The May 2021 issue of Nature Sustainability includes a paper co-authored by Jen Schmidt, Assistant Professor of Natural Resource Management and Policy at ISER. "Applying the food-energy-water nexus at a local scale" is part of a study that looks at the benefits of using a food-energy-water (FEW) nexus framework to understand factors that contribute to long-term sustainability and resilience in rural Alaska communities.
Schmidt has been collaborating with a number of professionals on the MicroFEWs project, which aims to develop a new holistic approach to understanding the linkages between renewable energy use and its interactions with food, energy, and water (FEW) security in remote Arctic and Subarctic communities. The MicroFEWS team worked with local stakeholders in Kongiganak, Tanana, Cordova and Igiugig to better understand influences on resilience of food, water and energy systems. Each small community is located off the road system with its own isolated energy micro-grid.
However, conditions varied in each location and shifted over time, making it difficult to develop a functional, systemic FEW model. In their paper, project team members acknowledge that while looking at components within a FEW nexus framework is beneficial, the system is also greatly impacted by other factors, such as transportation, governance and climate change.
“This research is a nice example of how it is beneficial to keep an open mind and challenge theoretical ideas about how systems should work,” said Schmidt. “Especially when the ideas originate from outside Alaska and are on complex topics that involve society and the environment. Food, energy, and water are fundamental components of life and by working with a team of physical, natural, and social scientists we were able to work with communities in rural Alaska to identify important linkages and trade-offs advancing our knowledge on the food, energy, and water nexus.”
Learn more
“Applying the food-energy-water nexus at a local scale,” Nature Sustainability, May 2021
“Searching for a MicroFEWs nexus in Alaska,” James Magdanz, Nature Sustainability, May 2021
“How we lost our naivete and regained our optimism about the food-energy-water nexus,” Henry Huntington, Nature Sustainability, May 2021
“Improving food, energy and water security in rural Alaska,” Erin Whitney and the MicroFEWS team, Anchorage Daily News, May 20, 2021
Funding for this work was provided by the US National Science Foundation, award no. 1740075, INFEWS/T3: Coupling infrastructure improvements to food–energy–water system dynamics in small cold region communities.
