Belmont Forum Collaborative Research Food-Water-Energy Nexus: Food-Energy-Water for Sustainable Urban Environments

全球许多城市都面临着管理食物、水和能源系统的艰巨挑战。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相连，不仅在地方，而且在全球。这就是所谓的食物-水-能源（FWE）关系。对局部水问题的有效解决可能会导致新的局部食物或能源问题，或在全球范围内引起新的水问题。在地方范围内，很难预测在地方和全球范围内，对一个问题的解决方案在粮食、水和能源系统中是否可持续。包含这些联系的创新解决方案对于使城市更好地管理其粮食、水和能源系统以及了解不同解决方案的利弊尤为重要。该奖项支持美国研究人员参与一个由29个国家通过贝尔蒙特论坛-欧洲城市联合规划倡议（JPI）竞标选出的项目。可持续城市化全球倡议(SUGI)/粮食-水-能源联系是一项多边倡议，旨在支持研究项目，将全球零散的研究和专业知识汇集在一起，为粮食-水-能源联系挑战找到创新解决方案。该呼吁旨在制定更具弹性、更适用的城市解决方案，使更广泛的利益攸关方受益。世界人口的迅速城市化突出了这一重点的重要性。邀请国际伙伴为这一挑战制定解决办法。所要求的资金将用于支持美国参与者在由至少三个参与国的合作伙伴组成的联盟中进行合作，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。其他国家的参与者通过其国家资助组织获得资助。该项目采用系统方法来了解城市粮食-水-能源系统，并量化提出的解决方案对季风地区（印度浦那）和半干旱地区（约旦安曼）的影响。将为每个区域开发模型，以捕捉用户、生产者、分配机制和资源之间的联系和反馈。该项目将与这些城市的广泛行动者一起，对未来环境、人口、土地利用和经济发展的变化进行描述，并在此基础上使用这些模型来制定和评估可实施的可持续性方案。可持续性生活实验室将帮助利益相关者确定克服可持续性和资源公平障碍的方法。项目框架是灵活的、可转让的，并广泛适用于城市粮食-水-能源挑战，预计这一平台将对许多地理区域有用，这些区域可以开发出适当的粮食-水-能源系统模型。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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. The project adopts a systems approach to understand urban food-water-energy systems and quantify the impacts of proposed solutions for monsoonal (Pune, India) and semi-arid regions (Amman, Jordan). Models for each region will be developed to capture connections and feedbacks among users, producers, distribution mechanisms, and resources. Together with a wide range of actors in these cities, the project will develop narratives of future changes in environment, demographics, land use, and economic development, under which the models will be used to develop and evaluate implementable sustainability options. Sustainability Living Labs will aid stakeholders to identify means to overcome impediments to sustainability and resource equity. The project framework is flexible, transferrable, and broadly applicable to the urban-food-water-energy challenges and it is anticipated that this platform will be useful to many geographic regions where adequate models of the food-water-energy system can be developed.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.