Optimization Of Urban Systems Using A Nexus Based Urban Algae Production

Abstract

Global urbanization–triggered resource stress and climate change have become the prime motivators for sustainable development goals among countries. A system based nexus in the main three resources—food, water, and energy—is now the leading approach to better integrating ecology and urban development by 2030. Indeed, sustainable nexus-driven food security and development is becoming significant in Qatar’s 2030 Future Vision, and several crop production, clean energy, and water technology initiatives have been launched in the past few years, some which include ecological services found in algal species toward greening water systems. Nevertheless, Qatar’s food security remains exceedingly vulnerable. The recent geopolitical stress in the region, caused by a blockade of the neighboring countries from which Qatar most actively imported its food, resulted in a rapid shift toward increasing the locally produced food industry and structures, amplifying an already existing high global footprint due to the absence of synergy between the existing urban infrastructure and the growing food production system. The research approaches the nexus from a foodentry perspective to highlight algae-based product systems as a new paradigm through which to integrate existing systems within urban contexts possessing specific socioeconomic characteristics. This product can simultaneously contribute to redirecting the silo-food and resource infrastructure systems within the cycle of urban food, energy, and water toward higher productivity and efficiency. Through a body of literature and previous nexus-based initiatives, a nexus framework is identified and expanded upon to guide the research discussion toward developing high-level integration between existing urban resource and fabric systems and algae as an agriculture production system. In a series of numerical calculations and system dynamic models on a local district (Qatar University Campus), the research will evaluate the effect of the manifest system based on the environmental considerations of the nexus framework, which will also highlight the compatibility between the surrounding latent city’s urban socioeconomic needs and the overall footprint crisis.