Applying the food-energy-water nexus approach to urban agriculture: From FEW to FEWP (Food-Energy-Water-People)
2021
Caputo, Silvio | Schoen, Victoria | Specht, Kathrin | Grard, Baptiste | Blythe, Chris | Cohen, Nevin | Fox-Kämper, Runrid | Hawes, Jason | Newell, Joshua | Poniży, Lidia | University of Kent [Canterbury] | ILS, Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development, Office Aachen, Karmeliterstrasse 6, 52064 Aachen, Germany, ; ILS, Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development, Office Aachen, Karmeliterstrasse 6, 52064 Aachen, Germany, | Ecologie fonctionnelle et écotoxicologie des agroécosystèmes (ECOSYS) ; AgroParisTech-Université Paris-Saclay-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE) | City University of New York [New York] (CUNY) | University of Michigan [Ann Arbor] ; University of Michigan System | Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu = Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (UAM) | UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) ; Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) ; Federal Ministry of Education & Research (BMBF) ; French National Research Agency (ANR) ; NSF, USA, Belmont Forum ; European Commission ; | ANR-17-SUGI-0001,FEW-meter,The FEW-meter : an integrative model to measure and improve urban agriculture, shifting it towards circular urban metabolism(2017)
International audience
Show more [+] Less [-]English. Many studies examine the correlation between the use of resources such as water, energy and land, and the production of food. These nexus studies focus predominantly on large scale systems, often considering the social dimensions only in terms of access to resources and participation in the decision-making process, rather than individual attitudes and behaviours with respect to resource use. Such a concept of the nexus is relevant to urban agriculture (UA), but it requires customisation to the particular characteristics of growing food in cities, which is practiced mainly at a small scale and produces not only food but also considerable social, economic, and environmental co-benefits. To this end, this paper proposes a new conceptual basis for a UA Nexus, together with an assessment methodology that explicitly includes social dimensions in addition to food, energy and water. The conceptual basis introduces People, together with Food, Energy and Water, as a fundamental factor of the UA Nexus. On this basis, a methodology is developed measuring not only resource efficiency and food production but also motivations and health benefits. It comprises a combination of methods such as diaries of everyday UA practices, a database of UA activities, life cycle assessment (LCA), and material flow analysis to connect investigations developed at a garden scale to the city scale. A case study shows an application of the methodology.
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