Proposal for a Database of Food-Energy-Water-Nexus Projects

This chapter outlines a proposed Food-Energy-Water (FEW)-database, explicitly designed for architects and urban designers. The database is global, with the intent being to describe both commonalities and gaps across the varied physical, social and economic environments, and more importantly to examine the possibility of scaling methods and socio-economic approaches. A theoretical framework is presented and developed into a proposal for the content that is required to understand FEW-projects from this point of view and how the information might be organised most clearly for the purpose of comparing outcomes and processes. The format is tested and extended by built examples located around the world. These indicate that a true comparison is difficult without more detailed economic data, which is inherently difficult to obtain, though it may be estimated through indirect sources. Future efforts are required to gather such information, expressly to find ways that Keynesian ‘Animal Spirits’ can be provoked to take up and scale FEW-methods and concepts in a truly significant way.