A dataset cataloging product-specific human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP) in US counties.

This paper describes the dataset associated with the paper "Product-Specific Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production (HANPP) in US Counties" (Paudel et al., 2023). This dataset comprises human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP) values for 3101 counties in the conterminous US for the years 1997, 2002, 2007, and 2012. For this dataset, HANPP is the carbon content of specific crop, timber, and livestock grazing products appropriated by humans in a county in a year. To calculate HANPP, raw agricultural data were downloaded from public databases such as USDA-National Agricultural Statistics Service Quick Stats and Cropland Data Layer, US Forest Service Timber Product Output, and NPP data from MODIS. These data were processed in Microsoft Excel using stoichiometry derived from established scientific literature. HANPP was partitioned by year, county, product, used and unused and above- and below-ground. This complete dataset is published in Mendeley Data and the methods used to compile them are included to make our research well documented, reproducible, and useful for future studies.

Supply chain diversity buffers cities against food shocks.

Food supply shocks are increasing worldwide1,2, particularly the type of shock wherein food production or distribution loss in one location propagates through the food supply chain to other locations3,4. Analogous to biodiversity buffering ecosystems against external shocks5,6, ecological theory suggests that food supply chain diversity is crucial for managing the risk of food shock to human populations7,8. Here we show that boosting a city's food supply chain diversity increases the resistance of a city to food shocks of mild to moderate severity by up to 15 per cent. We develop an intensity-duration-frequency model linking food shock risk to supply chain diversity. The empirical-statistical model is based on annual food inflow observations from all metropolitan areas in the USA during the years 2012 to 2015, years when most of the country experienced moderate to severe droughts. The model explains a city's resistance to food shocks of a given frequency, intensity and duration as a monotonically declining function of the city's food inflow supply chain's Shannon diversity. This model is simple, operationally useful and addresses any kind of hazard. Using this method, cities can improve their resistance to food supply shocks with policies that increase the food supply chain's diversity.

The U.S. food-energy-water system: A blueprint to fill the mesoscale gap for science and decision-making.

Food, energy, and water (FEW) are interdependent and must be examined as a coupled natural-human system. This perspective essay defines FEW systems and outlines key findings about them as a blueprint for future models to satisfy six key objectives. The first three focus on linking the FEW production and consumption to impacts on Earth cycles in a spatially specific manner in order to diagnose problems and identify potential solutions. The second three focus on describing the evolution of FEW systems to identify risks, thus empowering the FEW actors to better achieve the goals of resilience and sustainability. Four key findings about the FEW systems that guide future model development are (1) that they engage ecological, carbon, water, and nutrient cycles most powerfully among all human systems; (2) that they operate primarily at a mesoscale best captured by counties, districts, and cities; (3) that cities are hubs within the FEW system; and (4) that the FEW system forms a complex network.