The FEWSION for Community Resilience (F4R) Process: Building Local Technical and Social Capacity for Critical Supply Chain Resilience

Frontiers in Environmental Science, posted March 26, 2021

Release of the article by Ryan, S., Roberts, E., Hibbett, E., Bloom, N., Haden, C., Rushforth, R., Pfeiffer, K. & Ruddell, B.L. (2021). “The FEWSION for Community Resilience™ (F4R™) Process: Building Local Technical and Social Capacity for Critical Supply Chain Resilience.” Front. Environ. Sci., 26 March 2021. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2021.601220

“Local business leaders, policy makers, elected officials, city planners, emergency managers, and private citizens are responsible for, and deeply affected by, the performance of critical supply chains and related infrastructures. At the center of critical supply chains is the food-energy-water nexus (FEW); a nexus that is key to a community’s wellbeing, resilience, and sustainability. In the 21st century, managing a local FEW nexus requires accurate data describing the function and structure of a community’s supply chains. However, data is not enough; we need data-informed conversation and technical and social capacity building among local stakeholders to utilize the data effectively. There are some resources available at the mesoscale and for food, energy, or water, but many communities lack the data and tools needed to understand connections and bridge the gaps between these scales and systems. As a result, we currently lack the capacity to manage these systems in small and medium sized communities where the vast majority of people, decisions, and problems reside. This study develops and validates a participatory citizen science process for FEW nexus capacity building and data-driven problem solving in small communities at the grassroots level. The FEWSION for Community Resilience (F4R) process applies a Public Participation in Scientific Research (PPSR) framework to map supply chain data for a community’s FEW nexus, to identify the social network that manages the nexus, and then to generate a data-informed conversation among stakeholders…”

Read the full article on Frontiers in Environmental Science HERE.

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