Food, Energy and Water Nexus: An Urban Living Laboratory Development for Sustainable Systems Transition

Maria Ester Soares Dal Poz, Paulo Sergio de Arruda Ignácio, Aníbal Azevedo, Erika Cristina Francisco, Alessandro Luis Piolli, Gabriel Gheorghiu da Silva and Thaís Pereira Ribeiro
Additional contact information
Maria Ester Soares Dal Poz: School of Applied Sciences, University of Campinas, Campinas 13083-970, Brazil
Paulo Sergio de Arruda Ignácio: School of Applied Sciences, University of Campinas, Campinas 13083-970, Brazil
Aníbal Azevedo: School of Applied Sciences, University of Campinas, Campinas 13083-970, Brazil
Erika Cristina Francisco: School of Applied Sciences, University of Campinas, Campinas 13083-970, Brazil
Alessandro Luis Piolli: School of Applied Sciences, University of Campinas, Campinas 13083-970, Brazil
Gabriel Gheorghiu da Silva: School of Applied Sciences, University of Campinas, Campinas 13083-970, Brazil
Thaís Pereira Ribeiro: School of Applied Sciences, University of Campinas, Campinas 13083-970, Brazil

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 12, 1-22

Abstract: From a climate change perspective, the governance of natural common-pool resources—the commons —is a key point in the challenge of transitioning to sustainability. This paper presents the main strategic advances of the São Paulo Urban Living Laboratory (ULL) regarding Food, Energy and Water (FEW Nexus) analysis and modelling at the border of a high biodiverse forest in a peri-urban region in southeast Brazil. It is a replicable and scalable method concerning FEW governance. The FEW Nexus is an analytical guide to actions that will enable a colossal set of innovative processes that the transition to sustainability presupposes. Sustainable governance of the FEW dimensions, seen as an innovation-based process, is approached by a decision making tool to understand the past and future dynamics of the system. The governance framework is based on a multi-criteria and multi-attribute set of sustainability-relevant factors used as indicators to model complex system dynamics (SD) and the stakeholders’ future expectations through a Delphi approach. Based on the three main dimensions of the Ecosystem Services Approach—Physical and Material Conditions, Attributes of Communities, and Rules-in-Use—the tool comprises thirteen specific sustainability indicators such as water and carbon footprints, land use social development, payment for ecosystem services, and land use gain indices. Its development was designed to generate a long-term network of socioenvironmental stakeholders’ decision making processes and collective learning about a higher level of sustainable systems. System Dynamics modelling demonstrates the associations between sustainability indicators and the impacts of payment for ecosystem services on the land use social development index, or on the trophic state index. The Delphi foresight approach, using the Promethee-Gaia method, allows us to understand the positions of multiple agents regarding the transition process. In this context, decision making tools can be very useful and effective in answering the “how to” questions of ULLs and paving the way for transition, providing collective planning and decision support frameworks for sustainability transition management.

Keywords: food, energy and water nexus; sustainable development; technological foresight methods; system dynamics modelling; agent based modelling; innovation management, climate crisis public policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/12/7163/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/12/7163/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:12:p:7163-:d:836421

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().