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Insight-Based Approach for the Design of Integrated Local Food-Energy-Water Systems Full text
2017
Leung Pah Hang, Melissa Yuling | Martinez-Hernandez, Elias | Leach, Matthew | Yang, Aidong
Society currently relies heavily on centralized production and large scale distribution infrastructures to meet growing demands for goods and services, which causes socioeconomic and environmental issues, particularly unsustainable resource supply. Considering local production systems as a more sustainable alternative, this paper presents an insight-based approach to the integrated design of local systems providing food, energy, and water to meet local demands. The approach offers a new hierarchical and iterative decision and analysis procedure incorporating design principles and ability to examine design decisions, in both synthesis of individual yet interconnected subsystems and integrated design of resource reuse across the entire system. The approach was applied to a case study on design of food-energy-water system for a locale in the U.K.; resulting in a design which significantly reduced resource consumption compared to importing goods from centralized production. The design process produced insights into the impact of one decision on other parts of the problem, either within or across different subsystems. The result was also compared to the mathematical programming approach for whole system optimization from previous work. It was demonstrated that the new approach could produce a comparable design while offering more valuable insights for decision makers.
Show more [+] Less [-]Understanding water-energy-food and ecosystem interactions using the nexus simulation tool NexSym Full text
2017
Martinez-Hernandez, Elias | Leach, Matthew | Yang, Aidong
The water-energy-food (WEF) nexus concept highlights the importance of integrative solutions that secure resource supplies and meet demands sustainably. There is a need for translating the nexus concept into clear frameworks and tools that can be applied to decision making. A simulation and analytics framework, and a concomitant Nexus Simulation System (NexSym) is presented here. NexSym advances the state-of-the-art in nexus tools by explicit dynamic modelling of local techno-ecological interactions relevant to WEF operations. The modular tool integrates models for ecosystems, WEF production and consumption components and allows the user to build, simulate and analyse a “flowsheet” of a local system. This enables elucidation of critical interactions and gaining knowledge and understanding that supports innovative solutions by balancing resource supply and demand and increasing synergies between components, while maintaining ecosystems. NexSym allowed assessment of the synergistic design of a local nexus system in a UK eco-town. The design improved local nutrient balance and meets 100% of electricity demand, while achieving higher carbon capture and biomass provisioning, higher water reuse and food production, however with a remarkable impact on land use.
Show more [+] Less [-]African American Women's Perceptions on Access to Food and Water in Flint, Michigan Full text
2017
Mayfield, Kellie E. | Carolan, Marsha | Weatherspoon, Lorraine | Chung, Kimberly R. | Hoerr, Sharon M.
To explore the perceptions of food access by African American women in Flint, MI.Using womanist theory, in which African American women's experiential knowledge centered the analysis, 8 focus groups were conducted during fall/spring, 2014–2015. Seventeen mothers aged 21–50 years with children aged <18 years and 13 women aged >60 years comprised the groups.The high cost of water, poor availability of healthy foods in inner-city stores, and limited transportation were barriers to accessing healthy food. Conversely, receiving food from food giveaways, friends, and family, as well as access to transportation facilitated food access. These women also reported discriminatory experiences and diet-related health concerns. Participants were keenly aware of available free community resources and gender, racial, and income barriers to accessing them.Understanding these barriers and facilitators provides information to aid local food policy assistance decisions and inform community-based interventions, especially given the lead contamination of water and the purported importance of a healthy diet to sequester lead.
Show more [+] Less [-]An integrated model to evaluate water-energy-food nexus at a household scale Full text
2017
Hussien, Wa'el A. | Memon, Fayyaz A. | Savic, Dragan A.
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.
Show more [+] Less [-]Integrated modeling approach for optimal management of water, energy and food security nexus Full text
2017
Zhang, Xiaodong | Vesselinov, Velimir V
Water, energy and food (WEF) are inextricably interrelated. Effective planning and management of limited WEF resources to meet current and future socioeconomic demands for sustainable development is challenging. WEF production/delivery may also produce environmental impacts; as a result, green-house-gas emission control will impact WEF nexus management as well. Nexus management for WEF security necessitates integrated tools for predictive analysis that are capable of identifying the tradeoffs among various sectors, generating cost-effective planning and management strategies and policies. To address these needs, we have developed an integrated model analysis framework and tool called WEFO. WEFO provides a multi-period socioeconomic model for predicting how to satisfy WEF demands based on model inputs representing productions costs, socioeconomic demands, and environmental controls. WEFO is applied to quantitatively analyze the interrelationships and trade-offs among system components including energy supply, electricity generation, water supply-demand, food production as well as mitigation of environmental impacts. WEFO is demonstrated to solve a hypothetical nexus management problem consistent with real-world management scenarios. Model parameters are analyzed using global sensitivity analysis and their effects on total system cost are quantified. The obtained results demonstrate how these types of analyses can be helpful for decision-makers and stakeholders to make cost-effective decisions for optimal WEF management.
