scholarly journals An Analysis of Resilience Planning at the Nexus of Food, Energy, Water, and Transportation in Coastal US Cities

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin B. Raub ◽  
Kristine F. Stepenuck ◽  
Bindu Panikkar ◽  
Jennie C. Stephens
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Food System ◽  
Water System ◽  
Energy System ◽  
Coastal Communities ◽  
Food Energy ◽  
The Us ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Us Cities ◽  
System Water

Climate change poses increased risks to coastal communities and the interconnected infrastructure they rely on, including food, energy, water, and transportation (FEWT) systems. Most coastal communities in the US are ill-prepared to address these risks, and resilience planning is inconsistently prioritized and not federally mandated. This study examined the resilience plans of 11 coastal US cities to understand 1. How FEWT systems were considered within resilience plans and, 2. How nexus principles or elements critical to a nexus approach were incorporated within resilience plans. A “Nexus Index” was created to examine the incorporation of nexus principles, which included partnerships and collaborations, reference to other plans or reports, discussion of co-benefits, cascading impacts, and inclusion of interdisciplinary or cross-silo principles. These principles were used to score each action within the resilience plans. Results showed that only eight actions (1% of all actions across the 11 plans) focused on the connections among FEWT systems within the resilience plans. The transportation system was associated with the most actions, followed by the energy system, water system, and the food system. While FEWT systems were not consistently included, there was evidence from the Nexus Index that the plans included elements critical to a nexus approach, such as the inclusion of partnerships and reference to co-benefits with the actions they designed to build resilience. The heterogeneity among the systems that each plan emphasized reflects the heterogeneity among the challenges that each city faces. While context-specific differences in resilience plans across cities are expected, some consistency in addressing certain infrastructural needs and their nexus interactions may greatly benefit and improve the implementation of resilience planning.

scholarly journals Yesterday’s dinner, tomorrow’s weather, today’s news? US newspaper coverage of food system contributions to climate change

2009 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 1006-1014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roni A Neff ◽  
Iris L Chan ◽  
Katherine Clegg Smith
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Climate Change ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Newspaper Coverage ◽  
Security Threats ◽  
Government Responsibility ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Us ◽  
Public Health Messages

AbstractBackgroundThere is strong evidence that what we eat and how it is produced affects climate change.ObjectiveThe present paper examines coverage of food system contributions to climate change in top US newspapers.DesignUsing a sample of sixteen leading US newspapers from September 2005 to January 2008, two coders identified ‘food and climate change’ and ‘climate change’ articles based on specified criteria. Analyses examined variation across time and newspaper, the level of content relevant to food systems’ contributions to climate change, and how such content was framed.ResultsThere were 4582 ‘climate change’ articles in these newspapers during this period. Of these, 2·4 % mentioned food or agriculture contributions, with 0·4 % coded as substantially focused on the issue and 0·5 % mentioning food animal contributions. The level of content on food contributions to climate change increased across time. Articles initially addressed the issue primarily in individual terms, expanding to address business and government responsibility more in later articles.ConclusionsUS newspaper coverage of food systems’ effects on climate change during the study period increased, but still did not reflect the increasingly solid evidence of the importance of these effects. Increased coverage may lead to responses by individuals, industry and government. Based on co-benefits with nutritional public health messages and climate change’s food security threats, the public health nutrition community has an important role to play in elaborating and disseminating information about food and climate change for the US media.

Effects of urbanization on food-energy-water systems in mega-urban regions: a case study of the Bohai MUR, China

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caiyun Deng ◽  
Hongrui Wang ◽  
Shuxin Gong ◽  
Jie Zhang ◽  
Bo Yang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Water System ◽  
Energy System ◽  
Water Systems ◽  
Stress Index ◽  
Food Energy ◽  
Urban Regions ◽  
System Pressure ◽  
Impact Of Urbanization ◽  
The Impact

