Typology of Food-Energy-Water Systems in the United States

Food, energy, and water (FEW) systems interact at scales ranging from local to global. Yet, a dominant focus on case studies in existing FEW literature limits our ability to understand variation across systems. We lack a comprehensive understanding of how FEW system connections and trade-offs vary over space and time, and how their connections influence and are influenced by socio-economic, demographic, regulatory, and climatic factors. A central challenge to synthesis is that FEW data sources are often disparate and disconnected, collected over different spatial and temporal extents and resolutions. Moreover, research often focuses on the technical aspects of FEW interactions, neglecting the social attributes and drivers of FEW system stresses. This research presentation will showcase the work of a large interdisciplinary effort supported by National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center. Our objective is to synthesize existing FEW data sets to establish and characterize typologies of FEW systems in the U.S. These typologies will then be used to understand change points and subsequent drivers of change. We are also exploring interactions between FEW systems and the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: both how the pandemic and our response to it have affected FEW interactions, and how the structure of the FEW system has shaped the pandemic itself. The typologies developed in this work will provide a roadmap for future research by revealing key FEW stresses and interactions across space and time, and a more general set of FEW system responses to social, economic, ecological, and other drivers.