Show more [+] Less [-]Theme Overview: Water Scarcity, Food Production, and Environmental Sustainability-Can Policy Make Sense? Full text
2017
Dinar, Ariel
Impacts of climate change, policy and Water-Energy-Food nexus on hydropower development Full text
2017
Zhang, Xiao; Li, Hong-Yi; Deng, Zhiqun Daniel; Ringler, Claudia; Gao, Yang; Hejazi, Mohamad I.; Leung, L. Ruby; | http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8266-0488 Ringler, Claudia
Impacts of climate change, policy and Water-Energy-Food nexus on hydropower development Full text
2017
Zhang, Xiao; Li, Hong-Yi; Deng, Zhiqun Daniel; Ringler, Claudia; Gao, Yang; Hejazi, Mohamad I.; Leung, L. Ruby; | http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8266-0488 Ringler, Claudia
PR | IFPRI3; ISI; CRP5; E Building Resilience; COP | EPTD | CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE)
Show more [+] Less [-]Impacts of climate change, policy and Water-Energy-Food nexus on hydropower development Full text
2018
Zhang, Xiao | Li, Hong-Yi | Deng, Zhiqun Daniel | Ringler, Claudia | Gao, Yang | Hejazi, Mohamad I. | Leung, L Ruby
Hydropower plays an important role as the global energy system moves towards a less carbon-intensive and sustainable future as promoted under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This article provides a systematic review of the impacts from policy, climate change and Water-Energy-Food (W-E-F) nexus on hydropower development at global scale. Asia, Africa and Latin America are hotspots promoting hydropower development with capacity expansion, while Europe and North America focus on performance improvement and environment impacts mitigation. Climate change is projected to improve gross hydropower potential (GHP) at high latitude of North Hemisphere and tropical Africa and decrease that in the US, South Africa and south and central Europe. Analysis from W-E-F nexus highlights the importance of integrated approaches as well as cross-sectoral coordination so as to improve resources use efficiency and achieve sustainable hydropower development. These three factors together shape the future of hydropower and need to be considered for planning and operation purpose.
Show more [+] Less [-]Impacts of climate change, policy and Water-Energy-Food nexus on hydropower development Full text
2018
Zhang, Xiao | Li, Hong-Yi | Deng, Zhiqun Daniel | Ringler, Claudia | Gao, Yang | Hejazi, Mohamad I. | Leung, L. Ruby.
Hydropower plays an important role as the global energy system moves towards a less carbon-intensive and sustainable future as promoted under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This article provides a systematic review of the impacts from policy, climate change and Water-Energy-Food (W-E-F) nexus on hydropower development at global scale. Asia, Africa and Latin America are hotspots promoting hydropower development with capacity expansion, while Europe and North America focus on performance improvement and environment impacts mitigation. Climate change is projected to improve gross hydropower potential (GHP) at high latitude of North Hemisphere and tropical Africa and decrease that in the US, South Africa and south and central Europe. Analysis from W-E-F nexus highlights the importance of integrated approaches as well as cross-sectoral coordination so as to improve resources use efficiency and achieve sustainable hydropower development. These three factors together shape the future of hydropower and need to be considered for planning and operation purpose.
Show more [+] Less [-]Water production from food processing wastewaters using integrated membrane systems: A sustainable approach Full text
2017
Castro-Muñoz, Roberto | Fíla, Vlastimil | Rodríguez-Romero, Víctor M. | Yáñez-Fernández, Jorge
Castro-Muñoz, R., Fíla, V., Rodríguez-Romero, V. M., & Yáñez-Fernández, J. (November-December, 2017). Water production from food processing wastewaters using integrated membrane systems: A sustainable approach. Water Technology and Sciences (in English), 8(6), 129-136,DOI: 10.24850/j-tyca-2017-06-09.This scientific note reviews current approaches for using membrane technology to treat wastewater from food processing, for example, as a means to produce water by recovering components with high added value. In addition, with regard to the availability of wastewater, processes that contain membranes have been shown to be advantageous in terms of treating waste, recovering solutes, and producing water. With regard to the latter, processes that contain membranes can be considered to be a sustainable methodology given the valorization of waste. Lastly, this note provides a brief general view emphasizing a real need to apply membrane technology in the food industry, and indicates that its application is undoubtedly to come.
Show more [+] Less [-]Analysis of the glyphosate herbicide in water, soil and food using derivatising agents Full text
2017
Gill, Jatinder Pal Kaur | Sethi, Nidhi | Mohan, Anand
Glyphosate is used widely to control weeds. Glyphosate is a broad spectrum, non-selective, systemic and post-emergent herbicide. Glyphosate excessive use and impact on the environment is promoting the analysis of glyphosate in water, soil and food materials. Methods to analyse glyphosate at low levels are needed because glyphosate has a short half-life due to easy microbial degradation. Glyphosate has a high polarity and solubility in water, has high binding affinity with soil and is non-volatile. The absence of chromophoric groups in the molecular structure makes the detection difficult. Therefore, detection can be achieved by derivatisation, which makes glyphosate more volatile and stable for spectroscopic analysis. Derivatisation is commonly done by alkyl chloroformates, acylating agents, 9-fluoroenylmethylchloroformate, 4-methoxybenzenesulfonylfluoride and o-phthalaldehyde. Immunosensors allow detection at microlevels. Nanocrystals and nanotechnology allow detection at nanolevels. Here, we review methods to derivatise and analyse glyphosate.
Show more [+] Less [-]Rapid NMR determination of inorganic cations in food matrices: Application to mineral water Full text
2017
Monakhova, Yulia B. | Kuballa, Thomas | Tschiersch, Christopher | Diehl, Bernd W.K.
A nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) method was developed to quantify cations in mineral water. The procedure was based on integration of signals from metal-ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) complexes at δ 2.70ppm for Mg2+ and δ 2.56ppm for Ca2+. The limits of detection were below 0.5mg/L. Lack of precision did not exceed 5%. Linearity was between 1 and 500mg/L. Correlation between NMR and a reference chromatographic method was significant (p<0.0001, R2=0.99). PLS models were also established to estimate Na+ and K+ contents. R2 was 0.85 and 0.83, respectively. Root mean square errors of cross validation (RMSECV) were 8.0mg/L and 1.9mg/L for Na+ and K+, respectively. The method was applied successfully for the analysis of 31 mineral water samples. This method is a useful tool for quantification of important cations in mineral water and might easily be adapted to other food matrices.
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