COVID-19 Reveals Vulnerabilities of the Food-Energy-Water Nexus to Viral Pandemics

Mothers' Experiences During the 2022 Infant Formula Shortage in Washington D.C

INTRODUCTION

An unprecedented shortage of infant formula occurred in the United States (U.S.) in 2022 and posed widespread challenges to infant feeding nationwide. The purpose of this study is to investigate mothers' experiences during the 2022 infant formula shortage and its perceived impacts on infants' diet and health.

METHODS

Mothers (n = 45) of infants under 8 months old from Washington D.C. were invited to participate in a virtual study meeting during the summer of 2022. Mothers completed surveys regarding their demographics, infants' anthropometrics, infant feeding practices, information they have received about infant feeding, and knowledge about infant feeding practices. They then participated in a qualitative interview about their experiences during the infant formula shortage.

RESULTS

Overarching themes were: the shortage (1) had adverse impacts on mothers' mental and emotional health; (2) had significant financial and intangible costs; (3) led to changes in infant feeding practices; (4) social and family networks were helpful in navigating the shortage; and (5) mothers felt fortunate to have resources to breastfeed and/or obtain formula.

DISCUSSION

The infant formula shortage adversely impacted mothers' mental and emotional health, and was costly, in terms of financial and intangible costs. Findings demonstrate the need to develop clinical and policy approaches to support mothers in feeding their infants and provide education about safe infant feeding practices.

Geohealth Policy Benefits Are Mediated by Interacting Natural, Engineered, and Social Processes

Interest in health implications of Earth science research has significantly increased. Articles frequently dispense policy advice, for example, to reduce human contaminant exposures. Recommendations such as fish consumption advisories rarely reflect causal reasoning around tradeoffs or anticipate how scientific information will be received and processed by the media or vulnerable communities. Health is the product of interacting social and physical processes, yet predictable responses are often overlooked. Analysis of physical and social mechanisms, and health and non-health tradeoffs, is needed to achieve policy benefits rather than "policy impact." Dedicated funding mechanisms would improve the quality and availability of these analyses.

Urban resilience under the COVID-19 pandemic: A quantitative assessment framework based on system dynamics

The COVID-19 pandemic, which lasted for three years, has had a great impact on the public health system, society and economy of cities, revealing the insufficiency of urban resilience under large-scale public health events (PHEs). Given that a city is a networked and multidimensional system with complex interactions, it is helpful to improve urban resilience under PHEs based on system thinking. Therefore, this paper proposes a dynamic and systematic urban resilience framework that incorporates four subsystems (governance, infrastructures, socioeconomy and energy-material flows). The composite index, system dynamics and epidemic simulation model are integrated into the framework to show the nonlinear relationships in the urban system and reflect the changing trend of urban resilience under PHEs. Then, urban resilience under different epidemic scenarios and response policy scenarios is calculated and discussed to provide some suggestions for decision-makers when faced with the trade-off between the control of PHEs and the maintenance of city operation. The paper concludes that control policies could be adjusted according to the characteristics of PHEs; strict control policies under a severe epidemic could lead to a significant decrease in urban resilience, while a more flexible control strategy can be adopted under a mild epidemic scenario to ensure the normal operation of urban functions. Moreover, the critical functions and impact factors of each subsystem are identified.

Energy and water: COVID-19 impacts and implications for interconnected sustainable development goals

The COVID-19 pandemic presented a chance to investigate the effects of system-wide emergencies on major global commodities such as water and energy. In terms of environmental policies and attaining supply security, these developmental goals are interrelated. Despite pandemic disruptions, there is a compelling need for a systematization in these areas for the transition to clean water access and sustainable energy. This article presents a comprehensive assessment of the effects of COVID-19 on these two sustainable development goals. Further, an integrated aspect of water and energy access for sustainable development is evaluated with insights on the effects of COVID-19 on the water-energy nexus. Additionally, technological evolution for building better water and energy supply systems is presented. An insight into developing robust healthcare systems and how the water and energy SDGs affect population dynamics is also speculated, which indicates varied short-term adaption experiences, and highlights the need for a re-evaluation of the water-energy nexus. The integrated solutions contributing to stability of the water supply chain, energy storage, and policy making during and after an outbreak are critical to achieving developmental goals.

