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 Environ. Res. Lett. 14 (2019) 073003 https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab0767

TOPICAL REVIEW

A 40 -year review of food–energy–water nexus literature and its

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application to the urban scale
RECEIVED
8 August 2018
Joshua P Newell1,3 , Benjamin Goldstein1 and Alec Foster2
REVISED 1
13 February 2019
School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan, 440 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, United States of America
2
Department of Geography, Geology, and the Environment, Illinois State University, Campus Box 4400, Illinois State University Normal,
ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION
IL 61790-4400, United States of America
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Authors to whom any correspondence should be addressed.
PUBLISHED
9 July 2019 E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected]

Keywords: food, energy, water, nexus, urban metabolism, literature review

Original content from this
work may be used under Supplementary material for this article is available online
the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution 3.0
licence.
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this work must maintain
attribution to the
Essential for society to function, the production and consumption of food, energy, and water (FEW)
author(s) and the title of are deeply intertwined, leading to calls for a nexus approach to understand and manage the complex
the work, journal citation
and DOI. tradeoffs and cascading effects. What research exists to date on this FEW nexus? How have scholars
conceptualized these interactions at the urban scale? What are some promising approaches? Where
are the research gaps? To answer these questions, we conducted a quantitative review of the academic
literature on the FEW nexus (1399 publications) over more than four decades (1973–2017), followed
by in-depth analysis of the most influential papers using an evaluation matrix that examined four
components: 1) modeling approach; 2) scale; 3) nexus ‘trigger’; and 4) governance and policy. Scholars
in the fields of environmental science predominated, while social science domains were under-
represented. Most papers used quantitative rather than qualitative approaches, especially integrated
assessment and systems dynamics modeling although spatial scale was generally recognized, explicit
consideration of multi-scalar interactions was limited. Issues of institutional structure, governance,
equity, resource access, and behavior were also underdeveloped. Bibliometric analysis of this literature
revealed six distinct research communities, including a nascent urban FEW community. We
replicated the analysis for this urban group, finding it to be just emerging (80% of papers have been
published since 2010) and dominated by scholars in industrial ecology. These scholars focus on
quantifying FEW flows of the urban metabolism in isolation rather than as a nexus, largely ignoring
the political and socio-economic factors shaping these flows. We propose the urban FEW metabolism
as a boundary object to draw in diverse scholarly and practitioner communities. This will advance
research on complex FEW systems in four key areas: (1) integration of heterogeneous models and
approaches; (2) scalar linkages between urban consumption and trans-boundary resource flows;
(3) how actors and institutions shape resource access, distribution and use; and (4) co-production of
knowledge with stakeholders.

1. Introduction (Woiciechowski et al 2016). Oil palm, an ingredient in

an array of products (e.g. shampoo, cosmetics, cleaning
Society has a legion of unfortunate examples in which a agents, and toothpaste), is becoming the edible oil
‘solution’ to an environmental or development chal- of choice for much of the world (USDA—Foreign
lenge ends up creating new, often unforeseen problems Agricultural Service 2017). Palm biodiesel is also a
and dilemmas. Let us consider the example of palm oil popular, cost-effective substitute for carbon emitting
(figure 1). The oil palm tree originates from Africa fossil fuels (Obidzinski et al 2012). However, to plant it,
but flourishes in any tropical climate and produces Indonesia has cleared rainforests and carbon-rich peat-
higher yields per hectare than any other oilseed crop lands, helping the country become the world’s fifth

© 2019 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd

Environ. Res. Lett. 14 (2019) 073003 J P Newell et al

Figure 1. Oil palm mill and plantation in Sumatra, Indonesia. Oil palm production–consumption exemplifies tradeoffs between food,
energy, and water. Source: Paul Hilton, National Audubon Society.

largest emitter of greenhouse gases. Oil palm planta- processes are simultaneously ecological, physical,
tions negatively affect the water quality of freshwater socio-economic, and political. Nexus approaches
streams, upon which millions of people depend necessitate successful interdisciplinary and transdisci-
(Carlson et al 2014). Then there are the impacts on plinary collaboration, but also a clear understanding
biological diversity, as conversion from tropical forests of what is included (and excluded) in a particular FEW
to plantations has greatly reduced habitat for study—for fear of repeating unintended consequences
species such as the endangered Sumatran Orangutan the nexus approach was designed to avoid. Indeed,
(Fitzherbert et al 2008, Kubitza et al 2018). these interactions have become interconnected in
The palm oil tale is not unique. Rather, it typifies ways that we have not yet mapped, delineated, or even
the perils and folly of developing policies and technol- understood (Howells et al 2013).
ogies for one sector (e.g. palm as low-carbon energy The purpose of this review paper is threefold. First,
source or developmental cash crop), without con- we take stock of FEW research over the past four dec-
sidering the impacts in other realms (Searchinger et al ades (1973–2017). How have scholars and researchers
2008). It exemplifies the tradeoffs and cascading studied the interactions of FEW systems? And for how
effects between food (e.g. palm oil), energy (e.g. biodie- long? What are some promising approaches and how
sel), and water (e.g. water pollution). Unfortunately, have identified challenges been addressed? In contrast
these resources have traditionally been managed as to reviews of FEW nexus scholarship that are largely
independent sectors. Similarly, research streams— conceptual (e.g. Leck et al 2015), our literature review
food supply and use, water supply and use, energy use, employs a quantitative and evidence-based approach.
ecosystem health, socio-economic welfare, land use This approach follows some excellent recent reviews
considerations and governance—reflect particular of the FEW nexus, such as the comprehensive evalua-
disciplinary silos and topical foci and have often tion of FEW methods by Albrecht et al (2018). We use
emerged in isolation from each other. bibliometric analysis to catalog FEW literature and
As an antidote, the scholarly and policy commu- identify important research communities, influential
nities have called for a ‘nexus’ approach between food, authors, and topical foci. Then, based on this biblio-
energy, and water (FEW) to better identify unintended metric review and informed by expert judgment, we
impacts and potential synergies within and across analyze 20 influential papers across four categories:
these three sectors (Bazilian et al 2011, World Eco- (1) Nexus analytic/modeling approach; (2) study scale
nomic Forum 2011, Bizikova et al 2013, Mukuve and (geographic and temporal); (3) FEW system ‘trigger’
Fenner 2015). This is admirable and necessary. How- or catalyst; and (4) governance.
ever, effectively doing so is another matter. FEW sys- Motivated by the findings in the bibliometric ana-
tems interact across a dizzying array of spatial and lysis, the second half of the paper focuses on an emer-
temporal scales; they are frequently both local and glo- ging body of scholarship on FEW systems at the urban
bal, immediate and delayed (Ericksen 2008). FEW scale. Cities are hotbeds for complex FEW system

