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Valuing water for food security : How valuing water can contribute to optimal food security policy Full text
2022
Reinhard, Stijn | Wilbers, Gert-Jan | Linderhof, Vincent | Smit, Robert
Research into the potential of valuing water for food security policies. The Food and Water Valuation Framework (FWVF) has been developed to combine the valuing water concept with the food system approach. This framework is applied in four case studies to assess its advantage over existing concepts. | Onderzoek naar de mogelijkheden van het waarderen van water voor voedselzekerheidsbeleid. Het Food and Water Valuation Framework (FWVF) is ontwikkeld om het waterwaarderingsconcept te combineren met de voedselsysteembenadering. Dit kader wordt toegepast in vier casestudies om het voordeel ervan ten opzichte van bestaande concepten te beoordelen.
Show more [+] Less [-]Food-energy-water nexus: Food waste recycling system for energy Full text
2022
Siaw, Mathew Nana Kyei | Oduro-Koranteng, Elizabeth Ayaw | Dartey, Yaw Obeng Okofo
Food-energy-water nexus: Food waste recycling system for energy Full text
2022
Siaw, Mathew Nana Kyei | Oduro-Koranteng, Elizabeth Ayaw | Dartey, Yaw Obeng Okofo
A humongous amount of food goes to waste yearly. The use of renewable energy sources is encouraged to reduce global warming. Food waste as a source of energy and water as a food-water-energy nexus has shown to be a viable source of renewable energy. This paper proposes a food waste recycling system that uses a mechanical presser to the extraction of moisture from the food waste with its desiccate being fed to an anaerobic digester to produce biogas. Literature on the topic is reviewed and the benefits and limitations of the system are also discussed.
Show more [+] Less [-]Food-energy-water nexus: Food waste recycling system for energy Full text
2022
Mathew Nana Kyei Siaw | Elizabeth Ayaw Oduro-Koranteng | Yaw Obeng Okofo Dartey
A humongous amount of food goes to waste yearly. The use of renewable energy sources is encouraged to reduce global warming. Food waste as a source of energy and water as a food-water-energy nexus has shown to be a viable source of renewable energy. This paper proposes a food waste recycling system that uses a mechanical presser to the extraction of moisture from the food waste with its desiccate being fed to an anaerobic digester to produce biogas. Literature on the topic is reviewed and the benefits and limitations of the system are also discussed.
Show more [+] Less [-]The Future of Water for Food Full text
2022
Rabi H. Mohtar | Rabi H. Mohtar | Ali Fares
The Future of Water for Food Full text
2022
Rabi H. Mohtar | Rabi H. Mohtar | Ali Fares
Globally, water is a bottleneck to food security and, as such, a new approach for water for food is needed. Food insecurity is knocking at every nation's door, including those of the most developed. Moreover, the disruptions in food supply chains that result from continued reliance on a business-as-usual approach of traditional, non-sustainable food and agricultural systems make food insecurity even more vividly present. This article explores the current relationship between food production and water resources. It attempts to better understand how we might reduce the inter-dependencies between food and fresh water by exploring new and alternative sources of water, including improving the efficiencies of green and recycled water.
Show more [+] Less [-]The Future of Water for Food Full text
2022
Mohtar, Rabi H. | Fares, Ali | Department of Agriculture | Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences (FAFS) | American University of Beirut
Globally, water is a bottleneck to food security and, as such, a new approach for water for food is needed. Food insecurity is knocking at every nation's door, including those of the most developed. Moreover, the disruptions in food supply chains that result from continued reliance on a business-as-usual approach of traditional, non-sustainable food and agricultural systems make food insecurity even more vividly present. This article explores the current relationship between food production and water resources. It attempts to better understand how we might reduce the inter-dependencies between food and fresh water by exploring new and alternative sources of water, including improving the efficiencies of green and recycled water. Copyright © 2022 Mohtar and Fares.
Show more [+] Less [-]A food-energy-water nexus meta-model for food and energy security Full text
2022
Ogbolumani, Omolola A. | Nwulu, Nnamdi I.
