TY - JOUR
T1 - An Integrated Food, Energy, and Water Nexus, Human Well-Being, and Resilience (FEW-WISE) Framework
T2 - New Mexico
AU - Yadav, Kamini
AU - Geli, Hatim M.E.
AU - Cibils, Andres F.
AU - Hayes, Michael
AU - Fernald, Alexander
AU - Peach, James
AU - Sawalhah, Mohammed N.
AU - Tidwell, Vincent C.
AU - Johnson, Lindsay E.
AU - Zaied, Ashraf J.
AU - Gedefaw, Melakeneh G.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded with a grant from the National Science Foundation awards # 1739835 and # IIA-1301346” to HG and collaborators, and New Mexico State University. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.
Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright © 2021 Yadav, Geli, Cibils, Hayes, Fernald, Peach, Sawalhah, Tidwell, Johnson, Zaied and Gedefaw.
PY - 2021/6/4
Y1 - 2021/6/4
N2 - Interconnected food, energy, and water (FEW) nexus systems face many challenges to support human well-being (HWB) and maintain resilience, especially in arid and semiarid regions like New Mexico (NM), United States (US). Insufficient FEW resources, unstable economic growth due to fluctuations in prices of crude oil and natural gas, inequitable education and employment, and climate change are some of these challenges. Enhancing the resilience of such coupled socio-environmental systems depends on the efficient use of resources, improved understanding of the interlinkages across FEW system components, and adopting adaptable alternative management strategies. The goal of this study was to develop a framework that can be used to enhance the resilience of these systems. An integrated food, energy, water, well-being, and resilience (FEW-WISE) framework was developed and introduced in this study. This framework consists mainly of five steps to qualitatively and quantitatively assess FEW system relationships, identify important external drivers, integrate FEW systems using system dynamics models, develop FEW and HWB performance indices, and develop a resilience monitoring criterion using a threshold-based approach that integrates these indices. The FEW-WISE framework can be used to evaluate and predict the dynamic behavior of FEW systems in response to environmental and socioeconomic changes using resilience indicators. In conclusion, the derived resilience index can be used to inform the decision-making processes to guide the development of alternative scenario-based management strategies to enhance the resilience of ecological and socioeconomic well-being of vulnerable regions like NM.
AB - Interconnected food, energy, and water (FEW) nexus systems face many challenges to support human well-being (HWB) and maintain resilience, especially in arid and semiarid regions like New Mexico (NM), United States (US). Insufficient FEW resources, unstable economic growth due to fluctuations in prices of crude oil and natural gas, inequitable education and employment, and climate change are some of these challenges. Enhancing the resilience of such coupled socio-environmental systems depends on the efficient use of resources, improved understanding of the interlinkages across FEW system components, and adopting adaptable alternative management strategies. The goal of this study was to develop a framework that can be used to enhance the resilience of these systems. An integrated food, energy, water, well-being, and resilience (FEW-WISE) framework was developed and introduced in this study. This framework consists mainly of five steps to qualitatively and quantitatively assess FEW system relationships, identify important external drivers, integrate FEW systems using system dynamics models, develop FEW and HWB performance indices, and develop a resilience monitoring criterion using a threshold-based approach that integrates these indices. The FEW-WISE framework can be used to evaluate and predict the dynamic behavior of FEW systems in response to environmental and socioeconomic changes using resilience indicators. In conclusion, the derived resilience index can be used to inform the decision-making processes to guide the development of alternative scenario-based management strategies to enhance the resilience of ecological and socioeconomic well-being of vulnerable regions like NM.
KW - FEW nexus performance indicators
KW - drought
KW - resilience index
KW - resilience threshold
KW - socioeconomics
KW - system dynamics modeling
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85108346417&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fenvs.2021.667018
DO - 10.3389/fenvs.2021.667018
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85108346417
VL - 9
JO - Frontiers in Environmental Science
JF - Frontiers in Environmental Science
SN - 2296-665X
M1 - 667018
ER -