Citizen-Led Community Innovation for Food Energy Water Nexus Resilience

Frontiers in Environmental Science

Sean M. Ryan¹  Nena E. Bloom²  Kyle Pfeiffer³  Benjamin L. Ruddell³  Emma Hibbett⁴  Elisabeth Roberts⁵  Richard R. Rushforth⁶ 

[1] Leaf LLC, Tucson, AZ, United States;Argonne National Laboratory, National Preparedness Analytics Center, Lemont, IL, United States;Center for Science Teaching and Learning, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, United States;Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom;;STEM &School of Informatics Computing and Cyber Systems, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, United States;

关键词: participatory science;    citizen science;    resilience;    food energy water;    nexus;    vision;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fenvs.2020.571614

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Food-energy-water (FEW) resources are necessary for the function of multiple socio-natural systems. Understanding the synergies and trade-offs in the FEW nexus, and how these interconnections impact earth’s systems, is critical to ensure adequate access to these resources in the future; an essential component for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (Scanlon et al., 2017). Although, over the last decade, the identification of FEW nexus complexities has increased at a global (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC], 2018; D’Odorico et al., 2018), national (Lant et al., 2019), and city scale (Rushforth and Ruddell, 2018), these findings are yet to be adequately translated into “on the ground” action due a lack of technical and political capacity (Weitz et al., 2017). Specifically, local FEW systems have been overlooked in these analyses (Scanlon et al., 2017; Lant et al., 2019), thus leaving small and medium towns vulnerable due to a lack of data and inadequate FEW system management. Building on 3 years of field-tested FEW nexus research in the Ruddell Lab, we argue that participatory citizen science projects, such as our FEWSION for Community Resilience initiative, can bridge the data-policy gaps that exist within local FEW system management by: (1) providing last mile data on the FEW system, and (2) translating local data into evidence-based solutions at a grassroots level. Thus, we present a broadly applicable framework and call to action for local scale participatory citizen science to solve complex FEW nexus issues at a local, regional, and national scale.

【 授权许可】

Unknown