Environmental Policies and Practices

**749**

**Chapter 61**

**Abstract**

Data-Driven Food-Oriented Urban

Development: A Framework

Approach for Greater Miami

Utilizing Food Resilience Urban

The conventional global food supply chain and current agricultural practices contribute toward food waste and associated wastage of fiscal and labor resources. Additionally, social, political, and economic pressures have led to the formation of food deserts or food-insecure neighborhoods in areas identified by the US Department of Agriculture. Food insecurity has been linked to poor accessibility to healthy food products leading to higher health-related problems. This research proposes a data-driven assessment framework for a food-oriented approach to urban developments, wherein the food supply chain is driven by local, food production opportunities, demographics, consumer diet, and nutritional requirements. This framework approach utilizes the Food Resilience Urban Infrastructure Tools (FRUIT), a set of analytical instruments developed for improving food accessibility and reducing food waste. FRUIT will model local food production across three urban neighborhoods (census tract) with varying urban densities (low-mediumhigh) in Miami-Dade County. The result demonstrates a spatial and demographic analysis to feed the target population with respect to consumer equity and food consumption trends. This framework incubates community development with urban agriculture projects utilizing a viable roadmap for the financing and return on investment that accelerates innovation and food security for populations living

**Keywords:** food resilience, urban infrastructure, integrated design, food-orientated

It is estimated globally that 31% of all food (by mass) is wasted rather than consumed, representing a massive loss in embodied land, water, labor, and energetic resources [1]. Resource inefficiencies associated with agriculture industry in the United States estimate that food waste is as high as 50% of the total production [2, 3]. These resource inefficiencies stemming from the current agriculture system are compounded throughout the entire food system, ultimately leading to a highly

Infrastructural Tools (FRUIT)

*James Brazil and Shruti Khandelwal*

in food-insecure neighborhoods.

**1. Introduction**

urban development, food-water-energy nexus

#### **Chapter 61**
