INFEWS/T3: Social-ecological-technological solutions to waste reuse in food, energy, and water systems (ReFEWS)

在一个不断变化的世界中，我们传统上赖以提供食物、能源和水的系统现在面临着越来越大的气候、极端事件和不断恶化的基础设施造成破坏的风险。然而，我们重新利用材料并提高其转化效率的能力的进步，现在使我们能够开发创新的解决方案，以实现食品、能源和水系统(FEWS)的综合生产格局。该项目使用美国西部蛇河上游的农业景观和社区来衡量FEWS(包括工业和城市系统)的能量输入、内部流动和输出的使用情况，以确定如何最好地重新回收和再利用物质和能量流动(ReFEWS)。研究小组与利益相关者咨询小组(SAG)密切合作，该小组由社区、行业和机构经理组成，降低了食品、能源和水的动态，以便在正确的时间在正确的地点应用最好的回收技术。然后，该团队对在景观范围内应用这些技术的成本和权衡进行建模。ReFEWS项目是对国家政策目标的直接回应，这些目标寻求创建有弹性的社区和景观，以此作为促进可持续粮食和能源生产以及最终安全的一种方式。为了确保研究在确保可翻译产品的同时推进基础科学，研究团队使用了学术研究、利益相关者参与以及协调教育和外展三个层次的系统。研究通过对三个组成部分进行建模来表征上游蛇形FEWS的社会新陈代谢效率：1.营养、能量和水的使用和再利用的优化参数；2.健壮性，即在一系列环境条件下通过技术干预修改FEWS的能力；3.弹性，即在一段时间内以及在改变社会和环境条件的分水岭中维持FEWS使用和重复使用的能力。使用系统方法，这项研究结合了几个必须同时考虑的关键组成部分：a.人类获取物质和能量的行为；即食物、能源和水资源；b.支持这些行为的基础设施和系统，包括技术干预；c.管理食物、能量和水的使用和浪费的热力学原理(即，熵)；d.营养物质、能量或水的流动，以最小化系统熵；e.营养物质和能量以废物流的形式流出有限的系统；f.社会控制，以鼓励或强制执行最小化系统熵的行为。研究问题1检验这样一种假设，即来自粮食和农业生产的废物和资源流大于家庭消费的废物和资源流，农业生态部门的变化可能对整个少数系统的复原力产生最大影响。研究问题2检验了这样一种假设，即没有任何一种技术适合或足以管理给定的废物流，而考虑到二次和三次废物产品的综合回收系统对优化FEWS最有用。研究问题3测试了这样一种假设，即限制最小化系统熵和浪费的主要不是技术接口(即，缺乏工程解决方案)，而是采用/社会接口。

In a changing world the systems we have traditionally relied on to deliver food, energy and water are now challenged by increasing risks of disruption from climate, extreme events and deteriorating infrastructure. However, advances in our ability to re-use materials and improve the efficiency of their transformation now allow us to develop innovative solutions toward an integrated production landscape for the food, energy and water system (FEWS). This project uses the coupled agricultural landscapes and communities of the Upper Snake River in the American West to measure the use of energy inputs, internal flows, and outputs of the FEWS (including industrial and urban systems) to determine how best to re-claim and re-use matter and energy flows (ReFEWS). Working closely with a Stakeholder Advisory Group (SAG), consisting of community, industry and agency mangers, the research team downscales food, energy and water dynamics so as to apply the best reclamation technologies in right place at the right time. The team then models the costs and trade-offs of applying these technologies at the landscape scale. The ReFEWS project is in direct response to national policy goals that seek to create resilient communities and landscapes as a way to promote sustainable food and energy production, and ultimately security. To ensure that the research advances basic science while ensuring translatable products, the research team uses a three tiered system of academic research, stakeholder engagement and coordinated education and outreach.The research characterizes the efficiency of the socio-metabolism of the Upper Snake FEWS by modeling three components: 1. the optimization parameters of nutrient, energy, and water use and reuse; 2. robustness, or the capacity to modify the FEWS through technological intervention under a range of environmental conditions; 3. and resilience, the ability to sustain configurations of FEWS use and reuse in a watershed over time and in changing social and environmental conditions. Using a systems approach, the research incorporates several key components that must be considered concurrently: a. Human behaviors for acquiring matter and energy; i.e., food, energy, and water resources; b. Infrastructure and systems that support those behaviors, including technological interventions; c. thermodynamic principles governing food, energy, and water use and waste (i.e., entropy); d. The flows of nutrients, energy, or water to minimize system entropy; e. The flow of nutrients and energy out of bounded systems in the form of waste streams and, f. The social controls to encourage or enforce behaviors that minimize system entropy. Research question 1 tests the hypothesis that waste and resource streams from food and agricultural production are greater than waste and resource streams for domestic household consumption, and changes to the agro-ecological sector can have the largest influence on the resilience of the overall FEW system. Research question 2 tests the hypothesis that no single technology is appropriate or sufficient for managing a given waste stream, and integrated recovery systems that account for secondary and tertiary waste products are the most useful for optimizing a FEWS. Research question 3 tests the hypothesis that constraints on minimizing system entropy and waste are not primarily at the technological interface (i.e., a lack of engineering solutions) but at the adoption/social interface.