UL Lafayette researchers secure funding from the NSF to study the Food-Energy-Water nexus

Dr. David Borrok in the School of Geosciences with collaborators Dr. Rafael Hernandez in Chemical Engineering, Dr. David Stevens in the College of Business Administration, and Dr. Whitney Broussard III in the Institute for Coastal and Water Research have received a $96,645 grant to study relationships among food, energy, and water. 

Borrok says, “Relationships in the Food-Energy-Water nexus become extremely important when stress from drought or other pressures leads to strong competition for natural resources”.  He continues, “We need water for irrigation to produce food, but often times we need the same water to help produce electricity and drill for natural gas and oil.  The goal of our study is to understand these relationships so we can find sustainable ways to manage our natural resources”.  The Food-Energy-Water project supplements an existing, large-scale interdisciplinary study of water usage and management in Southwestern Louisiana.