A systematic approach for assessing water, energy and food security during the COVID-19 pandemic: case study of Mexico

Assessing the security of the water-energy-food nexus is a topic of great importance, which allows determining the situation of each resource to implement actions for sustainable management of these resources in today's society. For this reason, a systematic procedure is proposed to evaluate the synergies of the water-energy-food nexus in a large region that is divided into subregions that allow considering their interactions. The new procedure considers the availability, accessibility and regional interdependence of resources while annexing economic and social aspects. A composite index called the WEF Global Index is developed, which involves the WEF nexus index and has nine indicators that evaluate the availability, accessibility and regional interdependence of each resource in the water-energy-food nexus. This new index considers the Gross Domestic Product per capita and the involved population. As a case study, the 32 states of Mexico were considered to assess the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy and the security of the water-energy-food nexus at the state level. For this, the composite index was evaluated in the years 2019 and 2020. The results show that from 2019 to 2020, the value of the global index increased in 13 states, in 21 states the security index of the WEF nexus increased, and in 9 states the GDP per capita index increased. On the other hand, the results indicate that in 11 states there was no improvement in the nexus security index due to the increase in water demand, which considerably affected the water availability indicator.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10668-022-02671-2.

Using simulation modelling and systems science to help contain COVID-19: A systematic review

This study systematically reviews applications of three simulation approaches, that is, system dynamics model (SDM), agent-based model (ABM) and discrete event simulation (DES), and their hybrids in COVID-19 research and identifies theoretical and application innovations in public health. Among the 372 eligible papers, 72 focused on COVID-19 transmission dynamics, 204 evaluated both pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical interventions, 29 focused on the prediction of the pandemic and 67 investigated the impacts of COVID-19. ABM was used in 275 papers, followed by 54 SDM papers, 32 DES papers and 11 hybrid model papers. Evaluation and design of intervention scenarios are the most widely addressed area accounting for 55% of the four main categories, that is, the transmission of COVID-19, prediction of the pandemic, evaluation and design of intervention scenarios and societal impact assessment. The complexities in impact evaluation and intervention design demand hybrid simulation models that can simultaneously capture micro and macro aspects of the socio-economic systems involved.

An examination of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) accessibility and opportunity in urban informal settlements during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from Nairobi, Kenya

This research examines water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) accessibility and opportunity in Kibera and Mathare during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. Kibera and Mathare are two of the largest urban informal settlements in Nairobi (the capital city of Kenya) as well as Sub-Saharan Africa. Accessibility indicates how easily a person can reach WASH facilities from their home by walking. Opportunity represents how many WASH options a person has near their home. We utilize the data on water and toilet facilities collected by GroundTruth Initiative in partnership with Map Kibera Trust (local community partners) between February and April 2021 - amid the COVID-19 pandemic. By conducting quantitative geospatial analysis, we illustrate WASH accessibility and related issues that were not evident in previous studies: (1) 77.4% of people living in Kibera have limited WASH facility accessibility or opportunity; (2) 60.6% of people living in Mathare have limited WASH facility accessibility or opportunity; (3) there is a clear geographic pattern in WASH facility accessibility and opportunity; and (4) overall accessibility and opportunity is better in Mathare than in Kibera. This study is one of the first studies to examine WASH accessibility and opportunity in urban informal settlements during the COVID-19 pandemic by utilizing the current data and quantitative geospatial methods. Based on the results, we discuss important public health policy implications for people living in urban informal settlements to improve their WASH facility accessibility and opportunity during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Recover the food-energy-water nexus from COVID-19 under Sustainable Development Goals acceleration actions

The interwoven relationship between food, energy, and water (FEW) is described as the FEW nexus. The COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted the FEW nexus and impeded the progress of FEW-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (SDG 2: Zero Hunger; 6: Clean Water and Sanitation; 7: Affordable and Clean Energy). We aim to find solutions to recover the FEW nexus from COVID-19. First, we discussed the challenges faced by FEW amid COVID-19. Second, we observed responses of the FEW nexus under COVID-19's interference. Finally, we proposed the solutions that guide the FEW nexus in recovery from the pandemic by mining 164 FEW-related SDG Acceleration Actions. The key solutions include 1) building or upgrading FEW facilities and infrastructure, 2) improving nature's contribution to the FEW nexus, 3) developing digital technologies, 4) innovating the source and production of FEW, and 5) promoting community production and transforming the lifestyle. Our work highlights the importance of feasible and accelerated actions that recover the FEW nexus in the post-pandemic era.