Castelletti, Andrea

Dotelli, Giovanni

Melià, Paco

Recanati, Francesca

RECANATI, FRANCESCA

CASTELLETTI, ANDREA FRANCESCO

DOTELLI, GIOVANNI

MELIA', PACO VASCO ALDO

Archivio istituzionale della ricerca - Politecnico di Milano

Geophysical Research AbstractsVol. 18, EGU2016-18508, 2016EGU General Assembly 2016© Author(s) 2016. CC Attribution 3.0 License.Exploring water and food security: the water footprint of domestic foodproduction in the Gaza StripFrancesca Recanati (1), Andrea Castelletti (1), Giovanni Dotelli (2), and Paco Melià (1)(1) Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy, (2) Dipartimento diChimica, Materiali e Ingegneria Chimica “G. Natta”, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, ItalyWater scarcity and food security are major issues in the Gaza Strip. This area is characterized by one of the highestdensities in the world and it is affected by both severe scarcity of water resources and limited trading possibil-ities.Given this context, the enhancement of domestic food production is considered a fundamental strategy inachieving food security in the area. For this reason, rural people play a crucial role in implementing sustainablestrategies for enhancing the domestic food production while preserving water resources.In order to investigate the effectiveness of existing agricultural scenarios in achieving food security in a sustainablemanner, we propose a framework to assess food production systems in terms of their contribution to the nutritionaland economic conditions of rural households and their impact on water resources. In particular, the latter has beencarried out through the water footprint indicator proposed by the Water Footprint Network.The case study analyzed is a sample farm located in the Gaza Strip, whose food production is based on horticulture,animal husbandry and aquaculture. The study is articulated into two main parts: first, we compare alternative sce-narios of vegetal and animal food production in terms of food supply, water consumption and economic income atthe household scale; then, we extend the analysis to evaluate the potential contribution of domestic food productionto the food security in the whole Gaza Strip, focusing on the nutritional dimension, and providing a preliminaryassessment of the environmental and economic sustainability. In particular, we evaluate water appropriation fordomestic food production and compare it with the availability of water resources in the region.The outcomes highlight that the domestic food production can potentially satisfy both a basic diet and economicincome for rural household, but the related appropriation of freshwater results unsustainable with respect to thefresh water availability in the Gaza Strip.

Exploring water and food security: the water footprint of domestic food production in the Gaza Strip

http://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2016/EGU2016-18508.pdf

Exploring water and food security: the water footprint of domestic food production in the Gaza Strip

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Archivio istituzionale della ricerca - Politecnico di Milano