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Environ. Res. Lett. 14 (2019) 073003 J P Newell et al

interactions and they have become the dominant 2.1.1. Bibliometric analysis
global demand drivers for flows of all types (Grimm We then imported the dataset into Bibexcel, free
et al 2008, Cordell et al 2009, McDonald et al 2014, software specifically designed for analyzing biblio-
Kennedy et al 2015, Ramaswami et al 2017). Globaliza- metric data (Perrson et al 2009). We used Bibexcel to
tion processes have intertwined urban areas with generate a co-citation network. Co-citation analysis
distant geographies through the exchange of not only enables one to identify influential publications and
FEW, but materials, capital, people, and the like (Seto relationships within and between a body of publica-
et al 2012, Yu et al 2013, Hubacek et al 2014). To tions (Zhao and Strotmann 2015). Co-citation analysis
analyze this subset of FEW systems research, we essen- requires a lag time for publications to be cited together
tially replicate the methodological approach used for (Small 1997, Noyons 2001). We used Gephi, open-
the broader FEW review: (1) bibliometric analysis of source network analysis software, to visualize and
the literature; and (2) identification and analysis of analyze the results using a Force Atlas algorithm,
influential papers (10 total) using the same four eva- which clusters nodes based on the density of
luation categories. links (Bastian et al 2009). To identify FEW research
Finally, we consider how these literatures and communities in the dataset, we applied the
insights could help craft a coherent, integrative community-detection algorithm (Blondel et al 2008)
research agenda for urban FEW systems moving for- in Gephi. Generally, high modularity scores indicate
ward. We propose using urban metabolism (UM) as the presence of communities within a network (New-
an interdisciplinary boundary concept to help inte- man 2006, Shibata et al 2009). Once communities were
grate complex interactions, disciplines, and stake- identified, we labeled their respective research
holders. Through shared language and empirical domains by examining the articles within them.
focus, boundary objects enable the natural science,
social science, and engineering communities to com- 2.1.2. Influential paper analysis
municate and collaborate more effectively. Each dis- Although relatively comprehensive, the WOS database
cipline offers particular strengths necessary to is primarily limited to English-language publications
understand FEW systems dynamics and interactions. and it excludes most books and virtually all ‘gray’
literature publications. WOS also excludes numerous
journals, such as Sustainable Production and Consump-
2. Methods tion, which has published a special issue devoted to
FEW systems (Azapagic 2015). Moreover, important
To understand science and its underlying social and FEW systems research to date has been conducted not
intellectual structure, it is useful to map ‘scholarly only by academics but also by governments, nonpro-
communities’ and their relationships to one another fits, and those in the private sector. To capture this
(Small 1997, Zhao and Strotmann 2015). To do so important literature, we used the same WOS search
for the academic literature on the FEW nexus, we strings in Google, limiting our results to the first 100
conducted a quantitative analysis of English-language entries. Unfortunately, it is not possible capture the
publications over a 44 year period (1973–2017) using citations of ‘gray’ literature publications so they can be
Thomson Reuters’ (2017) Web of Science™ (WOS) included in a bibliometric analysis.
citation index. We created two separate literature However, this evaluation of the gray literature was
datasets: one on general FEW nexus research as a instrumental in identifying influential publications on
whole and one specifically focused on urban FEW the FEW nexus. Informed by this review, the co-cita-
research. To generate each, we used a different set tion analysis, and our own assessment, we selected
of search strings to mine the titles, abstracts, and twenty publications for deeper analysis. Seven were
keywords of all English-language publications in ‘conceptual’ papers that proposed new ways to model
the WOS. and understand the FEW-nexus generally, and thir-
teen were case studies.
2.1. General FEW nexus literature For the selected papers, we used an evaluation
The general FEWs dataset totaled 1399 publications, matrix to highlight their respective methodological,
based on the WOS search string ‘food AND energy topical and conceptual attributes using four criteria:
AND water AND systems.’ The search string was (1) FEW ‘trigger’; (2) Nexus modeling approach;
constructed over numerous iterations, developing a (3) Study scale; and (4) Governance. A FEW trigger or
broad range of keywords to include as many possible catalyst refers to an initial pressure on one FEW sector
publications on the FEW nexus. For example, ‘food triggered by demographic evolution, technology shift
AND energy AND water AND nexus’ yielded just 193 or other exogenous change that produces ripples and
citations. We excluded articles in the medical and reverberations through the broader FEW network. An
health sciences (e.g. neurosciences, pharmacology, example is how growing car ownership in a country
zoology, and nutrition dietetics) that did not discuss could spur biofuel production, affecting the avail-
relevant dimensions of the FEW nexus. Excluded ability of land for food and water for irrigation. Here,
articles totaled 965 articles for this dataset. energy would be the trigger for shifts in the food and

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Environ. Res. Lett. 14 (2019) 073003 J P Newell et al

Figure 2. Academic publications on the food–energy–water nexus, 1988–2016.

