Untangling the Food-Water-Soil Nexus through the Lens of Ecosystem Services and Disservices in Urban Gardens
Phạm Trung Kiên, Liliane Jean-Soro, Huong Le Thi Thu, Bernard De-Gouvello, Béatrice Bechet
Earth Environmental Sustainability
Urban Farm DB summary
Arguing that existing "Water-Energy-Food" nexus thinking fails to capture the complexity of urban nature-based solutions such as urban gardens, this perspective paper proposes a "Food-Water-Soil (FWS) nexus" framework analyzed through the dual lens of ecosystem services (ES) and ecosystem disservices (EDS), which arise together with ES rather than as mere byproducts. It positions ES and EDS as the core mediating functions that define a system's potential and limits, and conceptualizes soil as a "living infrastructure" whose management-driven dynamic properties govern the trade-offs and synergies between food production and water dynamics.