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Water-food and conflict nexus

Data scarcity limits understanding of hydroclimatic drivers of food and urban security

Nature Water volume 1, pages 315–316 (2023)Cite this article

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Although more than half of the world’s population lives in urban areas, there is a dire lack of data on trade, cost, and origin of the food that the urban dwellers rely on. Understanding the impact of escalating water-food systems variability on urban quality of life is critical for designing data systems needed to implement appropriate policies and state-supported interventions in urban areas.

Despite the urgent need, there is little data available to determine the impact of agricultural production variability on urban food availability in states where conflict occurs at a neighbourhood scale, such as in Central America. Yield losses caused by drought and other hydrological extremes may affect rural livelihoods, food and resource availability in urban areas, and national economic growth. However, given the very poor information on agricultural yields and planted area, coupled with only periodic information on urban food security, demographic characteristics and population change, and details on how exposure to violence shapes behaviours and communities in terms of food insecurity, it is difficult to determine the direct and indirect effect of climate hazards on an urban population. The perception of vulnerability and risk to food security in informal urban settlements due to hydrological hazards and interannual variability of food production can lead to extreme community responses. Disasters in Central America go well beyond immediate climate stress, including physical hazards from floods and hurricanes, marginalization, exclusion, colonialism, inequality, racism, and other social injustices. Datasets that allow for the quantification of these social concerns and lived experiences — which will vary by person and place — together with crop yield, inter-regional and international trade, and income differences in informal sectors are often totally lacking, limiting research on these topics.

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Fig. 1: Ripe coffee cherries handpicked on a coffee farm in western El Salvador, Central America.

John Coletti/The Image Bank/Getty

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geographic Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Molly E. Brown

  2. Geography, Environment & Society, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    Kathryn L. Grace

Authors
  1. Molly E. Brown
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  2. Kathryn L. Grace
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Correspondence to Molly E. Brown or Kathryn L. Grace.

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The author declares no competing interests.

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Brown, M.E., Grace, K.L. Data scarcity limits understanding of hydroclimatic drivers of food and urban security. Nat Water 1, 315–316 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-023-00066-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-023-00066-9

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