water systems. Nexus modeling approach considers: 2016 alone, there were 213 such publications from a
(a) the general frameworks deployed to conceptualize range of journals, including Science (45 total), Nature
the nexus; and (b) the specific analytical tools (e.g. (18), Biomass & Bioenergy (14), Environmental Science
Integrated Assessment Modeling) couched within and Technology (13), and Proceedings of the Natural
those frameworks or used standalone to investigate the Academy of Sciences (12). Broken down by discipline
nexus. More precisely, frameworks combine FEW- (WOS-designated) for the entire 1399-publication
nexus conceptual models with analytical and decision- dataset, the top fields are Environmental Sciences (367
making approaches to identify nexus challenges and publications), Energy & Fuels (206), Ecology (189),
craft strategies to address these challenges. Study scale Water Resources (124), and Green & Sustainable
includes both the geographic scope (i.e. global, regio- Science & Technology (120).
nal, national, sub-national or urban) and temporal The co-citation analysis of the FEW dataset reveals
scale (s) of the FEW study. Governance and policy six distinct scholarly communities or clusters, based on
assesses the degree to which the studies considered, for their content coverage (figure 3). Ordered by size, we
example, the role of formal and informal institutions have labeled these clusters as follows: (1) FEW (136
in shaping FEW systems. nodes, Purple); (2) Energy–Food (81 nodes, Green); (3)
Food (60 nodes, Blue); (4) Energy-Biofuels (49 nodes,
2.2. Urban FEW nexus analysis Yellow); (5) Ecology (49 nodes, Orange); and (6) Urban
The citation analysis of the FEWs literature identified FEW (42 nodes, Pink). These nodes are effectively pub-
an emergent community focused on FEW systems at lications and the supplementary information (available
the urban scale. To analyze, this community in more at stacks.iop.org/ERL/14/073003/mmedia) provides a
detail, we essentially replicated the methods (biblio- complete list of them. As indicated, although the WOS
metric analysis and influential paper analysis) used for search based on keywords yielded these papers, many
the broader FEW literature. We generated an Urban only tangentially addressed all three (FEW).
FEWs dataset based on the search string ‘food AND The largest cluster (FEW (Pink)) also best represents
energy AND water AND (city OR cities OR urban).’ an integrated nexus-based approach. Prominent nodes
This search yielded 213 publications and we con- are publications by Bazilian et al (2011) and Howells et al
ducted the bibliometric analysis using the same steps. (2013), both of which are included in our 20 influential
To identify influential papers on urban FEWs, we used publications analysis. In total, seven such publications
a more simplified approach. We simply selected the come from this cluster. Notable journals include Science,
ten most cited papers based on the bibliometric Ecology and Society, and Energy Policy.
analysis and analyzed them using the same evaluation The Energy–Food cluster (Green) largely focuses on
matrix as for the broader FEW papers. links between food production, land use change, and
GHG emissions. The two most prominent nodes are
Fargione et al (2008) and Searchinger et al (2008). Both
3. Results: meta-analysis of FEW research papers address the GHGs implications of clearing land
for biofuels. Prominent journals in this cluster include
Based on our meta-analysis, research on the FEW Biomass & Bioenergy, Science, and Agriculture, Ecosystems
nexus is a relatively recent area of inquiry. The first & Environment. The Food Cluster (blue) is similar but
publication did not appear until 1988; it documented more broadly focused on the environmental and energy
how changes to precipitation under climate change impacts of agriculture. The two most prominent nodes
would affect energy production in Ontario, Canada are the Tilman et al (2002) paper on agricultural sustain-
(Cohen and Allsopp 1988). But as figure 2 illustrates, ability and the Foley et al (2005) paper on global land use.
the FEW research domain has expanded rapidly. In Notable non-journal publications include the IPCC

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Environ. Res. Lett. 14 (2019) 073003 J P Newell et al

Figure 3. Six scholarly communities of food–energy–water research, 1973–2017. This co-citation network illustrates influential nodes
(papers) and their edges (links to other papers). Each node represents a publication that has been cited together with another
publication in the dataset. The links (‘edges’) illustrate the connections between nodes that are cited together. Nodes connected by
edges also attract each other, so that the more nodes in a community are connected, the denser it becomes. Similarly, the distance
between communities is determined by the number and size of connections between them. These scholarly communities are often
highly disciplinary.

Working Group 1 report and an edited volume on micro-algae and related biofuels (e.g. Chisti
water–food by the International Water Management 2007, 2008, Schenk et al 2008). The community was
Institute (2007). Prominent journals include Science, Phi- the tightest in the sense that almost all of the nodes
losophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, and were connected to each other (i.e. almost all of the
Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment. papers were cited together). Influential nodes include
Energy-Biofuels (Gray), the fourth largest com- papers by Chisti (2007, 2008) and Chen et al (2008).
munity, focuses in particular on energy from Prominent journals include Bioresource Technology,

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Environ. Res. Lett. 14 (2019) 073003 J P Newell et al

