A framework for understanding and modelling the links between food, water and energy in the rapidly urbanizing city of Pune, India

A. Jain Figueroa, C. Klassert, M. Smilovic, J-Y. Lee, T. Kahil, P. Burek, R. Karutz, Y. Zhu, H. Zozmann, K. Küblböck, I. Omann, H, Grohs, B. Klauer, Y. Wada, R. Naylor, S.M. Gorelick

2020 American Geophysical Union December meeting, San Francisco, CA

coupled human-natural systems. We discuss the design and initial development of a systems model with a focus on important feedbacks between sectors and resources. The model design incorporates an innovative co-creation approach in which stakeholders are engaged via sustainable living labs and the challenges they help identify are translated into model components. The model connects watershed and crop water use process modules with detailed multi-agent representations of urban, agricultural, and institutional economic decisions. The assessment takes place in Pune, one of the fastest growing metropolitan regions in India. Pune has a population exceeding 7 million, a 3.5 percent annual population growth rate, and a changing socio-economic, cultural, agricultural and climate situation. . The model reflects how the city, farmers, and the environment might respond over the next 80 years. The model will help us to better understand and assess the food-water-energy nexus by revealing sets of possible adaptations to changes in urbanization, population, and climate. Using selected examples, we illustrate the process by which we can quantify important human consequences (vulnerability and risks) of these changes, and how we can assess different policy interventions for Pune to identify sustainable, resilient, and equitable solutions.