Belmont Forum Collaborative Research Food-Water-Energy Nexus: FEW-meter model to measure and improve urban agriculture, shifting it towards circular urban metabolism

全球许多城市都面临着管理食物、水和能源系统的严峻挑战。这些挑战源于这样一个事实，即粮食、水和能源问题往往彼此紧密联系，不仅是地方问题，而且是全球问题。这就是所谓的食物-水-能源(FWE)关系。当地水问题的有效解决可能会在当地造成新的粮食或能源问题，或者在全球范围内造成新的水问题。在地方范围内，很难预测在粮食、水和能源系统内，无论是在地方还是在全球范围内，一个问题的解决办法是否可持续。围绕这一联系的创新解决方案对于使城市能够更好地管理其食品、水和能源系统并了解不同解决方案的好处和权衡尤为重要。该奖项支持美国研究人员参与一个由29个国家通过联合贝尔蒙论坛-联合规划倡议(JPI)欧洲城市计划竞争性选择的项目。可持续城市化全球倡议(SUGI)/粮食-水-能源联系是一个多边倡议，旨在支持将全球各地零散的研究和专业知识聚集在一起的研究项目，以找到应对粮食-水-能源联系挑战的创新解决方案。这一呼吁寻求开发更具弹性、更实用的城市解决方案，以造福更广泛的利益相关者。世界人口的快速城市化突显了这一重点的重要性。邀请国际合作伙伴为这一挑战制定解决方案。申请的资金将用于支持美国参与者在财团中进行合作，财团由至少三个参与国的合作伙伴组成，并将自然科学家、社会科学家和研究用户(如公民社会、非政府组织和工业界)聚集在一起。来自其他国家的参与者通过其国家资助组织获得资助。该项目旨在调查扩大现有形式的都市农业是否会增加水和能源消耗并造成空气和水污染，从而加剧粮食-能源-水系统(FEWS)的压力。关于都市农业资源流动和影响的数据将在三年内从欧洲四个城市(多特蒙德、戈尔佐、伦敦和南特)和美国一个城市(纽约)的45个案例研究中收集和分析。该项目采用了定量和定性相结合的方法，包括资源使用的测量、物质流动分析、生命周期评估、从业者调查和设计方法。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。

Many cities across the globe are facing difficult challenges managing their food, water and energy systems. The challenges stem from the fact that the issues of food, water and energy are often tightly connected with each other, not only locally but also globally. This is known as the Food-Water-Energy (FWE) nexus. An effective solution to a local water problem may cause new local problems with food or energy, or cause new water problems at the global level. On a local scale, it is difficult to anticipate whether solutions to one issue in the nexus are sustainable across food, water and energy systems, both at the local and the global scale. Innovative solutions that encompass the nexus are particularly important to enable cities to better manage their food, water and energy systems and understand the benefits and tradeoffs for different solutions. This award supports U.S. researchers participating in a project competitively selected by a 29-country initiative through the joint Belmont Forum- Joint Programming Initiative (JPI) Urban Europe. The Sustainable Urbanization Global Initiative (SUGI)/Food-Water-Energy Nexus is a multilateral initiative designed to support research projects that bring together the fragmented research and expertise across the globe to find innovative solutions to the Food-Water-Energy Nexus challenge. The call seeks to develop more resilient, applied urban solutions to benefit a much wider range of stakeholders. The rapid urbanization of the world's population underscores the importance of this focus. International partners were invited to develop solutions for this challenge. The funds requested will be used to support U.S. participants to cooperate in consortia that consist of partners from at least three of the participating countries and that bring together natural scientists, social scientists and research users (e.g., civil society, NGOs, and industry). Participants from other countries are funded through their national funding organizations. This project seeks to investigate whether scaling up existing forms of urban agriculture could exacerbate pressures on food-energy-water systems (FEWs) by increasing water and energy consumption and contributing to air and water pollution. The project will employ an urban metabolism framework to create a comprehensive system to evaluate how different urban agriculture systems and practices perform with respect to food production and energy and water use and opportunities for increased efficiency. Data on the resource flows and impacts of urban agriculture will be gathered and analyzed over three years from 45 case studies in four cities in Europe (Dortmund, Gorzow, London, and Nantes) and one city in the U.S. (New York). The project uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, including the measurement of resource use, material flow analysis, life cycle assessment, practitioner surveys, and design methodologies.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.