The integrated modelling framework developed by SUNEX analyses alternative development pathways, showing the impacts on the supply and demand for food, water and energy different scenarios. The project offers decision-makers a set of policy guidelines that produce “win-win” outcomes that fight climate change and make urban food, water and energy systems more efficient.
In the fight against climate change, combining Green and Blue Infrastructure (GBI) planning strategies with urban systems integration is a promising strategy for reducing carbon emissions and waste production whilst strengthening cities’ ecosystem services. The IFWEN project fills an important knowledge gap by demonstrating which types of GBI and ecoservice are connected, as well as showing policy makers how GBI can be used as an instrument for transformative change.
Building on more than 30 published academic papers and extensive modelling the METABOLIC project proves possible energy- and water gains from treating food, water and energy as interrelated systems and delivers recommendations to policy makers on national as well as local level in Brazil, Taiwan and Japan.
Combining data and modelling with an ethnographic approach, the ENLARGE project demonstrates why a nexus approach to urban heating (integrating energy and water systems) can decrease reliance on oil and gas, increase energy security, and mitigate risks such as water stress and social conflict. Project outputs include an optimisation model that determines which heat technologies produce the lowest carbon emissions and provides relevant data for decision-making at the neighbourhood scale and determining city level emissions.
What are the benefits of targeting food in the food-water-energy nexus? Is is time to govern these resources differently in cities? The Creating Interfaces project has carried out international research on how food, energy and water systems interact (as a nexus) in three cities: Slupsk (Poland) Tulcea (Romania) and Wilmington (U.S.A). We met with Pia Laborgne and Iulian Nichersu to learn from their popular results.
Our second year under the Covid pandemic comes soon to an end and we are still stuck between online meetings and some first opportunities to meet again onsite, exploring ways of how to establish a new normal of transnational cooperation. At the same time the attention on climate neutral, inclusive, and regenerative cities has been growing this year.
Many cities need to drastically lower their CO2 emissions whilst meeting an ever-growing demand for carbon intensive resources. The M-NEX (Movable Nexus) project argues that by focusing on their food, water, and energy systems (FEW), cities can create circular economies and simultaneously reduce their carbon emissions. We interviewed Professor Wanglin Yan, the project coordinator for M-NEX, about the methodology and tools they developed.
The Vertical Green 2.0 project has developed tools to predict the cooling potentials of vertical greenings and their water demands to better understand and manage vertical greening as a viable source of food and energy. “What makes vertical greening so interesting is that it can contribute to numerous urban transitions”, says one of the project coordinators Karin Hoffmann. The project results help answer one of the big questions on this topic, namely why vertical greening has not been applied on a large scale before despite its promising nature.
Upscaled aquaponics (the water-reusing production of fish and crops) can produce a relevant contribution to a city’s sustainability. The project CITYFOOD investigates the potential of upscaled urban aquaponics to meet the demands of growing urban population. The project developed different models and utilised living labs in Brazil, Norway, and Germany.