Modeling and Optimization of Sustainable and ResilienT FEW (MOST FEW) Networks

食物、能源和水(少数几个)系统与高度的相互依存和相互联系密不可分。这个项目的总体目标是开发一个系统级的建模和优化框架，以了解少数几个联系的可持续性、复原力和结构，重点是美国国家粮食系统。该项目旨在结合具体的水和能量流动，提供对美国国内食品流动网络的弹性的了解，进而深入了解少数几个网络的生态、行为、可持续性和弹性。该项目侧重于三个主要研究目标。第一个目标是考察美国的国家食品体系，重点是州际食品贸易。具体地说，该项目将通过合并、整合和协调公开的关于国内粮食生产、贸易和生命周期环境影响的数据集，对与贸易食品相关的具体化水和能源进行建模。第二个目标将侧重于开发和应用现有的和新的基于网络理论的技术和指标，以了解美国少数几个网络的整体拓扑、可持续和弹性。第三个目标将开发和应用基于最优化的方法，以便对少数系统进行可持续和有弹性的设计。具体地说，它将允许整合来自网络科学和优化技术的信息，以确定和评估加强少数几个联系的可持续性和复原力的干预措施。通过将国内食品贸易、体现水和能量流动的数据与网络理论和基于优化的工具和技术相结合，该项目寻求为高度集成的少数系统发现新的可持续性和弹性见解以及机会。将查明这几个联系的相互依存性、互联性和脆弱性，这将有助于规划这些综合系统的可持续管理。这项研究旨在为理解和支持这几个联系的可持续性和复原力作出两项重大贡献。首先，需要了解这几个联系的结构，描述其相互联系、相互依存和脆弱之处。第二，将制定严格的优化方法，以优化国内粮食贸易网络的结构，以期增强其可持续性和复原力。这项研究旨在通过将网络理论技术与严格的基于优化的方法和面向生命周期的方法相结合，在满足了解少数节点的可持续性和弹性方面发挥关键作用。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Food, energy and water (FEW) systems are inextricably linked with high degrees of interdependence and interconnectedness. The overall goal of this project is to develop a systems-level modeling and optimization framework to understand the sustainability, resilience, and structure of the FEW nexus with a focus on the U.S. national food system. The project is targeted to provide an understanding of the resilience of the U.S. domestic food flow network in conjunction with embodied water and energy flows, leading in turn to insight into the ecology, behavior, sustainability, and resilience of the FEW nexus.The project focuses on three main research objectives. The first objective examines the U.S. national food system with an emphasis on inter-state food trade. Specifically, the project will model the embodied water and energy associated with traded food by combining, integrating, and reconciling publically available data sets on domestic food production, trade, and life cycle environmental impacts. The second objective will focus on developing and applying existing and novel network theory based techniques and metrics to understand the overall topology, sustainable, and resilience of the U.S. FEW networks. The third objective will develop and apply optimization-based approaches for sustainable and resilient design of FEW systems. Specifically, it will permit the integration of information from network science and optimization techniques for identifying and evaluating interventions for enhancing the sustainability and resilience of the FEW nexus. By combining data on domestic food trade, embodied water and energy flows with network theory and optimization-based tools and techniques, the project seeks to discover novel sustainability and resilience insights, and opportunities for the highly integrated FEW systems. Interdependencies, interconnectedness, and vulnerable points of the FEW nexus will be identified, which will support planning for the sustainable management of these integrated systems. The research aims to result in two significant contributions towards understanding and supporting the sustainability and resilience of the FEW nexus. First, an understanding of the structure of the FEW nexus is to be developed, describing its interconnectedness, interdependencies, and vulnerable points. Second, rigorous optimization-based approaches for optimizing the structure of the domestic food trade network will be developed, with a view towards enhancing its sustainability and resilience. The research aims to play a pivotal role in satisfying the need for understanding sustainability and resilience of the FEW nexus via integration of network theory techniques with rigorous optimization-based approaches and life cycle oriented methods.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.