A Review of Urban Green and Blue Infrastructure from the Perspective of Food-Energy-Water Nexus

Aamir Mehmood Shah, Gengyuan Liu, Fanxin Meng, Qing Yang, Jingyan Xue, Stefano Dumontet, Renato Passaro and Marco Casazza
Additional contact information
Aamir Mehmood Shah: State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Gengyuan Liu: State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Fanxin Meng: State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Qing Yang: Key Laboratory for City Cluster Environmental Safety and Green Development of the Ministry of Education, Institute of Environmental and Ecological Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China
Jingyan Xue: State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Stefano Dumontet: Centro Direzionale, Department of Sciences and Technologies, University of Napoli ‘Parthenope’, Isola C4, 80143 Napoli, Italy
Renato Passaro: Centro Direzionale, Department of Engineerinng, University of Napoli ‘Parthenope’, Isola C4, 80143 Napoli, Italy
Marco Casazza: Centro Direzionale, Department of Sciences and Technologies, University of Napoli ‘Parthenope’, Isola C4, 80143 Napoli, Italy

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 15, 1-24

Abstract: Small scale urban green-blue infrastructure (indicated as GBI hereafter) comprises huge underexploited areas for urban development and planning. This review article aims to highlight the relevance and knowledge gaps regarding GBI from the perspective of the food–energy–water (FEW) nexus, these being key resources for the survival of human communities. In particular, this review was focused on publications on urban ecosystem services (positive effects) and dis-services (negative effects) associated with different GBI typologies. The review proved that GBI can contribute environmentally, socially, and economically to FEW security and urban sustainability. Yet, such positive effects must be considered against ecosystem dis-services tradeoffs, including urban food production, commonly connected with heavy water and energy consumption, specifically under dry climate conditions, and sometimes related to an excessive use of manure, pesticides, or fertilizers. These conditions could pose either a risk to water quality and local insect survival or serve enhanced mosquito breeding because of irrigation. Up to now, the review evidenced that few nexus modeling techniques have been discussed in terms of their benefits, drawbacks, and applications. Guidance is provided on the choice of an adequate modeling approach. Water, energy, and food are intrinsically associated physically. However, depending on their management, their tradeoffs are often increased. There is a need to minimize these tradeoffs and to build up synergies between food, energy, and water using a holistic approach. This is why the FEW nexus approach offers good insights to address the relation between three important individual resource components of sustainability.

Keywords: green-blue infrastructure; food-energy-water nexus; tradeoff; small scale urban system (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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