Leveraging Big Data and Analytics to Improve Food, Energy, and Water System Sustainability

Abstract

With the world population projected to grow significantly over the next few decades, and in the presence of additional stress caused by climate change and urbanization, securing the essential resources of food, energy, and water is one of the most pressing challenges that the world faces today. There is an increasing priority placed by the United Nations (UN) and US federal agencies on efforts to ensure the security of these critical resources, understand their interactions, and address common underlying challenges. At the heart of the technological challenge is data science applied to environmental data . The aim of this special publication is the focus on big data science for food, energy, and water systems (FEWSs). We describe a research methodology to frame in the FEWS context, including decision tools to aid policy makers and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to tackle specific UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Through this exercise, we aim to improve the “supply chain” of FEWS research, from gathering and analyzing data to decision tools supporting policy makers in addressing FEWS issues in specific contexts. We discuss prior research in each of the segments to highlight shortcomings as well as future research directions.

Geospatial Artificial Intelligence (GeoAI) in the Integrated Hydrological and Fluvial Systems Modeling: Review of Current Applications and Trends

“…), and the datasets usually come from different sources. Datasets with these characteristics are called big data [241,242] and require advanced and new methodologies to integrate them with GeoAI models properly.…”

Appraising the Water‐Energy‐Food Nexus From a Sustainable Development Perspective: A Maturing Paradigm?

“…To maintain momentum and maximize the positive contribution of the nexus to sustainable development across the seven challenge areas outlined in Section 5, we offer 10 emerging and underexplored avenues that we believe are necessary to undergird those developments and should be an increasing focus of nexus research going forwards: Address the impacts of nexus developments on human rights, environmental justice and just transitions (da Silva et al., 2020); Identify more inclusive stakeholder participatory and deliberative decision‐making processes to provide plural insights and shared understandings (Cabello et al., 2021; Fontana et al., 2021; Lazaro et al., 2022; Naidoo et al., 2021); Configure nexus systems to aid a green recovery as part of the “build back better” narrative from the COVID19 pandemic (Al‐Saidi & Hussein, 2021; Durodola et al., 2020); Define nexus interventions that emphasize system interconnectedness and lead to long‐term and sustainable human and environmental health (Nhamo & Ndlela, 2021); Investigate the probabilities and consequences of compounding nexus shocks on human migration and displacement (Daher et al., 2021), broadening the scope of the nexus to intersect with what has been termed the “disaster risk, global change, and sustainability nexus” (Peduzzi, 2019); Understand how nature‐based solutions and green infrastructure and associated green finance can enhance the climate resilience and adaptive capacity of nexus systems (Bellezoni et al., 2021; Hogeboom et al., 2021; Muthee et al., 2021); Institutionalize nexus thinking into governance systems at multiple scales, advancing a polycentric approach, for improved policy integration, cross‐sectoral planning and coordination for sustainable development (Lazaro et al., 2022; Mabhaudhi et al., 2021; Rasul & Neupane, 2021; Rasul et al., 2021; Srigiri & Dombrowsky, 2022); Explore how to close the gender gap in access to nexus resources and their management, decision‐making capabilities, and social relations (Purwanto et al., 2021; Villamor et al., 2020); Seek insights from retrospective forms of nexus management or “ancient WEF,” that can be adapted to our modern‐day nexus challenges (Pueppke, 2021); Utilize frontier data science technologies, such as Big Data and AI, and expand the use of geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing, to fully integrate multi‐source, multi‐temporal, and multi‐scale georeferenced data into nexus planning and implementation (Pitts et al., 2020; Taguta et al., 2022). …”

“…Others have combined resilience thinking and nexus approaches within a single framework to account for social justice in managing social‐ecological systems (Stringer et al., 2018). Increasingly, there are calls for nexus applications to take advantage of rapidly advancing frontier technologies (e.g., Artificial Intelligence, Big Data analytics) to improve sectoral agility and adaptivity; measure success and failure; and improve multiscalar assessments (Pitts et al., 2020; Taylor, 2020). Despite the variety of tools available to investigate the nexus, conspicuously absent is the utilization of different forms of knowledge and perspectives, especially indigenous and traditional/local ecological knowledge.…”

“…Utilize frontier data science technologies, such as Big Data and AI, and expand the use of geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing, to fully integrate multi‐source, multi‐temporal, and multi‐scale georeferenced data into nexus planning and implementation (Pitts et al., 2020; Taguta et al., 2022).…”

An examination of historic data breach incidents: What cybersecurity big data visualization and analytics can tell us?

“…6). According to Boumans et al (2020), data visualization and quantitative analysis can allow business executives to perform "more accurate 'what if' analyses" by "providing essential information to guide long-term sustainability analysis and planning" (para. 6).…”