ReFEWS: Upper Snake River Basin

Project Information
Purpose/Overview of Study
Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy, and Water Systems (INFEWS) seek to conceptualize Food, Energy, and Water (FEW) systems broadly, incorporating physical processes (such as built infrastructure and new technologies for more efficient resource utilization), natural processes (such as biogeochemical and hydrologic cycles), biological processes (such as agroecosystem structure and productivity), social/behavioral processes (such as decision making and governance), and cyber-components (such as sensing, networking, computation and visualization for decision-making and assessment). Investigations of these complex systems may produce discoveries that cannot emerge from research on food or energy or water systems alone.The overarching goal of INFEWS is to catalyze well-integrated research to transform scientific understanding of the FEW nexus (integrating all three components rather than addressing them separately), in order to improve system function and management, address system stress, increase resilience, and ensure sustainability.

Using the Upper Snake River Basin as a testbed, we will address three research questions to quantify where and how resilience can be purposefully established through coupled reuse and re-purposing in food, energy, and water systems (ReFEWS). Through integrated social, hydrological, and waste stream modeling of the food, energy and water (FEW) system, scenario building, and the development of indicator suites we will advance our understanding of robustness and resilience of FEWS under future climate, economic, and technology-adoption scenarios.
Main Topic
Climatology | Meteorology | Atmosphere
Environment
Farming
Inland Waters
Intelligence | Military
Project Sub Topic
Aquaculture
Agriculture
Climate Change
Decision Support Systems
Inland Water Bodies
Mountain Landscapes
Water Resources and Management
Intended Audience
Tribal Agency or Organization
Commerce/Industry
Land/Resource Managers
Community/Public
Academic
Investigators
Team-Based
Newly formed for this specific project
Project Type
INFEWS
Project Diagram
/sites/default/files/2017-05/ReFEWS%20Diagram.jpg
Region
Rocky Mountain
Location

Island Park, Id

Collaboration
Is this project a collaboration?
Yes
Collaboration Type
Tribal Government or Members
Academic Biophysical Scientists
Non-Governmental Organization
Academic Social Science
Government Agency Biophysical Scientists
State Government
Stakeholder Advisory Group
Science Question
Co-created in collaboration with partners
Academic Biophysical Scientists
Academic Social Science
Commerce/Industry
Stakeholder Advisory Group
Data Collection
Co-created in collaboration with partners
Academic Biophysical Scientists
Academic Social Science
International Government or Multipart Agency
Stakeholder Advisory Group
Interdisciplinary Type
Transdisciplinary
Framework
Geospatial
Social Metabolism
Social-Ecological Systems
Products Produced
Products
Project Products PT
Project Products PT
Documents
Project Documents PT
Project Data
Data Types
Population growth
Water use
Economic growth
Agricultural waste
Data Sources
Idaho Farm Bureau
US Dept. of Agriculture Soil and Water Assessment Tool
About Data
Data Collected Domain
Integrated
Describe the data domain
agricultural waste; climate change; demographic; human behavior; waste recovery technologies; hydrologic; policy and technology adoption; population growth; economic growth; water use; socio-metabolic data
Data Collected Methodology
Mixed-methods
Describe Data Methodology
SES hot spots mapping; quantitative assessment of waste streams and recovery technologies; qualitative assessment of social pressures and relationships in the FEWS
Data Collected Biophysical Scale
Local
Landscape/Watershed
Regional/Basin
Data Collected Social/Organizational Scale
City
Data Collected Temporal Scale
Contemporary
Describe Data Scale
Biophysical scale: Upper Snake River Basin, ID; Twin Falls, ID; Magic Valley counties, ID.

Social scale:

Temporal scale:
Data Combined
No
Integrated Method
SES hot spots mapping; coupled modeling using social, hydrological, and waste stream data to create a water-energy-waste stream balance model; water-energy-waste stream balance model to evaluate alternative future environmental, economic, and social scenarios; integrated geographic and demographic approach to estimate population distribution; coupled agent-based modeling using technological, biophysical, and social data streams as well as scenarios derived from stakeholders
Data Methodology
Coupled Indicators
Coupled Modeling
Geospatial
Project Personnel
Project Personnel
Person with Project
Role
Lead
PI
Discipline
Biologist
Social Scientist
Social Ecological Systems Scientist
Person with Project
Role
Co-Lead
Co-PI
Discipline
Geographer
Landscape Ecologist
Social Ecological Systems Scientist
Planning
Person with Project
Role
Co-Lead
Co-PI
Discipline
Hydrologist
Geographer