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The Food–Energy–Water Nexus: Boundaries, Processes, and the Circular Economy

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Water Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2022) | Viewed by 3896

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University, Ryton Gardens, Wolston Lane, Coventry CV8 3LG, UK
Interests: sustainable drainage systems (SuDS); nature-based solutions; design and installation of SuDS in informal settlements, favelas, and refugee camps; role of green infrastructure; ecosystem service provision; urban lake and river sediments; urban physical processes: urban hydrology; risk to children’s health of contaminants in playground material; efficiency of porous paving in degrading oil and dealing with metal pollutants
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Centre for Agroecology, Coventry University, Coventry, UK
Interests: gully erosion, riverbank erosion, and river meandering; development of the CAESAR landscape evolution model, used to investigate the nature of nonlinear dynamics of catchment sediment yield; geomorphic impacts of flooding on interactions and feedbacks between geomorphological processes and ecological processes in river floodplains; incorporation of recent developments in parallel computing in new simulation models

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Guest Editor
Henley Business School, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading RG6 6UD, UK
Interests: design, planning, and governance, involving the integration of urban ecosystem services into development planning processes and urban policy decision-making tools; human–environment interactions, whether mediated by citizen actions or institutions, and their effects on the interplay of knowledge and policy development as well as strategic planning processes and outcomes; how and why environmental attitudes, risk perceptions, and associated ecological behaviour vary across distinct social and stakeholder groups, different biophysical settings, and diverse places
Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University, Ryton Gardens, Wolston Lane, Coventry CV8 3LG, UK
Interests: qualitative social research; quantitative social research and social policy; public involvement in invasive species management

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Waste generated in the “nexus” between the management of water and the production of food and energy is unsustainable. By identifying these dysfunctional linear streams, where waste generated adds to landfill, climate change and environmental degradation, there is potential to use it, turn it into a marketable product, or harvest it and contribute to the Circular Economy.

We are particularly interested in case studies, nationally and internationally, the extent to which the circular economy has been achieved, assessment of problems encountered, and strategies to engage with stakeholders and communities, as well as what processes can identify and delineate boundaries around the plurality of food, energy, and water systems in each context (actors, issues, geographies, power relations), and how they shift over time. As the use of the Living Lab concept in studies becomes more common, how successful this has been in studies of the nexus—is it possible to compare across Living Labs with their different politics, policies, inequalities and geographies?

We solicit papers from academia, stakeholders, and practitioners illustrating the many ways in which these wastes are identified, how they are converted into something useful for society, a scalable commercial product for example, and how wasteful consumption has been reduced. We invite comments on the sustainability of such approaches: are they technologically and/or politically feasible and economically sound? What new processes have been developed enabling the study of the nexus and conversion of the wastes, and how successful are they?

Prof. Dr. Susanne Charlesworth
Dr. Marco Van De Wiel
Dr. Richard Nunes
Dr. Jana Fried
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • circular economy
  • nexus
  • food–energy–water
  • stakeholder and community engagement
  • waste
  • Living Lab

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

22 pages, 2690 KiB  
Article
What Are the Environmental Benefits and Costs of Reducing Food Waste? Bristol as a Case Study in the WASTE FEW Urban Living Lab Project
by Eleanor Eaton, Alistair Hunt, Anastasia Di Leo, Daniel Black, Gwen Frost and Sarah Hargreaves
Sustainability 2022, 14(9), 5573; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14095573 - 06 May 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3102
Abstract
The city of Bristol currently generates around 48,000 tonnes of household food waste every year. This waste incurs loss of resources and environmental damage throughout the food cycle. In this paper we quantify and value the baseline socio-environmental impacts from household food waste [...] Read more.
The city of Bristol currently generates around 48,000 tonnes of household food waste every year. This waste incurs loss of resources and environmental damage throughout the food cycle. In this paper we quantify and value the baseline socio-environmental impacts from household food waste in Bristol before examining the potential costs and benefits that may result from changes to food waste behaviour. In so doing, we look to better inform the choice of food waste reduction methods in public policy. The environmental impacts of two possible policy targets are explored: (1) a 20% increase in food waste recycling and (2) an overall decrease in food waste of 20%. Environmental impacts are estimated for 13 different hazards, including Global Warming Potential, Particulate Matter, Human Toxicity and Water Depletion. The societal consequences of these environmental changes are monetised using non-market values which allows us to directly compare the relative importance of different environmental impacts and the trade-offs between these impacts in each scenario. For example, we estimate that the Global Warming Potential of Bristol’s annual food waste equates to around 110,000 tonnes CO2, or 25,000 additional cars on the road every year. We find that a 20% improvement in recycling behaviour would lead to an annual reduction of 113 tonnes of CO2 equivalent, whilst a 20% reduction in food waste would result in an annual reduction of 15,000 tonnes CO2 equivalent. Findings suggest that the environmental impact of waste management is significantly overshadowed by the impact of resources used in food production and distribution before it becomes waste. Full article
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