Application of Systems Thinking to Sustainability Challenges (Food, Energy, Water Nexus)

FEW is an important acronym in sustainability as it represents the food, energy, and water nexus that connects many of the world’s problems but can also be a point of solution for many of our systems. Food, energy, and water are bound together whether we acknowledge it or not. The issues come when they are not seen as one but as independent systems that do not impact each other. To understand the domino effect that is the FEW nexus, we can look at how they interact. On a basic level, food requires water and energy to grow, be processed, and distributed. Energy systems require water for cooling or for power itself and food/organic matter as a source of renewable energy as well. Water systems need energy for management and processing as well as requires food/organic matter to regulate and mitigate water-based disasters that can affect supply. How can we name one or the other as most important when they all feed off of each other so harmoniously? For this reason, strategizing to find balance of use between the food, energy, and water systems is crucial to our existence. What better way to start taking necessary action than to implement some strategies and innovations on a city level.

Food Energy Water (FEW) Nexus

First let’s take a closer look at how the FEW nexus interacts to provide resources for many cities around the world. Food is the easiest to understand and visualize the inputs of energy and water. In order for food to grow it typically requires water. Whether it be through traditional farming, monoculture, permaculture, or more urban farming methods like hydroponics, or aeroponics, crops require water to successfully grow and be harvested for consumption. Once food is harvested, water again is used in the processing phase to clean or rinse off excess soil or pesticides. Or to be processed into another derivative like a veggie patty, or natural fruit-flavored juice that we find at the grocery store. Once at home, we as the consumers again use water to rinse, store or cook the food. Even when we talk about animal products water is necessary for livestock to drink and for hygiene purposes as well as for processing, cooking, and storing (canned meats, fruits, vegetables). A simple example of how much food depends on water is that one hamburger – including the bread, meat, lettuce, and tomato – uses about 660 gallons of water (GRACE Communications Foundation, 2020). Similarly, a single cheeseburger requires between 7.3-20 megajoules of energy to be made (Carlsson-Kanyama, 2000). Just like water, energy is necessary for food security. Any form of agriculture uses energy in some way whether it be electricity for a factory farm or indoor urban farm, fuel or electricity for machinery, humans, and tools for processing, gas for transportation, and appliances for cooking. When we are talking about food at a city level alone, we use fuel to import the food from rural areas or other states and countries, electricity for storage at grocery stores or our own refrigerators, and electricity for the many restaurants that provide us with dining experiences.

Additionally, energy relies on water and food to function as well. All energy systems use water in their processes such as extraction and cleaning of fossil fuels, cooling for thermal power plants (nuclear, coal-fired, diesel-fired, etc.), and powering turbines in hydroelectric methods (United Nations, 2015). Like water, food is a source of energy as well. Biofuel is food, or organic matter – such as agricultural residues, energy crops, algae, forest resources, and organic waste – deconstructed and turned into gas or liquid power (U.S. Department of Energy, 2016). We can even go as far as to say that people working to build, manage and facilitate any of these systems require food and water as a source of energy. Let’s not forget the value of workers and human labor for every one of these systems to function properly. Lastly, water systems equally need energy to operate and make it into people's hands (the end-use/goal). Extraction, collection, treatment, desalinization, distribution, and transportation of water all demand energy (United Nations, 2015). Though not as obvious, food/organic matter is also important to the sustainability of a properly functioning water system. On a city level, community and rooftop gardens, green walls, and more green spaces, in general, can help mitigate disasters like flooding (Bai et al., 2018) that in a domino effect, hand-in-hand with sea-level rise, impacts the availability of fresh water in our aquifers (Pinto et al., 2014) that provide for residents of one or more surrounding cities.

Strategies for Efficiency of Resources in Policy

The issue remains that each of these nodes in the nexus are typically examined independently from each other and policies for each are developed similarly (Hussey & Pittock, 2012). If cities take a more holistic, systems thinking approach, we can better assess risks and trade-offs between food, energy, and water systems and start to create a balance between them. This can be done through the implementation of cohesive systems dynamics models and tools (Hjorth & Bagheri, 2006) for better policy, such as the iceberg model, causal loop

diagrams, stocks and flows diagrams. If closed-loop balance is not viable with the current FEW system infrastructures, policy incentives and funding can still encourage research and innovation that integrates the FEW nexus. Even then, there already is research and innovation out there that provides evidence of effective and inexpensive alternatives or mitigative expansions to existing systems. It is important to note that bi-partisan policy and industry standards will most likely only change if and when there is a paradigm shift or a shift in values amongst our society that demands transformation. “Getting there is a psychological, marketing, and socio-political process that requires emotional intelligence as well as IQ and technocratic skills” (Culhane, 2017). I believe an employable strategy that gets to the root of the challenge is investing in education. Whether it be educational efforts (workshops, seminars, consulting, employ certification tuition reimbursement) within industries and city government or implementation of sustainability and nexus/systems thinking curriculum and practice in schools.

Part of the paradigm shift must include the theory and practice of

sufficiency. For very long, the idea of a new frontier has always been available if a different one wasn't enough. Industrialization, materialism, and consumerism solidified that for us in the 20th century. We must begin to understand that in the 21st century we are getting dangerously close to the limits (enough-ness) of our resources. In terms of the FEW nexus, overconsumption of food, energy, or water to provide for each other’s systems becomes a problem when, as we mentioned before, they are viewed individually. Implementing principles such as restraint, precautionary, polluter pays, zero, and reverse onus (Princen, 2003) into policy, protocol, disaster planning, and regulations would help employ sufficiency (as a cultural value) and improve the efficiency of resources at a city level and beyond.

Implementing Innovative Technology at a City Level

As far as nexus innovation and infrastructure within a city goes, two urban planning projects come to mind. First, I believe more green spaces in urban areas are crucial. Rooftop gardens, other community gardens, greens walls, parks, trees, and more provide food security, insulation, and cooling (less energy needed), and flood mitigating services that ultimately secure fresh water for drinking, energy, and food systems for the city. Secondly, biodigesters are an excellent example of nexus solutions that I believe could be implemented at a city level within single-family homes, town-homes, efficiencies, mobile homes, duplexes, or even commercial kitchens. Biodigesters mitigate waste by consuming it (organic waste including all food scraps and manure) and turning it into biogas (energy) and liquid fertilizer (for gardens/lawns) within twenty-four hours (Kelsey, 2015). It would be interesting to see biodigesters be implemented on a larger scale to power entire office or apartment buildings and be automatically connected to irrigation systems that could use the liquid fertilizer to feed the urban greenspaces we mentioned above. It is important for policy makers to use the strategies discussed above before implementing designs such as these as to not negatively impacting other intersecting systems like affordable housing and development.

Conclusion

Food, energy, and water is an important, if not, the most important nexus to sustainability and we must approach the systems collectively and even in connection with other systems that impact residents of cities every day. Shifting the cultural paradigm and employing strategies such as education reform, systems dynamics models, sufficiency principles, and nexus innovations into policy at a city level are crucial to the efficiency and security of resources. Implementing these at a local, city level is a great start and sets an example for national and global efforts toward sustainability.

Bibliography

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