Feeding and fueling the cities of the 21st century: Implications of declining energy quality and availability on the future growth and development of urban areas.

摘要

This dissertation comprises an introduction and four manuscripts and is organized into two main sections: agriculture and energy. Three of the four manuscripts have been published, and the fourth has been accepted for publication pending minor revisions. The agriculture section contains the first two manuscripts: The first manuscript is an analysis of the edible energy efficiency of US and Canadian agriculture. The main conclusion of this study was that the efficiency of US agriculture increased three-fold from its low in 1970 to 2000. Yet agricultural efficiency has returned to the level of only the 1940s and has increased much more slowly over the past two decades.;In the second manuscript, I quantify the food demand, production, and footprint for Onondaga County and Syracuse, NY over the past 100 years. I find that the county could meet only 15% of its food demand from current farmland. The energy equivalent to approximately 2.8 million barrels of oil is required each year to grow and ship the food demanded by county residents.;The energy section contains manuscripts three and four. The third manuscript contains a quantification of the transitions in the energy metabolism over the growth and maturation of a US city, by comparing the urban respiration of fuels to the annual net primary production of the land in and immediately surrounding the city. The fourth manuscript examines the net energy and greenhouse gas balance for willow energy-crop systems, a potential source of local energy production. We estimate that an EROI of 18:1 to 43:1 is possible at the farm-gate.;Finally, I assess the opportunities for improving the energy metabolism of the City of Syracuse, using both supply and demand-based interventions. After considering many of the interventions available to improve the energy metabolism of the city, no one technology or policy or combination thereof appears to have the potential to replace fossil fuel consumption or reduce energy demand to the level needed to supply the city's energy demand solely from renewable (solar-based) energy sources. Absent fossil fuels, the energy consumption in Syracuse would have to contract by at least 64%.