Biotechnology Advances, and Applied Energy. The Ecol- dynamics (SD), a simpler method to mathematically
ogy (Orange) cluster is more tenuously connected to model sub-system interactions and emergent system-
FEWs, with emphases on ecosystem services (Cost- level behavior. Foran (2015) suggested using SD to
anza et al 1997), biodiversity (Loreau et al 2001, Hoo- model nexus behavior, and then combining this with
per et al 2005), and food web dynamics (Polis et al critical social science theories to explain the drivers
1997). This lack of connection is reflected by the com- (e.g. demographic shifts, development agendas, etc)
paratively few links with other communities (figure 3). and power dynamics that shape the nexus. Simpler
Papers by Polis and McCann are influential nodes, as than SD is the water footprint method, which accounts
are seminal ecology papers by Odum (1969) and Hol- for the water needed to provide goods or services. Hoff
ling (1973). Prominent journals include Ecology, Nat- (2011) proposed applying this method to energy and
ure, and Science. food production as a means to capture the water–food
The smallest of the six clusters focused on Urban and water–energy interactions.
Food–Energy–Water (Pink). Prominent journals Systems thinking can also take qualitative forms.
include Science, Energy Policy, and The Proceedings of To illustrate the nexus, Miara et al (2014) and Bizikova
the National Academy of Sciences. Many of the promi- et al (2013) used discussions of the subsystems and
nent authors in this community overlap with those their interactions supported by numerical evidence
from the analysis of the Urban FEWs literature dataset, from the literature. The ‘Urban Nexus Approach’
which is discussed in section 4. (Vogt et al 2014) is also primarily qualitative, though
fused with a participatory design agenda (to alleviate
3.1. FEW conceptual papers nexus stress) and management science tools (to moni-
We analyzed seven influential papers that conceptua- tor progress towards goals).
lized and proposed analytical frameworks to charac-
terize, understand, and model the FEW nexus. Six 3.1.2. FEW trigger
came from the academic literature in the WOS- The FEW trigger precipitates change throughout the
defined disciplines of Environmental Sciences (Miara nexus. For instance, Miara et al (2014) showed how
et al 2014, Kraucunas et al 2015), Environmental scaling-up production of algal biofuel requires land,
Studies (Bizikova et al 2013, Foran 2015), Water water, fertilizer and energy inputs and, in the process,
Resources (Hoff 2011), and Economics (Bazilian et al triggers changes to a region’s food production capa-
2011). Of these six, four appear in the FEW cluster of city, and energy and water demands. The provision of
the co-citation analysis, and two were added based water (Bizikova et al 2013), energy (Bazilian et al 2011,
upon our assessment of their importance to the Wagner and Breil 2013, Miara et al 2014), and food
academic FEW literature. One came from the ‘gray’ (Hoff 2011) all served as FEW triggers of system-wide
literature (Vogt et al 2014). In theory, all the reviews change. Often there are multiple triggers: simulta-
placed interdisciplinarity at the core of the FEW neous growth in demand for FEW. Thus, identifying a
research agenda based on the rationale that the breadth single trigger is usually a modeling or conceptual
of challenges was beyond the requisite knowledge of a simplification (Hoff 2011).
single researcher or discipline (Bazilian et al 2011). In
practice, social science was under-represented and 3.1.3. Study scale
there was a preference for quantitative (rather than FEW systems operate across multiple scales. For
qualitative) methods. This mirrors the findings of the instance, river systems can sprawl across multiple
FEW review by Albrecht et al (2018) which found that administrative scales and climatic regions. Although
nearly three-quarters of the studies relied on quantita- most conceptual papers acknowledged the importance
tive approaches. of a multi-scalar perspective, when actualized, this was
underdeveloped. Many of the papers prioritized a
3.1.1. Nexus modeling approach single scale, ranging from project site (Bizikova et al
Each paper proposed an approach to model nexus 2013) to administrative (e.g. city, nation) (Vogt et al
interactions. As the nexus consists of individual 2014) to ecological (river basin, watershed) (Foran
components interacting in unforeseen ways, systems 2015, Kraucunas et al 2015).
thinking dominated the modeling approaches. For
instance, Integrated Assessment Models (IAM) use 3.1.4. Governance and policy
data-heavy mathematical representations to capture Governance (i.e. how institutions shape or manage
the interplay of agriculture, energy, hydrology, and FEW systems) was a key theme in five of the conceptual
climate systems at large scales (e.g. nation, region, or papers (Bazilian et al 2011, Hoff 2011, Bizikova et al
global). The Climate–Land–Energy–Water (CLEW) 2013, Vogt et al 2014, Foran 2015). But precisely how
(Bazilian et al 2011) and Platform for Regional this would be tackled in predominantly quantitative
Integrated Modeling and Analysis (PRIMA) (Kraucu- frameworks was not clear, even to some review authors
nas et al 2015) frameworks exemplify the application (e.g. Bazilian et al 2011). All studies focused on how
of IAM to the FEW nexus. Related to IAM is system formal institutions shape the FEW nexus, except Foran

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Environ. Res. Lett. 14 (2019) 073003 J P Newell et al

(2015) who emphasized the potential for informal system performance. Villamayor-Tomas et al (2015)
institutions to sustainably manage FEW resources. combined VCA with the networks of action situations
approach (NAS). NAS grapples with decisions sur-
3.2. FEW case studies rounding resource use and the social contexts in which
We evaluated 13 influential FEW case studies (table 1) those decisions are made. Combining VCA with NAS,
across a range of disciplines: Environmental Sciences thus, describes how and why resources came to be
(4 studies), Environmental Studies (4 studies), Water allocated to certain production practices, providing
Resources (3 studies), Green & Sustainable Science & insights into how the nexus might be better managed.
Technology (1 study) and Agricultural Economic Four cases explicitly quantified FEW-related
Policy (1 study). environmental pressures, such as the greenhouse gas
emissions associated with a FEW system (shaded gray,
table 1). The remaining studies used water, energy or
3.2.1. Nexus modeling approach
food indicators to benchmark nexus performance (e.g.
Six case studies utilized frameworks designed or
calories of food consumed).
adapted specifically to FEW systems (shaded blue in
table 1). As with the conceptual studies, complexity
3.2.2. FEW trigger
ranged from meta-frameworks, such as CLEW
Some authors considered initial shocks to FEW
(Howells et al 2013, Karlberg et al 2015) and the Multi-
systems in tandem (Al-Ansari et al 2015, Rasul and
scale Integrated Assessment of Society and Ecosystem
Sharma 2016), as both state and control variables.
Metabolism (MuSIASEM) (Giampietro et al 2013), to Although comprehensive, it is challenging to disen-
simpler frameworks using one or two specific tools tangle cause and effect from such models. Most cases
(Davies and Simonovic 2011, Mohtar and Daher 2014, focused on a single nexus trigger: energy (Giampietro
Villamayor-Tomas et al 2015). et al 2013, Howells et al 2013, Karlberg et al 2015), food
Some case studies used modeling approaches pro- (Giampietro et al 2013, Mohtar and Daher 2014,
posed in the conceptual papers, including the variants Guillaume et al 2015, Mukuve and Fenner 2015) or
of IAM (Giampietro et al 2013, Howells et al 2013, water (King 2014, Villamayor-Tomas et al 2015).
King 2014, Guillaume et al 2015, Karlberg et al 2015) Others considered a simplified water–food nexus
and SD (Davies and Simonovic 2011). General systems (Siegfried et al 2010, Davies and Simonovic 2011,
thinking informed an evaluation matrix that identified Giampietro et al 2013). Land was sometimes modeled
drivers of change in one nexus component and instead of food (Howells et al 2013, Karlberg et al 2015,
spillover effects on other components (Rasul and Mukuve and Fenner 2015), allowing linkages to a
Sharma 2016). study area’s production capacity, but at the cost of
Mohtar and Daher (2014), Villarroel Walker et al abstracting from final land use (e.g. land for biofuels
(2014), and Al-Ansari et al (2015) utilized life cycle versus food).
assessment (LCA). LCA accounts for the resource use
and environmental burdens of production systems 3.2.3. Study scale
and enables comparisons of competing technologies Only two of the evaluated studies modeled multiple
and the identification of environmental ‘hotspots’ in scales (Mukuve and Fenner 2015, Villamayor-Tomas
supply chains (Hellweg and Milà i Canals 2014). Vil- et al 2015), although the MuSIASEM framework was
larroel Walker et al (2014) coupled LCA with multi- demonstrated on two scales, but using different cases
sectoral systems analysis (MSA) to understand the (Giampietro et al 2013). Researchers prioritized
cross-sectoral and nexus ramifications of technologies nations (Giampietro et al 2013, Howells et al 2013,
and policies on five sectors (i.e. energy, water, food, Mohtar and Daher 2014, Al-Ansari et al 2015, Mukuve
forestry and waste). Embedded within MSA is the and Fenner 2015) or sub-national administrative
method of material flow analysis (MFA), which tracks regions (Siegfried et al 2010, Giampietro et al 2013,
the stocks, flows and interactions of materials in King 2014, Mukuve and Fenner 2015, Villamayor-
sociotechnical or socio-natural systems (Baccini Tomas et al 2015). Regional (Guillaume et al 2015,
and Brunner 2001). Mukuve and Fenner (2015) also Karlberg et al 2015, Rasul and Sharma 2016), urban
employed MFA, standalone, to the nexus. Other (Villarroel Walker et al 2014, Villamayor-Tomas et al
approaches included statistical regression (Siegfried 2015) and global (Davies and Simonovic 2011) scales
et al 2010) and value chain analysis (VCA) saw less attention.
(Villamayor-Tomas et al 2015). VCA describes the With respect to temporal scale, historical, forecast-
interlinked production processes that produce goods, ing and atemporal cases were equally common (5, 4
including their physical inputs and outputs, spatial and 4 studies, respectively). However, the popularity
configuration, and governance structures. The case of IAM and SD methods, which are geared towards
studies were mainly quantitative, with two exceptions. scenario analysis, suggests that future work may orient
Rasul and Sharma (2016) opted to qualitatively assess towards FEW forecasting. As with spatial scale, tem-
each nexus component and its influence on nexus poral scalar mismatch is a concern given that climate

