and D. J. Davidson. 2017. The Food-Energy-Water Nexus and Urban Complexity." Nature Climate Change 7:233–235. https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3260
Tendall, D. M., J. Joerin, B. Kopainsky, P. Edwards, A. Shreck, Q. B. Le, P. Krütli, M. Grant, and J. Six. 2015. "Food System Resilience: Defining the Concept." Global Food Security 6:17–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2015.08.001
UNPD. 2017. United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2017). World Population Prospects: The 2017 Revision, Key Findings and Advance Tables. Working Paper No. ESA/P/WP/248.
Wardropper, C. B., C. Chang, and A. R. Rissman. 2015. "Fragmented Water Quality Governance: Constraints to Spatial Targeting for Nutrient Reduction in a Midwestern USA Watershed." Landscape and Urban Planning 137:64–75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2014.12.011
Young, O. R. 2002. Institutional Interplay: The Environmental Consequences of Cross-Scale Interactions. Chapter 8 in The Drama of the Commons National Academies Press, Washington DC. 263–291.
Zhang, S., X. T. Bi, and R. Clift. 2013. "A Life Cycle Assessment of Integrated Dairy Farm-Greenhouse Systems in British Columbia." Bioresource Technology 150:496–505. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2013.09.076