Integrating sustainability indicators and governance structures via clustering analysis and multicriteria decision making for an urban agriculture network

Abstract

Environmental, social, and economic sustainability patterns interact in various dimensions of an urban environment. Exacerbated population growth triggers an emphasis on better resource management strategies addressing the balance of supply and demand over food, energy, and water sectors while considering social and economic development. Promoting sustainable development goals requires governance structures and functions within and across the food, energy, and water sectors, specifically due to polycentric urban development. This study emphasizes food security via an urban agriculture network in the greater Miami metropolitan area, encompassing the three counties of Palm-Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade. Given the existing governance structure, we quantified several sustainability indices for clustering analysis to agglomerate urban agricultural sites (UASs) and to help identify the priority of clusters in terms of vulnerability or risk level according to their priority index in multicriteria decision-making. The cases of eight clusters were selected for the visualization of the UASs ranked by multicriteria decision-making based on scenarios prioritized for governance under the impacts of climate change, social equity, and economic development. The role of governance structure was highlighted for signifying the incentive programs to enhance the overall sustainability performance of UASs in an urban food–energy–water nexus.

Keywords

• Urban Sustainability
• Governance
• Urban Agriculture
• Clustering
• Food–Energy–Water Nexus