An extended environmental input–output lifecycle assessment model to study the urban food–energy–water nexus

Abstract

We developed a physically-based environmental account of US food production systems and integrated these data into the environmental input-output life cycle assessment (EIO-LCA) model. The extended model was used to characterize the food, energy, and water (FEW) intensities of every US economic sector. The model was then applied to every Bureau of Economic Analysis metropolitan statistical area (MSA) to determine their FEW usages.The extended EIO-LCA model can determine the water resource use (kGal), energy resource use (TJ), and food resource use in units of mass (kg) or energy content (kcal) of any economic activity within the United States. We analyzed every economic sector to determine its FEW intensities per dollar of economic output. This data was applied to each of the 382 MSAs to determine their total and per dollar of GDP FEW usages by allocating MSA economic production to the corresponding FEW intensities of US economic sectors. Additionally, a longitudinal study was performed for the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA, metropolitan statistical area to examine trends from this singular MSA and compare it to the overall results.Results show a strong correlation between GDP and energy use, and between food and water use across MSAs. There is also a correlation between GDP and greenhouse gas emissions. The longitudinal study indicates that these correlations can shift alongside a shifting industrial composition. Comparing MSAs on a per GDP basis reveals that central and southern California tend to be more resource intensive than many other parts of the country, while much of Florida has abnormally low resource requirements.Results of this study enable a more complete understanding of food, energy, and water as key ingredients to a functioning economy. With the addition of the food data to the EIO-LCA framework, researchers will be able to better study the food-energy-water nexus and gain insight into how these three vital resources are interconnected. Applying this extended model to MSAs has demonstrated that all three resources are important to a MSA's vitality, though the exact proportion of each resource may differ across urban areas.© 2017 IOP Publishing Ltd Environ. Res. Lett. 12 (2017) 105003 This urbanization affects sustainable development, as urban residents have higher consumption patterns than their rural counterparts. For instance, in 2011 US urban households spent $7808 (18%) more on consumer expenditures compared to rural households [2]. Urban households also generally use more energy per square foot than rural households [3]. From 2000 to 2010 the US urban population increased by 12.1%, which was higher than the nation's overall growth rate of 9.7% during that same period [4]. Metropolitan areas cannot be sustainable if their consumption of food, energy, and water continues to increase with their growing population.The production and use of FEW are distinctly interconnected. Water is essential for the growing, cleaning, and processing of food. Energy is vital for food production as it pow...

Urban food–energy–water systems: past, current, and future research trajectories

“…In the third paper in the collection, Sherwood et al (2017) calculate the relative FEW intensities of metropolitan areas in the United States using the environmental input-output life cycle assessment (EIO-LCA) model. The research team analyzed every economic sector to determine FEW intensities-water resource use (kgal), energy resource use (TJ), and food resource use (kg and kcal)-for the 382 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs).…”

Using the Machine Learning Method to Study the Environmental Footprints Embodied in Chinese Diet

“…A large number of scholars have carried out relevant research on the environmental footprint of the food system, mainly focusing on quantitative analysis, influencing factor analysis, and including multiple research scales such as global, national, and regional [ 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ]. The Lancet once proposed a plan for the Planetary Health Diet, suggesting that we protect the environment and improve human health by reducing the production and consumption of red meat [ 27 ].…”

Evaluation on the Efficiency of Water-Energy-Food Nexus Based on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Malmquist in Different Regions of China

“…Numerous studies on W-E-F nexus focus on interaction [4,14,15], one-way efficiency [16][17][18] and the nexus between the two resources [19]. For example, water, energy, and food are included in the same system study [3], sustainable development [3,4,[20][21][22], energy utilization efficiency [20,23], and water-food coupled relationship.…”