56
It is also important to note that much (most?) energy does not go into providing
energy services but is dissipated as heat before its use. This is especially true in
thermal power plants using turbines and internal combustion engines.
Also note that the flow diagram in Fig. 2.4 is not a model, but rather data that
is visualized using a specific type of visualization method (the Sankey diagram).
While Fig. 2.4 represents how energy and water flows go to different sectors
and how much is consumed and discarded, it does not explain the intention of
the flows, embody scientific and engineering concepts, show interactions and
causation, or allow the user to experiment with changes to inputs and interactions
to see what outcomes result. This diagram is descriptive and is based on
empirical data.
2.6 From Separate Systems to an Integrated System
of Systems
2.6.1 Science
In the previous sections, we have seen how food, energy, and water each play a part
in careful studies of systems of the other two components. As such systems become
ever more comprehensive, the treatment of the other elements become ever more
detailed, until those systems become subsystems embedded in a more extensive
system. Advanced studies of food systems, for example, will include many water
and energy interactions, both direct and indirect. Where sets of those interactions
are connected, they begin to be recognized as components of the food system with
internal attributes of a system—mini-systems. Thus, advances in the study of food,
energy, and water systems separately (separated FEW systems) lead to considerations of an integrated “system of systems.”
2.6.2 Sustainability
There is also a sustainability path to the same outcome. Societies have thought
about how to sustainably provide themselves with essential food, energy, and water
services for millennia. The conflicts between efforts to provide the three critical
consumables have also been long recognized. The environmental consequences of
meeting the rapidly expanding demand for each of the three came to the fore in the
1960s and received serious attention in 1972, at the United Nations Conference on
the Human Environment in Stockholm, Sweden, now referred to as the Stockholm
Conference (The UN is explored in see Sect. 6.2.2).
P. Saundry and B. L. Ruddell
It is also important to note that much (most?) energy does not go into providing
energy services but is dissipated as heat before its use. This is especially true in
thermal power plants using turbines and internal combustion engines.
Also note that the flow diagram in Fig. 2.4 is not a model, but rather data that
is visualized using a specific type of visualization method (the Sankey diagram).
While Fig. 2.4 represents how energy and water flows go to different sectors
and how much is consumed and discarded, it does not explain the intention of
the flows, embody scientific and engineering concepts, show interactions and
causation, or allow the user to experiment with changes to inputs and interactions
to see what outcomes result. This diagram is descriptive and is based on
empirical data.
2.6 From Separate Systems to an Integrated System
of Systems
2.6.1 Science
In the previous sections, we have seen how food, energy, and water each play a part
in careful studies of systems of the other two components. As such systems become
ever more comprehensive, the treatment of the other elements become ever more
detailed, until those systems become subsystems embedded in a more extensive
system. Advanced studies of food systems, for example, will include many water
and energy interactions, both direct and indirect. Where sets of those interactions
are connected, they begin to be recognized as components of the food system with
internal attributes of a system—mini-systems. Thus, advances in the study of food,
energy, and water systems separately (separated FEW systems) lead to considerations of an integrated “system of systems.”
2.6.2 Sustainability
There is also a sustainability path to the same outcome. Societies have thought
about how to sustainably provide themselves with essential food, energy, and water
services for millennia. The conflicts between efforts to provide the three critical
consumables have also been long recognized. The environmental consequences of
meeting the rapidly expanding demand for each of the three came to the fore in the
1960s and received serious attention in 1972, at the United Nations Conference on
the Human Environment in Stockholm, Sweden, now referred to as the Stockholm
Conference (The UN is explored in see Sect. 6.2.2).
P. Saundry and B. L. Ruddell