Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

Leveraging the Food-Energy-Water Nexus for Planet Resilience

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https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/c534fx29c

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  • We have sufficient evidence that our historical management of natural resources is not sustainable. Food production is stagnating or declining. Nonrenewable energy sources on which the energy sector has historically depended are being rapidly depleted. Water resources, for which the energy and food sectors compete, are being depleted and impaired. This push against planetary boundaries is accelerating due to population growth and climate change. We must increase net resilience of the planet. This cannot be achieved through a single sector approach as focus on adapting a single sector can increase vulnerability of another sector. Instead, we must focus on the inherent linkages of the food, energy, water nexus, in which opportunities exist for sustainable adaptation which increase net resilience. To maximize impacts of change, we identify areas of high demand in which resources are under- or over-allocated. We explore an example of under-application in the food-energy intersection – electrification of the transportation system, for which a major hurdle is infrastructure. Through geospatial analysis, our results show that a novel approach to address infrastructure needs of electric vehicle charging stations exists by leveraging agrivoltaic systems. In the food-water intersection, we evaluate an example of over-application – fertilizer use in agriculture and the consequential water quality impacts, in which a major hurdle is grower resistance to reducing over-application. We explore this intersection through simulations that remain within constraints of grower resistance on the field and watershed scales. We show that we have significant control over nitrate (NO3-) leaching via our management choices and identify a mechanism which reduces NO3- leaching when implementing best management practices. Our results show that alternate (and supplemental) approaches can be leveraged to work toward our water quality goals without risking a reduction in yields. However, additional remediation will be needed to reach overall water quality and yield needs.
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  • This work was funded in part by USDA ARF and NSF INFEWS.
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