Optimal allocation of the food, energy and water (FEW) resources is of emergent concern owing to depleting supply of the natural resources. Increasing demand for the FEW resources is attributable to growing population, migration, economic development, technological advancements and climate change. The FEW nexus (FEW-N) is an intricate system that requires robust quantitative decision-making tools to investigate the links between the various system components and sustainability. This study proposes a meta-model-based FEW-N system for addressing the issue of natural resource allocation for food and energy security. It incorporated an integrated model consisting of the Techno-Economic and Input/Output models in an Optimisation framework with maximum economic benefit as its objective function. The COINOR Branch and Cut (CBC) and CPLEX solvers in the Advanced Interactive Multidimensional Modelling System (AIMMs) were used to formulate and solve the optimisation problems. To validate the developed framework, the scenario analysis was performed on three cases in South Africa. First, it was found that using FEW resources for food production in dryland open fields, undercover greenhouses, and irrigated open fields was more profitable than for production of electrical energy from bioenergy, solar/wind-based hybrid renewable energy, and hydropower production systems. Second, the revenue of the sub-sector determined the percentage use of the FEW resources and the percentage contribution of technology options to food and energy security. Third, open fields, greenhouses, and irrigated open fields contributed significantly to food security. The holistic framework developed provided enhanced understanding of the FEW-N system. Resource security has significantly improved due to the ability of various technologies in each subsector to meet the food and energy demands of the specific population. Besides providing scientific support for national decisions regarding food, energy, and water policy, the proposed framework will also contribute to sustainable development at the subnational level.
Show more [+] Less [-]Arsenic Exposure via Contaminated Water and Food Sources Full text
2022
Kianoush Khosravi-Darani | Yasir Rehman | Ioannis A. Katsoyiannis | Evgenios Kokkinos | Anastasios I. Zouboulis
Arsenic Exposure via Contaminated Water and Food Sources Full text
2022
Kianoush Khosravi-Darani | Yasir Rehman | Ioannis A. Katsoyiannis | Evgenios Kokkinos | Anastasios I. Zouboulis
Arsenic poisoning constitutes a major threat to humans, causing various health problems. Almost everywhere across the world certain “hotspots” have been detected, putting in danger the local populations, due to the potential consumption of water or food contaminated with elevated concentrations of arsenic. According to the relevant studies, Asia shows the highest percentage of significantly contaminated sites, followed by North America, Europe, Africa, South America and Oceania. The presence of arsenic in ecosystems can originate from several natural or anthropogenic activities. Arsenic can be then gradually accumulated in different food sources, such as vegetables, rice and other crops, but also in seafood, etc., and in water sources (mainly in groundwater, but also to a lesser extent in surface water), potentially used as drinking-water supplies, provoking their contamination and therefore potential health problems to the consumers. This review reports the major areas worldwide that present elevated arsenic concentrations in food and water sources. Furthermore, it also discusses the sources of arsenic contamination at these sites, as well as selected treatment technologies, aiming to remove this pollutant mainly from the contaminated waters and thus the reduction and prevention of population towards arsenic exposure.
Show more [+] Less [-]Arsenic Exposure via Contaminated Water and Food Sources Full text
2022
Khusravī Dārānī, Kiyānūsh | Rehman, Yasir | Katsoyiannis, Ioannis A. | Kokkinos, Evgenios | Zouboulis, Anastasios I.
Arsenic poisoning constitutes a major threat to humans, causing various health problems. Almost everywhere across the world certain “hotspots” have been detected, putting in danger the local populations, due to the potential consumption of water or food contaminated with elevated concentrations of arsenic. According to the relevant studies, Asia shows the highest percentage of significantly contaminated sites, followed by North America, Europe, Africa, South America and Oceania. The presence of arsenic in ecosystems can originate from several natural or anthropogenic activities. Arsenic can be then gradually accumulated in different food sources, such as vegetables, rice and other crops, but also in seafood, etc., and in water sources (mainly in groundwater, but also to a lesser extent in surface water), potentially used as drinking-water supplies, provoking their contamination and therefore potential health problems to the consumers. This review reports the major areas worldwide that present elevated arsenic concentrations in food and water sources. Furthermore, it also discusses the sources of arsenic contamination at these sites, as well as selected treatment technologies, aiming to remove this pollutant mainly from the contaminated waters and thus the reduction and prevention of population towards arsenic exposure.
Show more [+] Less [-]Research on Water Rights Allocation of Coordinated Development on Water–Ecology–Energy–Food Full text
2022
Wenge Zhang | Yifan He | Huijuan Yin
Research on Water Rights Allocation of Coordinated Development on Water–Ecology–Energy–Food Full text
2022
Wenge Zhang | Yifan He | Huijuan Yin
Water rights trading is an important way to solve the problem of water shortage by market mechanism. The allocation of water rights among ecological water, energy water, and grain planting water are the basis of the regional water rights trade. In this paper, the concept of coordinated development of water–ecology–energy–food is proposed. We build a water rights allocation model with fairness, efficiency, and coordinated development as the goal, to achieve water security for various industries. Taking Yinchuan city as an example, the results showed that compared with the current water rights the water rights of life increased by 1.07%, the water rights of ecology increased by 1.85%, the water rights of energy industry decreased by 1.09%, the water rights of food planting decreased by 3.27%, the water rights of other agriculture increased by 0.83%, and the water rights of the general industry increased by 0.65%. After the allocation of water rights, the cooperativity of water–ecology–energy–food increased by 7.56%, and the total value of water resources in various industries increased by 2.31 × 10<sup>8</sup> CNY. A new water rights allocation model is developed in this paper, which can provide a reference for the allocation of water rights among regional industries.
