Katya Yatskovskaya - The impact of water availablility on food security
Duration: 18 mins 38 secs
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About this item
| Description: | Audio from a talk in Plenary 4. |
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| Created: | 2015-07-13 15:45 |
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| Collection: |
Global Food Security Cambridge Symposium 2015
Global Food Security |
| Publisher: | University of Cambridge |
| Copyright: | Will Simonson |
| Language: | eng (English) |
| Abstract: | As a result of globalisation, national and local manufacturing operations have become increasingly embedded within the global economy. This has facilitated a greater interdependence of countries, in terms of product supply and the natural resources required in the manufacturing and production process for a wide range of commodities, services, and goods (UN 2008).
Global SC networks, however, are increasingly experiencing resource constraints from commodities such as water in a growing number of locations. This has been brought about by the intensification of local resource consumption in order to supply regional and global markets, and local environmental factors that have eroded natural resource levels and/or increased water stress through greater consumption patterns e.g. through population growth. As a result, water quantity and water quantity induced by both global and local factors can carry potential risks for business operations in particular locations. Over the last decade, several large multinational companies have become increasingly vulnerable to water related risks in their production operations. These risks include water overuse, droughts, flooding, and water poisoning and have all led to changes within the firm’s SC. The research aims to develop a theoretical framework linking SC configuration to local water resource availability and global consumption through the lens of natural capital theory (NCT). The central units of analysis of the work are SC configuration characteristics, including SC network structure, governance structure, process and information flow, and product structure that all build on theoretical developments in SC design and water availability levels. The quantification of water availability is undertaken through its concomitant characteristics captured in water tables, level of urbanisation, climate change projections, and water quality data. |
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