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The interdependencies of food and water within the water-energy-food nexus for the City of Cape Town
Thesis (MEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2024.
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | en_ZA en_ZA |
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Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
2024
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| _version_ | 1867614087294222336 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Hofmann, Viola Sofia |
| author2 | Goosen, Neill Jurgens |
| author_browse | Goosen, Neill Jurgens Hofmann, Viola Sofia |
| author_facet | Goosen, Neill Jurgens Hofmann, Viola Sofia |
| author_sort | Hofmann, Viola Sofia |
| collection | Thesis |
| dc_rights_str_mv | Stellenbosch University |
| description | Thesis (MEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2024. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/130384 |
| institution | Stellenbosch University (South Africa) |
| language | en_ZA en_ZA |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:46:27.621Z |
| license_str | Other — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| publishDateRange | 2024 |
| publishDateSort | 2024 |
| publisher | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| publisherStr | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| spelling | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/130384 The interdependencies of food and water within the water-energy-food nexus for the City of Cape Town Hofmann, Viola Sofia Goosen, Neill Jurgens Görgens, Johann Ferdinand Egieya, Jafaru Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Engineering. Dept. of Chemical Engineering. Process Engineering. Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Engineering. Dept. of Chemical Engineering. Process Engineering. Natural resources -- Management Food supply -- Government policy -- Cape Town (South Africa) Climatic changes -- Cape Town (South Africa) Renewable energy sources -- Cape Town (South Africa) Water-supply -- Climatic factors -- Cape Town (South Africa) Sustainable living -- Cape Town (South Africa) Resource insecurities -- Cape Town (South Africa) Water-energy-food nexus -- Cape Town (South Africa) Thesis (MEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2024. ENGLISH ABSTRACT: As a result of climate change, urbanization and rapid population growth, essential resources like water, energy and food are becoming scarcer. The City of Cape Town has been struggling to meet its residents’ demands for water, food and energy in the past years. It is predicted that these issues will aggravate in the future. Between 2015 and 2018 the City of Cape Town experienced a severe drought that led to the implementation of drastic water saving measures. With the progression of climate change, it is expected that extreme weather events like droughts or floods will increase in frequency. Population growth and rapid urbanisation put further strain on essential resources, such as water, energy and food. Without sustainable management the city will not be able to meet its residents’ resource demands in the future. Conventionally, resource problems have been addressed in “silos”, meaning that they have been attended to in isolation from other resources, without regarding the connections between the different sectors. In contrast to this, the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus approach views the three resource sectors as a system of interconnected variables. Through this approach, the influences that changes in one resource sector can have on the other sectors are accounted for. This work focuses on the water-food part of the WEF nexus. The method chosen for this work is system dynamics modelling, as it allows for a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the nexus. For the qualitative part of the model, a causal loop diagram (CLD) was constructed, which depicts the interrelations of the different variables of the resource sectors. Using the insights gained from the CLD, stock and flow diagrams were drawn up. These diagrams form a dynamic model that can simulate the flows and accumulations of resources throughout the system, making up the quantitative part of the system dynamics model. After going through a thorough validation process, different future scenarios were developed to simulate the effects of climate change and population growth on the water – food nexus. The scenarios simulate different severities of climate change effects in combination with population growth projections. These scenarios resulted in various levels of resource scarcity in the water sector, whereas the food sector was found to be relatively independent from the scenarios’ impacts, as the majority of the food resources consumed in the city are imported. There is a number of interventions planned by the city of Cape Town to mitigate the effects of climate change and population growth. These interventions were implemented into the scenarios and evaluated on their effectiveness. While they were generally found to be effective in ensuring the supply of resources to residents, it was discovered that if aquifers are not managed sustainably, the city could run the risk of over-abstraction. Although system dynamics models should never be used as exact prediction methods, they still provide important insights into future trends and can reveal unexpected behaviours of a system. Especially when evaluating future policies or interventions, system dynamics models can function as a valuable decision-making tool. AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Geen opsomming beskikbaar. Masters 2024-03-05T09:06:15Z 2024-04-26T15:38:59Z 2024-03-05T09:06:15Z 2024-04-26T15:38:59Z 2024-03 Thesis https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/130384 en_ZA en_ZA Stellenbosch University xi, 119 pages application/pdf Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| spellingShingle | Natural resources -- Management Food supply -- Government policy -- Cape Town (South Africa) Climatic changes -- Cape Town (South Africa) Renewable energy sources -- Cape Town (South Africa) Water-supply -- Climatic factors -- Cape Town (South Africa) Sustainable living -- Cape Town (South Africa) Resource insecurities -- Cape Town (South Africa) Water-energy-food nexus -- Cape Town (South Africa) Hofmann, Viola Sofia The interdependencies of food and water within the water-energy-food nexus for the City of Cape Town |
| title | The interdependencies of food and water within the water-energy-food nexus for the City of Cape Town |
| title_full | The interdependencies of food and water within the water-energy-food nexus for the City of Cape Town |
| title_fullStr | The interdependencies of food and water within the water-energy-food nexus for the City of Cape Town |
| title_full_unstemmed | The interdependencies of food and water within the water-energy-food nexus for the City of Cape Town |
| title_short | The interdependencies of food and water within the water-energy-food nexus for the City of Cape Town |
| title_sort | interdependencies of food and water within the water energy food nexus for the city of cape town |
| topic | Natural resources -- Management Food supply -- Government policy -- Cape Town (South Africa) Climatic changes -- Cape Town (South Africa) Renewable energy sources -- Cape Town (South Africa) Water-supply -- Climatic factors -- Cape Town (South Africa) Sustainable living -- Cape Town (South Africa) Resource insecurities -- Cape Town (South Africa) Water-energy-food nexus -- Cape Town (South Africa) |
| url | https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/130384 |
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