NSF award to Horvath and research team for a study of environmental impacts of food-energy-water systems in and around cities

Professor Arpad Horvath, and a research team that includes co-PIs CEE Professor Kara Nelson and ESPM Professor Matthew Potts, was awarded a $2.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation and the US Dept. of Agriculture's National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NSF-NIFA) as part of their Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy and Water Systems (INFEWS) program.

The program seeks to address how we will continue to have a sustainable supply of food, energy and water, and protect the ecosystems that provide essential services for humans.

Horvath will be the Principal Investigator on INFEWS/T1: Reducing the Environmental Impacts of FEW Systems in and Around Cities. 

This project will create an integrated food-energy-water systems (FEWS) framework to identify spatially- and process-specific reductions in life-cycle energy and water use, economic costs, environmental impacts, and solutions for resource recovery in urban, suburban, and periurban areas.

Researchers from diverse disciplines at two collaborating universities will consider current and projected future conditions, tradeoffs, and associated uncertainties and sensitivities in these systems.