<p>The security of food-energy-water systems (FEW systems) is an issue of worldwide concern, especially in mega-urban regions (MURs) with high-density populations, industries and carbon emissions. To better understand the hidden linkages between urbanization and FEW systems, the pressure on FEW systems is quantified in a typical rapid urbanizing region—the Bohai MUR. The correlation between urbanization indicators and the pressure on FEW systems is analyzed and the mechanism of the impact of urbanization on FEW systems is further investigated. Results show that approximately 23% of croplands is lost, 61% of which is converted to construction lands and the urban areas expand by 132.2% in the Bohai MUR during 1980-2015. The pressure on FEW systems has an upward trend with the stress index of the pressure on FEW systems (FEW_SI) exhibiting ranging from 80.49 to 134.82% and dominant pressure consisting of that has converted from water system pressure to energy system pressure since 2004. The FEW_SI in the Bohai MUR is enhanced with cropland loss and the increase in urbanization indicators. Additionally, land use, populations, incomes, policies and innovation are the main ways urbanization impacted FEW systems in MURs. This study enhances our understanding of the pressure variation on FEW systems in MURs and the effects of urbanization on FEW systems, which helps stakeholders to enhance the resilience of FEW systems and promote sustainable regional development.</p><p><strong>Keywords:</strong> urbanization, food-energy-water system pressure, linkages, MURs</p>

scholarly journals Indicators to Guide and Monitor Climate Change Adaptation in the US Pacific Northwest

2020 ◽  
Vol 110 (2) ◽  
pp. 180-188
Author(s):  
Annie Doubleday ◽  
Nicole A. Errett ◽  
Kristie L. Ebi ◽  
Jeremy J. Hess
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Pacific Northwest ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Health Department ◽  
Local Health ◽  
Health Departments ◽  
Local Health Departments ◽  
The Us ◽  
State And Local ◽  
Context Specific

Objectives. To develop a set of indicators to guide and monitor climate change adaptation in US state and local health departments. Methods. We performed a narrative review of literature on indicators of climate change adaptation and public health service capacity, mapped the findings onto activities grouped by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Ten Essential Services, and drafted potential indicators to discuss with practitioners. We then refined the indicators after key informant interviews with 17 health department officials in the US Pacific Northwest in fall 2018. Results. Informants identified a need for clarity regarding state and local public health’s role in climate change adaptation, integration of adaptation into existing programs, and strengthening of communication, partnerships, and response capacity to increase resilience. We propose a set of climate change indicators applicable for state and local health departments. Conclusions. With additional context-specific refinement, the proposed indicators can aid agencies in tracking adaptation efforts. The generalizability, robustness, and relevance of the proposed indicators should be explored in other settings with a broader set of stakeholders.

scholarly journals A Methodological Integrated Approach to Analyse Climate Change Effects in Agri-Food Sector: The TIMES Water-Energy-Food Module

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (21) ◽  
pp. 7703
Author(s):  
Maria Maddalena Tortorella ◽  
Senatro Di Leo ◽  
Carmelina Cosmi ◽  
Patrícia Fortes ◽  
Mauro Viccaro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
System Analysis ◽  
Food System ◽  
Comprehensive Evaluation ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Energy System ◽  
Material System ◽  
Use Of Resources ◽  
The Times

The European Union’s 2030 climate and energy policy and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development underline the commitment to mitigate climate change and reduce its impacts by supporting sustainable use of resources. This commitment has become stricter in light of the ambitious climate neutrality target set by the European Green Deal for 2050. Water, Energy and Food are the key variables of the “Nexus Thinking” which face the sustainability challenge with a multi-sectoral approach. The aim of the paper is to show the methodological path toward the implementation of an integrated modeling platform based on the Nexus approach and consolidated energy system analysis methods to represent the agri-food system in a circular economy perspective (from the use of water, energy, biomass, and land to food production). The final aim is to support decision-making connected to climate change mitigation. The IEA-The Integrated MARKAL-EFOM System (TIMES) model generator was used to build up the Basilicata Water, Energy and Food model (TIMES-WEF model), which allows users a comprehensive evaluation of the impacts of climate change on the Basilicata agri-food system in terms of land use, yields and water availability and a critical comparison of these indicators in different scenarios. The paper focuses on the construction of the model’s Reference Energy and Material System of the TIMES model, which integrates water and agricultural commodities into the energy framework, and on the results obtained through the calibration of the model β version to statistical data on agricultural activities.