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 Environ. Res. Lett. 14 (2019) 073003
Table 1. Results of evaluation matrix applied to food–energy–water case studies.

Nexus modeling approach Study scale

Governance and
Author, year Framework Analytical tool(s) FEW Trigger Geographic Temporal policy

Siegfried et al (2010) — Regression model with supervised learning W→F Sub-national 1970–2005 No
Davies and Simo- ANEMI System dynamics W→F Global 1960–2000 No
novic (2011)
Giampietro et al (2013) Multi-scale Integrated Assessment of Society and Ecosys- Integrated Assessment Model (IAM) 3 cases: National and sub-national — Yes
tem Metabolism (MuSIASEM)
8

F→W
F→E, W
E→W, F
Howells et al (2013) CLEW Conjoined IAMs E→W, F National 2005–2030 No
Villarroel Walker et al — Material Flow Analysis (MFA), Life Cycle — Urban 2010 No
(2014) Assessment (LCA)
Mohtar and Daher (2014) WEF Nexus Tool 2.0 LCA F→E, W National 2030 Yes
King (2014) — IAM W→E, F Sub-national — No
Al-Ansari et al (2015) — LCA — National — No
Karlberg et al (2015) Climate–Land–Energy–Water Conjoined IAMs E→W, F Regional 2011–2030 Yes
Mukuve and Fenner (2015) — Sankey Diagrams (akin to MFA)Resource F→E, W National, sub-national 2012 and 2015 No
flow mapping and local
Guillaume et al (2015) Water Global Assessment and Prognosis (WaterGAP) 2.2 Hydrology model (akin to IAM) F→E, W Regional 1900–2000 Yes
Villamayor-Tomas et al Institutional Analysis and Development Framework Networks of Action Situations, Value W→E, F Urban and sub-national — Yes
(2015) Chain Analysis
Rasul and Sharma (2016) — Qualitative systems thinking — Regional — No

Note. Gray shading denotes studies that covered environmental emissions (e.g. greenhouse gases). Blue shading denotes FEW specific frameworks.

J P Newell et al
Environ. Res. Lett. 14 (2019) 073003 J P Newell et al

Figure 4. The scholarly community of urban food–energy–water research, 1988–2017. Note how just one cluster has formed in this
co-citation network of the literature. It is dominated by industrial ecologists, with some work by those in applied ecology and
planning.

and hydrological patterns are often only observable over et al 2015). Others focused on national or regional policies
decades or longer (Cash et al 2006). For instance, some (Siegfried et al 2010, Mohtar and Daher 2014). Topical
studies only considered one (Mohtar and Daher 2014, foci were water usage and treatment (Siegfried et al 2010,
Villarroel Walker et al 2014) or two years (Mukuve and Villarroel Walker et al 2014), food security (Al-Ansari et al
Fenner 2015). These short time periods are not able to 2015), institutions (Villamayor-Tomas et al 2015), social,
capture slow-changing or decadal climate dynamics, economic, and land use issues (Karlberg et al 2015,
handicapping decisions that may emerge based on these Mukuve and Fenner 2015), carbon emissions (Mohtar
models. Most of the other studies avoided this pitfall by and Daher 2014), and biofuels (King 2014). Some studies
modeling multiple decades (Siegfried et al 2010, Davies chose to address specific policies to manage a nexus
and Simonovic 2011, Howells et al 2013, Guillaume et al component and how that might shape nexus behavior
2015, Karlberg et al 2015). overall. An example is Karlberg et al (2015) who found
that the Ethiopian federal government’s plans for agricul-
tural intensification would have negative tradeoffs in
3.2.4. Governance and policy
terms of water use.
Six papers considered governance issues primarily
through discussions of current FEW management prac-
tices. Some research addressed multiple scales (Guillaume 4. Results: meta-analysis of Urban FEW
et al 2015, Karlberg et al 2015). For instance, independent research
management of water resources by each state in the Lake
Tana Region of Ethiopia could negatively affect food and The urban FEW dataset reveals the formation of just
energy production across the region as a whole (Karlberg one community (figure 4). Although partially