Show more [+] Less [-]Research on Water Rights Allocation of Coordinated Development on Water–Ecology–Energy–Food Full text
2022
Zhang, Wenge | He, Yifan | Yin, Huijuan
Water rights trading is an important way to solve the problem of water shortage by market mechanism. The allocation of water rights among ecological water, energy water, and grain planting water are the basis of the regional water rights trade. In this paper, the concept of coordinated development of water–ecology–energy–food is proposed. We build a water rights allocation model with fairness, efficiency, and coordinated development as the goal, to achieve water security for various industries. Taking Yinchuan city as an example, the results showed that compared with the current water rights the water rights of life increased by 1.07%, the water rights of ecology increased by 1.85%, the water rights of energy industry decreased by 1.09%, the water rights of food planting decreased by 3.27%, the water rights of other agriculture increased by 0.83%, and the water rights of the general industry increased by 0.65%. After the allocation of water rights, the cooperativity of water–ecology–energy–food increased by 7.56%, and the total value of water resources in various industries increased by 2.31 × 10⁸ CNY. A new water rights allocation model is developed in this paper, which can provide a reference for the allocation of water rights among regional industries.
Show more [+] Less [-]Research on Water Rights Allocation of Coordinated Development on Water–Ecology–Energy–Food Full text
2022
Wenge Zhang | Yifan He | Huijuan Yin
Water rights trading is an important way to solve the problem of water shortage by market mechanism. The allocation of water rights among ecological water, energy water, and grain planting water are the basis of the regional water rights trade. In this paper, the concept of coordinated development of water&ndash:ecology&ndash:energy&ndash:food is proposed. We build a water rights allocation model with fairness, efficiency, and coordinated development as the goal, to achieve water security for various industries. Taking Yinchuan city as an example, the results showed that compared with the current water rights the water rights of life increased by 1.07%, the water rights of ecology increased by 1.85%, the water rights of energy industry decreased by 1.09%, the water rights of food planting decreased by 3.27%, the water rights of other agriculture increased by 0.83%, and the water rights of the general industry increased by 0.65%. After the allocation of water rights, the cooperativity of water&ndash:ecology&ndash:energy&ndash:food increased by 7.56%, and the total value of water resources in various industries increased by 2.31 ×: 108 CNY. A new water rights allocation model is developed in this paper, which can provide a reference for the allocation of water rights among regional industries.
Show more [+] Less [-]Synergy and competition of water in Food-Energy-Water Nexus: Insights for sustainability Full text
2022
Hua, En | Engel, Bernie A. | Guan, Jiajie | Yin, Jieling | Wu, Nan | Han, Xinxueqi | Sun, Shikun | He, Jianqiang | Wang, Yubao
Studies on the Food-Energy-Water Nexus can help researchers, policy makers, practitioners, and stakeholders identify opportunities to maintain the nexus’ synergies and trade-offs. Water, the most sensitive element in the Food-Energy-Water Nexus, readily influences the stability, cooperativity, and safety of the nexus. The key initiative to ensure water security in the Food-Energy-Water Nexus is properly handling water for food and energy production, but the existed conceptual framework and evaluation system are incomplete. This paper uses the Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response model and the water footprint theory to construct an optimization approach to evaluate the synergy and competition for water between food and energy at five levels. This optimization approach was tested and implemented based on a case study of 31 provinces in the Chinese Mainland from 1997 to 2016. The results showed that the blue water footprint of 31 provinces was 263.48 Gm³ in 2016, and the gray water footprint was 1518.57 Gm³, which led to inter-industry competitive water use and water unsustainability. In 2016, the 31 provinces had developed into Industry Synergy Sustainability scenario (1 province), Industry Synergy Unsustainability scenario (9 provinces), Industry Competition Unsustainability scenario (16 provinces), and Industry Competition Sustainability scenario (5 provinces), presenting a spatially clustered distribution pattern. Except for Xinjiang and Jilin, the remaining 29 provinces gradually developed into sustainable or synergistic scenarios. The total production water footprint in the Industry Competition Unsustainability scenario reached 4.08 m³/kg in 2016, while the Industry Synergy Sustainability scenario was only 3.67 m³/kg. This paper proposes two response paths, based on market allocation and administrative means, to facilitate the gradual evolution of the Industry Competition Unsustainability scenario into the Industry Synergy Sustainability scenario. These paths contribute to the efficient and sustainable integrated management of food, energy, and water globally.
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