Role of Smart Cities in Optimizing Water-Energy-Food Nexus: Opportunities in Nagpur, India

Abstract

The evolving concept of ‘Smart Cities’ (SC) is today gaining global momentum in scientific and policy arenas. With the rising potential for jobs and improved lifestyle, these fast-growing cities are witnessing an ever-increasing concentration of populations and economic activities. However, the core aspect of sustainability is often overshadowed in SC by the components of economic growth. In view of the rising water, energy, and food (collectively referred to as WEF) demands in cities and the interlinkages between WEF systems, this study aims to highlight the role of SC in enhancing WEF resource efficiency from a nexus perspective. To study the current trends of SC developments first, a specific case of proposed Nagpur smart city (India) is reviewed based on document analysis and preliminary discussions with local government officials. Thereafter, bibliometric analysis (based on Scopus data) is conducted to establish a comprehensive understanding of existing SC research in varying domains of interlinked WEF systems. While the proposed Nagpur smart city is observably focused on city-centric goals with a high emphasis on infrastructure development, this study underlines the need for environmental resource conservation at a transboundary level. The key opportunities for optimizing the WEF nexus in Nagpur are then highlighted in reference to the bibliometric analysis.

Appraising the Water‐Energy‐Food Nexus From a Sustainable Development Perspective: A Maturing Paradigm?

“…Today, more than ever, urban residents are an increasingly influential class of transboundary consumers (Brekke & Brugmann, 2016; You, 2016). The demands of dense concentrations of people generate supply chains that extend well beyond urban administrative boundaries to influence the nexus, giving rise to the concept of the “transboundary environmental footprint” (Ramaswami, 2020; Schulterbrandt Gragg et al., 2018; Sukhwani et al., 2020). Indeed, the strong telecoupling of nexus resource flows from surrounding hinterlands serves as the lifeblood that sustains urban development (P. Zhang et al., 2019).…”

“…The development of smart cities also promises to improve the efficient utilization of nexus resources through enhanced data coverage, granularity, and analytics. For example, in Nagpur, India, city‐wide data gathering has enabled administrators to better understand demand and consumption dynamics (Sukhwani et al., 2020), whilst in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Big Data analytics and cross‐city data sharing have enhanced integrated risk management and action (You, 2016). The nexus can help foster preemptive planning for informal settlements, drive in‐situ upgrading, and legitimate multiple forms of iterative, adaptive, and collaborative multilevel governance (Chirisa & Bandauko, 2015).…”

Towards Circulating and Ecological Sphere in Urban Areas: An Indicator-Based Framework for Food-Energy-Water Security Assessment in Nagpur, India

“…On similar lines, a review of recent studies from 2011 onwards (as summarized in Table 1) shows that significant research has been conducted in the domain of FEW security. However, there were very few integrated studies on FEW security at a global or regional scale [5,[41][42][43][44]. On the other hand, the research trends at the local level reveal that FEW resources are being largely analyzed and addressed independently [24,[45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52].…”

“…Due to its strategic central location in India, it is well connected to other major cities through vast transport networks. Besides its political and geographical significance, it is also a prominent educational hub and has a rich natural resource base [44,54]. Because of the region's enormous orange production, it is also well known as the "City of Oranges" in India.…”

“…Meanwhile, the flow of FEW resources is separately governed and managed by different agencies [16,58]. Nagpur needs to leverage the interlinkages between FEW sectors to address this governance issue [44].…”