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Environ. Res. Lett. 14 (2019) 073003 J P Newell et al

attributable to its smaller size (213 publications), a and MSA to capture urban-scale FEW interactions.
more significant factor is its adolescence, with 80% of Moreover, as with the general FEW work, social sci-
studies published after 2010. In terms of WOS ence approaches were largely lacking, with the excep-
categories, tion of Newman (1999) who proposed extending the
they closely resemble the larger dataset and include: UM concept to consider measures of livability (e.g.
Environmental Sciences (103 publications); Green & health, income, urban design quality) and socio-eco-
Sustainable Science & Technology (37 publications); nomic and cultural dynamics.
Environmental Engineering (37 publications); Envir-
onmental Studies (29 publications); and Water 4.2. FEW trigger
Resources (26 publications). Only two simplified FEW triggers appeared: energy
As figure 4 illustrates, the major nodes and edges (Wolman 1965, Barles 2007) and food (Wolman 1965).
are tightly clustered and dominated by scholars from
Analysis of impacts on system-level behavior was
industrial ecology (IE) and cognate fields, with some
limited to general discussions of the dependence
notable exceptions. These include seminal papers by
on other nexus components as production factors
Rees (1992) (trained in ecological economics and
(e.g. agricultural production as a driver of water use
regional planning) on the ecological footprint, by ecol-
for irrigation). Generally, a ‘black-box’ modeling
ogist Folke and colleagues (Folke et al 1997) on ecosys-
approach predominated, with underlying drivers (be
tem appropriation by cities, and by biologist Decker
they socio-economic, demographic, geographic, or
and colleagues (Decker et al 2000) on energy and mat-
due to the urban form itself) of FEW and other
erial flow through the urban ecosystem.
consumables downplayed, and flows considered in
To analyze the urban FEW literature more deeply,
isolation from each other.
we evaluate the top 10 cited papers in this cluster, the
majority of which are from the field of IE (shaded gray
in table 2). The most highly cited paper is by Abel Wol- 4.3. Study scale
man (1965), who famously introduced the concept of In the ten papers, city (core or metropolitan) was the
a city’s ‘metabolism’. privileged geographic scale. Although all conceptua-
lized cities as open systems linked to distal production
regions through ‘trans-boundary’ material and energy
4.1. Nexus modeling approach
flows, only Barles (2009) and Baccini and Brunner
Although no study proposed or applied formal urban
(2001) specifically illustrated the embeddedness of the
FEW frameworks (a la Vogt et al 2014), ‘UM’ modeling
urban FEW system within a broader nexus by showing
was ubiquitous. In IE and engineering circles, UM is
how multi-scalar modeling affects both the results and
defined as, ‘the sum total of the technical and socio-
the recommendations. Notwithstanding, the studies
economic processes that occur in cities, resulting in
were largely aspatial with respect to grounding the
growth, production of energy, and elimination of
origins of water, food, energy and other resources in
waste’ (Kennedy et al 2007, p 44). UM encapsulates the
specific geographies (e.g. palm oil from Indonesia),
phenomenon of urban material and energy demands,
ascribing trans-boundary flows to a distant ‘hinterland’.
which these scholars then try to quantify by various
Temporally, assessments of a single year domi-
methodological approaches.
nated, with occasional longitudinal benchmarking
All of the UM studies used some form of flow ana-
(Sahely et al 2003, Kennedy et al 2007) or historical
lysis (material or substance) to quantify fuels, elec-
reconstruction (Barles 2007). Single year, static UM
tricity, water, food, construction materials and other
snapshots are prone to temporal scalar mismatch and
key ‘metabolic drivers’ at varying complexity. As
have limited design or policy relevance (Kennedy et al
shown in table 2, this could be either MFA, the study of
2011).
a general class of materials (e.g. wood, food), or sub-
stance flow analysis (SFA), the application of flow
modeling to a chemical element or compound (e.g. 4.4. Governance and policy
carbon, nitrogen, etc). Importantly, the modeling Numerous studies suggested that UM accounting could
focus was limited to anthropogenic sources, with only aid in developing and monitoring urban environmental
a few authors discussing the influence of natural pro- policy (Wolman 1965, Newman 1999, Hendriks et al
cesses (e.g. hydrological systems) (Decker et al 2000, 2000, Baccini and Brunner 2001, Kennedy et al 2011).
Baccini and Brunner 2001, Kennedy et al 2011). Only three studies used UM models to assess specific
IE UM research has a long history of accounting policies and these were limited to water (Wolman 1965)
for FEW flows, but these have been modeled in a stra- and waste management (Hendriks et al 2000,
tified manner that have ignored inter-flow relation- Barles 2009). No studies seriously explored the social
ships, leaving the nexus largely unacknowledged. One processes and interactions governing UM, with only
exception is the study of London’s metabolism by Hendriks et al (2000) alluding to workshops with key
Villarroel Walker et al (2014) which combined MFA stakeholders as a means to form management policies.

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 Environ. Res. Lett. 14 (2019) 073003
Table 2. Influential papers on the urban food–energy–water nexus.

Study scale
Modeling approach FEW trigger
Author, year WoS category Geographic (location(s)) Temporal Governance

Wolman (1965) Public, Environmental and Occupational MFA EW, FW Urban (hypothetical US city) Single year Yes
Health
11

Newman (1999) Environmental Studies MFA, social science — Urban (no specific city) Single year Yes
methods
Hendriks et al (2000) Public Administration MFA — Urban (Vienna, Austria) — Yes
Decker et al (2000) Energy and Fuels MFA — Urban (multiple cities) — No
Baccini and Brunner Environmental Sciences SFA/MFA — Urban (Vienna), Regional (Vienna Metro Region) Single year Yes
(2001)
Sahely et al (2003) Environmental Sciences MFA — Urban (Toronto, Canada) 1987, 1999 No
Kennedy et al (2007) Environmental Sciences MFA — Urban (multiple cities) Single year No
Barles (2007) Environmental Sciences SFA FE Urban (Paris, France) 1817, 1869, 1913 No
Barles (2009) Environmental Sciences MFA — Urban (Paris, France), Metropolitan (Metro Paris), Regional 2003 Yes
(Paris Region)
Kennedy et al (2011) Environmental Sciences MFA, carbon footprint — Urban (no specific city) — Yes

Note. Publications by industrial ecologists are shaded gray.