A Precarious Confluence: Neoliberalism, Race, and Water Insecurity

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Mascarenhas
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
First Century ◽  
People Of Color ◽  
Water Insecurity ◽  
The Core ◽  
Marginalized Groups ◽  
Racial Projects ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Cities

Three very different field sites—First Nations communities in Canada, water charities in the Global South, and the US cities of Flint and Detroit, Michigan—point to the increasing precariousness of water access for historically marginalized groups, including Indigenous peoples, African Americans, and people of color around the globe. This multi-sited ethnography underscores a common theme: power and racism lie deep in the core of today’s global water crisis. These cases reveal the concrete mechanisms, strategies, and interconnections that are galvanized by the economic, political, and racial projects of neoliberalism. In this sense neoliberalism is not only downsizing democracy but also creating both the material and ideological forces for a new form of discrimination in the provision of drinking water around the globe. These cases suggest that contemporary notions of environmental and social justice will largely hinge on how we come to think about water in the twenty-first century.

Building America

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean H. Baker
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Early Republic ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Water System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Early American ◽  
Transatlantic Exchange ◽  
The Us ◽  
Private Homes

Building America: The Life of Benjamin Henry Latrobe is a biography of America’s first professionally trained architect and engineer. Born in 1764, Latrobe was raised in Moravian communities in England and Germany. His parents expected him to follow his father and brother into the ministry, but he rebelled against the church. Moved to London, he studied architecture and engineering. In 1795 he emigrated to the United States and became part of the period’s Transatlantic Exchange. Latrobe soon was famous for his neoclassical architecture, designing important buildings, including the US Capitol and Baltimore Basilica as well as private homes. Carpenters and millwrights who built structures more cheaply and less permanently than Latrobe challenged his efforts to establish architecture as a profession. Rarely during his twenty-five years in the United States was he financially secure, and when he was, he speculated on risky ventures that lost money. He declared bankruptcy in 1817 and moved to New Orleans, the sixth American city that he lived in, hoping to recoup his finances by installing a municipal water system. He died there of yellow fever in 1820. The themes that emerge in this biography are the critical role Latrobe played in the culture of the early republic through his buildings and his genius in neoclassical design. Like the nation’s political founders, Latrobe was committed to creating an exceptional nation, expressed in his case by buildings and internal improvements. Additionally, given the extensive primary sources available for this biography, an examination of his life reveals early American attitudes toward class, family, and religion.

Smart Cities and Smart Regulation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anita Rønne
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
System Analysis ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Energy System ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Smart Regulation

Increasing focus on sustainable societies and ‘smart cities’ due to emphasis on mitigation of climate change is simultaneous with ‘smart regulation’ reaching the forefront of the political agenda. Consequently, the energy sector and its regulation are undergoing significant innovation and change. Energy innovations include transition from fossil fuels to more renewable energy sources and application of new computer technology, interactively matching production with consumer demand. Smart cities are growing and projects are being initiated for development of urban areas and energy systems. Analysis from ‘Smart Cities Accelerator’, developed under the EU Interreg funding programme that includes Climate-KIC,——provides background for the focus on a smart energy system. Analysis ensures the energy supply systems support the integration of renewables with the need for new technologies and investments. ‘Smart’ is trendy, but when becoming ‘smart’ leads to motivation that is an important step towards mitigating climate change.

The Historiography of Environmental History

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. R. McNeill
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental History ◽  
Industrial Pollution ◽  
Full Scale ◽  
Environmental Concerns ◽  
The Us ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter discusses the emergence of environmental history, which developed in the context of the environmental concerns that began in the 1960s with worries about local industrial pollution, but which has since evolved into a full-scale global crisis of climate change. Environmental history is ‘the history of the relationship between human societies and the rest of nature’. It includes three chief areas of inquiry: the study of material environmental history, political and policy-related environmental history, and a form of environmental history which concerns what humans have thought, believed, written, and more rarely, painted, sculpted, sung, or danced that deals with the relationship between society and nature. Since 1980, environmental history has come to flourish in many corners of the world, and scholars everywhere have found models, approaches, and perspectives rather different from those developed for the US context.

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