2006 Brisbane
WATER SCARCITY + FOOD MARKETS john sunwoo Nearly 70% of the world’s fresh water is used for agriculture. While water shortages are regional in character, their collective impact on food prices are global. A drought in one part of the world reduces worldwide stockpiles of certain crops, in turn leading to increases in the price of those goods. In impoverished regions of the world, households often spend up to 80% of their budgets on food. Because of the globalization of food markets, destabilization and starvation can result from water shortages anywhere in the world. Compounding these concerns is the nearly ubiquitous use of nonrenewable sources of potable water by largescale farms. Around the middle of the 20th century, a combination of market forces and fears of food shortages led to the general adoption of new practices collectively termed the Green Revolution. Among other changes, farmers began to rely heavily on irrigation to increase the productivity of their land, effectively shifting their water supply from rainfall to underground aquifers. As a result of this shift, food items have themselves become large consumers of nonrenewable water resources in a given locality. By understanding this link between the food produced in a region and its water resources, one can trace the role that trade plays in the redistribution of water resources. Studies conducted by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations show how commerce in agriculture can be understood as a network of water trading. Seen in this way, water scarcity is less a result of geography than an economic condition. If the effect of water shortages on food prices is global, the effect of the global trade in food is very much local. The trade of food exaggerates the continual impoverishment of certain populations, especially those in developing countries with agriculturally based economies. Nations that have difficulty providing clean water for municipal needs like drinking and sanitation consistently trade water to other regions in the form of agricultural exports. The expansion of farmland leads to the devastation of regional ecologies, and irrigation drains existing freshwater resources faster than they can replenish themselves. As water becomes a scarce commodity, these problems will only intensify. To address these issues, a strategy must take into consideration the role of water resources in global food markets.
The Hudson Regional Modeling Initiative While the Citizen’s Guide project is a critical tool for understanding development pressures in a specific region, the UDL recognizes the need for more comprehensive and adaptive assessment tools for fluvial areas facing intense development, density, and resource constraints. While conditions in every region are unique, the necessity of engaging a wide and complex range of variables in evaluating future development scenarios must be recognized by all planners and policymakers. Given the increasing volatility of climatic, economic, and demographic conditions in the 21st century, it will be necessary to develop evaluative tools and methods that are comprehensive, heavily data-driven, flexible, and responsive to real-time conditions. It is with this goal that the UDL has embarked on the Hudson Regional Modeling Initiative (HRMI).
The “Hudson region� is a loose designation defined by geographic, hydrographic, and urban conditions. Centered around the Lower Hudson River, a 150-mile-long tidal estuary, the region maintains distinct geographical characteristics while simultaneously being inextricably linked with the megalopolis of the New York City metropolitan area, which lies at the mouth of the river. The Hudson region has played a critical role in the development of New York City as a result of the construction of the Erie Canal, and it has continued to influence the city as transportation modes and the trajectories of global commerce have changed. As the region has experienced rampant development over the past several decades due to its role as a critical transportation corridor and its proximity to New York City, increasing infrastructural pressures have exposed the need for more comprehensive planning tools to ensure the continued viability of the region both economically and environmentally. Additionally, the Lower Hudson itself, long neglected as a repository of various industrial byproducts, has seen concerted efforts at rehabilitation over the past decade. Nevertheless, severe water-quality and use issues persist, including combined sewage overflow discharge and the massive water volume needed to cool the Indian Point
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The HRMI is an ongoing project that is intended as a test bed for integrating urban planning and policy with design, technology, and sustainable development. HRMI is a potential decision-support model for the long-term future design and planning of the Hudson Valley region, as well as an urban-knowledge platform to evaluate the challenges of climate change, population growth, and environmental health facing the wider New York City area and global cities around the world.