J P Newell et al
Environ. Res. Lett. 14 (2019) 073003 J P Newell et al

5. Discussion mechanism through which to draw in the manifold

group of researchers (e.g. ecologists, economists, engi-
Scholarship on the FEW nexus is relatively young (first neers, geographers, political scientists) and practi-
publication appeared in 1988), with environmental tioners (e.g. policy makers and planners) necessary to
scientists especially prominent. Our bibliometric ana- capture interactions and scales in complex systems.
lysis identified six distinct research communities Urban metabolism (UM) is one such boundary
working in the realm of the FEW nexus, but only one object that numerous scholars have identified as particu-
focused on all three (i.e. FEW). Review of 20 influential larly appropriate for interdisciplinary collaboration
papers reveal methodological approaches that are because the concept travels across engineering and the
largely quantitative and either combine existing mod- natural and social sciences (Kennedy et al 2011; Kennedy
eling tools or customize a particular one. Although the and Hoornweg 2012; Broto et al 2012; Pincetl et al 2012;
research generally recognizes the importance of spatial Ramaswami et al 2012). But this UM research has
scale, explicit consideration of multi-scalar interac- evolved into a series of relatively distinct research frame-
tions is limited. works amongst various disciplines, with varying
One of the clearest and most persistent gaps in the definitions, theories, models, and emphases. In fact, bib-
broader FEW literature is the lack of sufficient focus liometric analysis (1965–2014) reveals that three distinct
on issues of institutional structure, governance, scholarly islands of UM have emerged: (1) IE; (2) political
equity, resource access, and behavior. Although the ecology; and (3) urban ecology (Newell and Cou-
case studies and conceptual papers reviewed did con- sins 2015). Political ecologists focus on social dynamics
sider the role of formal institutions, only Foran (2015) and governance of the UM and the methods are pre-
considered how informal networks of actors might dominately qualitative. Urban ecologists, meanwhile,
manage FEW resources. Studies skirted issues of consider analysis of complex sub-system interactions as
equity in resource use or access by concentrating on the key to understanding emergent urban metabolic
aggregate availability within a study system (Mohtar behavior (Golubiewski 2012), disavowing what they con-
and Daher 2014, Karlberg et al 2015), rather than FEW sider to be ‘black-box’ modeling of IE.
distribution amongst actors. FEW components, The remainder of this paper, therefore, considers
however, are unevenly shared. For instance, the US how the urban FEW metabolism might function as a
produces ample calories per capita (USDA 2018), yet boundary object, bringing together these three ecolo-
over 15 million households remain ‘food insecure’ gies as well as those who have worked in FEW systems
(Coleman-Jensen et al 2017). more broadly. In terms of the latter, we focus on the
Shifting to the urban FEW literature, one finds simi- infusion of IAM and SD modeling approaches in UM
lar tendencies. This research is even younger (80% of research. In particular, we briefly focus on four key
papers published since 2010) and dominated by scholars
research needs identified in the urban FEW nexus
in the field of IE who deploy UM modeling to quantify
review: (1) integration of modeling from social sci-
material and energy stocks and flows. Although IE UM
ences; (2) spatializing the flows to understand their
has significantly advanced knowledge in the area of
multi-scalar dimensions: (3) focus on governance and
urban environmental burdens (Kennedy et al 2007),
equity; and (4) co-creating useful knowledge with sta-
these approaches have been largely static, insensitive to
keholder and policy communities. These gaps are
multi-sectoral interactions and weak on socio-economic
apparent in broader FEW literature as well. This inte-
and political analyses (Swyngedouw 2006, Newell and
gration will advance understanding of Urban FEW
Cousins 2015). Some of these ‘metabolists’ are them-
systems and nexus challenges.
selves skeptical that simply reporting UM parameters
had salience for policy (Kennedy et al 2011), since under-
lying demand-drivers and related governance levers are 5.1. Integrative nexus framing and modeling
indeed black-boxed. Figure 5 provides a conceptual schematic of a ‘UM’
Both this urban research and the broader FEW lit- system that combines the respective expertise of
erature, therefore, indicate the need for techniques, political ecology, urban ecology, and cognate disci-
approaches, and frameworks that can help integrate plines with that of industrial ecology. Essentially, in
researchers, policy makers, and actors. FEW nexus this schematic, the UM is composed of four subsys-
challenges necessitate a complex systems perspective tems—governance networks; networked material and
to capture component interactions (Bazilian et al energy flows; infrastructure and form; and socio-
2011). One means to do this is through ‘boundary economic dynamics. These subsystems are themselves,
objects’. Useful devices to leverage respective dis- multi-scalar, networked, and often strongly coupled.
ciplinary expertise (Newell and Cousins 2015), bound- This interdisciplinary UM framework would then
ary objects are malleable concepts that enable provide the basis for integrated urban FEW nexus
communication across disciplines through use of modeling that extends beyond the static and segmen-
shared terminology, even though how a term may be ted flow modeling on environmental burdens that
conceptualized will vary by discipline (Brand and predominates in IE UM research. Interestingly, the
Jax 2007). Boundary objects, therefore, provide a communities that interact with these systems all share

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Environ. Res. Lett. 14 (2019) 073003 J P Newell et al

Figure 5. Conceptual schematic of the material, socio-economic, and ecological components in the metabolism of a city. Source:
(adapted from Meerow et al 2016)

a focus on ‘flows.’ The difference being that social food policies across cities in a particular country).
science is often focused on flows of information, Another promising modeling approach, which builds
capital, and influence rather than, for example, mass, on substance flow analysis, is MSA. Villarroel Walker
energy, and water. In IE UM modeling, the primary et al (2014) used MSA to better understand London’s
analytical tools are MFA, SFA, and LCA. waste treatment metabolism (see section 3.2).
This urban FEW research could incorporate Then there is network analysis, which is used to infer
approaches prevalent in the broader FEW research, the causality between the structure and functionality of a
especially IAM and SD modeling. The latter would complex system (Watts and Strogatz 1998; Barabási and
couple particularly well with the mass-balance stock- Albert 1999; Strogatz 2001; Newman 2003; Newman
flow based models. Only a handful of scholars have 2010). Ecological network analysis (ENA) applies net-
incorporated SD in UM modeling, focusing on water work thinking to resources and environmental chal-
(Zhang et al 2008, Qi and Chang 2011) and energy lenges (Chen and Chen 2012). Urban systems and FEW
(Feng et al 2013). IAM could help capture dynamic systems lend themselves to ENA by virtue of their com-
urban FEW flows and situate them within larger agri- plex nature, typified by numerous actors and processes
cultural, hydrologic, and climatic systems. The broad interacting in unseen ways. ENA has been applied to
scope of IAM makes it well suited for ‘big n’ studies of urban contexts (Chen et al 2011, Zhang et al 2013, Lu et al
coordinated action across cities (e.g. energy, water or 2015) and FEW nexus challenges at urban (Chen and

13
Environ. Res. Lett. 14 (2019) 073003 J P Newell et al

Chen 2015) and other scales (Spiegelberg et al 2017, visualize, and analyze heterogeneous geospatial and
Wang et al 2017), but as with SD, the diffusion of ENA temporal data (Cruz et al 2013).
into IE metabolism thinking has been limited (see Zhang
et al 2013, Lu et al 2015). 5.3. Governance and policy
The integration of these primarily quantitative UM studies in IE have been anemic in terms of equity,
approaches with qualitative ones needs further devel- governance, and behavioral dimensions of material and
opment. Cousins and Newell (2015) integrated a geo- energy flows. With respect to policy, these studies often
graphic information system, LCA, interviews, and end with lackluster prescriptions and recommendations
historical analysis to delineate the water supply meta- for how to manage urban resource flows more efficiently.
bolism of Los Angeles and there are other isolated As Foran (2015, p 656) has concluded, the ‘social
examples. Foran (2015) proposes blending systems dimensions of resource linkages remain thinly described
dynamics modeling with governance theory and and undertheorized,’ necessitating a ‘critical social science
Miara et al (2014) fuse energy accounting and qualita- of the nexus.’ A foundation for this exists. Political
tive analysis (see section 3.1). ecologists, for example, have published research on the
UM of cities in the US, Europe, and beyond (Gandy 2002,
5.2. Multi-scalar perspectives Keil and Boudreau 2006, Heynen et al 2006, Demaria and
As noted, IE UM research is largely aspatial with Schindler 2016). A key research focus has been unveiling
respect to the origins of food, water, energy, and other power relationships shaping urban space with the
resources. An initial advancement would be to map normative goal of fostering more sustainable and demo-
trans-boundary material and energy flows to empiri- cratic forms of urban environmental governance and
cally demonstrate how urban areas induce change to policy-making (Swyngedouw and Heynen 2003, Desfor
FEW systems in distal, scattered locations (Hubacek and Keil 2004, Swyngedouw 2004).
et al 2014), illuminating how these are nested and Social scientists are also developing innovative
multi-scalar. This would involve coupling urban approaches to the co-production of knowledge and
spatial data with other novel datasets (e.g. trade data, action with stakeholder and policy communities
forestry data, geospatial water scarcity data) to track (Frantzeskaki and Kabisch 2015, Muñoz-Erickson et al
these flows (Flach et al 2016, White et al 2018). 2017). Management and assessment models may be sci-
The multi-scalar dimension of urban systems, entifically sound, but publicly unacceptable if devel-
therefore, requires managing, storing, and integrating oped ‘behind closed doors.’ In these instances, the
massive, diverse, and heterogeneous datasets (Town- motivation behind them, how they are constructed, and
send 2014). These data come in varying formats, their utility appears obscure to stakeholders (Driessen
resolutions, monitoring frequencies, identifiers and and Glasbergen 2002). Open and participatory model
geo-references (Kitchin 2014). Spatial data have development builds familiarity, confidence and accep-
incongruent boundaries, temporal scales, demo- tance in the models and enables a more diverse group of
graphic cohorts, and so on. National and state agencies participants to engage (van den Belt 2004). Albrecht
may regularly collect standardized data, but most et al (2018) highlighted these ‘digital sharing platforms’
urban governments do not (Horta and Keirst- (e.g. Wolfe et al 2016) as promising means of commu-
ead 2017). Political units of analysis do not always cap- nicating nexus complexity to diverse stakeholders.
ture important FEW dimensions, such as natural Decision support systems (DSS) provide a portal by
systems (e.g. trans-boundary river flows). As Cash et al which the expert or participant structures model input
(2006) identify, these ‘scalar mismatches’frequently to simulate future desired conditions (Serat-Capdevila
cause failures in natural resource management. et al 2011). A DSS also enables presentation and visuali-
One example are the very aqueducts praised by zation of model results. There are cooperative modeling
Wolman (1965) that bring water to the arid cities of exercises supported with an accompanying DSS tar-
the Southwest US. Although they alleviated water geted at the shared needs of FEW producers, resource
shortages for these cities, these aqueducts also sup- managers, regulators, and decision makers (Renger et al
ported a population boom that has necessitated 2008).
import of yet more water from ecosystems and water- Through this co-production, stakeholders feel a
sheds suffering climate change-induced drought sense of common, shared ownership and confidence in
(MacDonald 2010). In essence, mid-century planners the resulting models (Cockerill et al 2007, Tidwell et al
solved immediate problems within these cities, but 2008). This confidence is then conveyed to policy makers
degraded environments outside the city and built a and the public in ensuing management decisions. For
system that may be unable to adequately supply water these reasons, in their Urban NEXUS framework, Vogt
in the future. Fortunately, emerging data integration et al (2014) made participatory design integral to the
and management tools can be used to capture the development of urban FEW management policies.
multi-scalar dimensions of the urban FEW systems. Another example of this co-production is the Network of
For example, scholars at the University of Illinois- Action Situations approach used by Villamayor-Tomas
Chicago have used an UM framework to integrate, et al (2015) in their FEW case work.

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Environ. Res. Lett. 14 (2019) 073003 J P Newell et al

5.4. Other FEW systems as boundary objects Acknowledgments

Framing the urban FEW metabolism as a boundary
object can attract a diverse group of scholars and The authors would like to thank the US National
practitioners to more fully capture the scale, complex- Science Foundation (NSF) for sponsoring this
ity, and interactions of a particular system. We have research. These including the following NSF grants:
briefly noted how this could enable the infusion of FEW Workshop: Scaling-up Urban Agriculture
modeling approaches (e.g. SD), data management and (#1541838); Sustainability Research Network (SRN,
visualization strategies, consideration of governance #1444745); and UNS: U.S.–China: Integrated Sys-
dynamics, and the development of decision-support tems Modeling of Food–Energy–Water (FEW) Nexus
and collaborative planning tools. Other FEW systems for Urban Sustainability (#1605202).
(e.g. food supply chains, bioenergy production, waste
water treatment) could similarly serve as empirical
ORCID iDs
boundary objects to collaboratively develop integra-
tive approaches and responses to sustainability and
Joshua P Newell https://orcid.org/0000-0002-
resilience challenges.
1440-8715
Benjamin Goldstein https://orcid.org/0000-0003-
6. Conclusion 0055-1323

Past failures in managing FEW resources underscore the References

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