JPI Urban Europe/NSFC: Sustainable, Innovative, Resilient, and Interconnected Urban food System

Sustainable urbanisation is coupled with the sustainability and resilience of 'glocal' food production and
consumption. Economic transformation and climate change have brought complex and dynamic challenges
for urban food systems, while new urban economies and social innovations are emerging in various
countries to tackle food problems. However, identifying and assessing transition pathways of future urban
food systems remain primarily neglected in studies on urban sustainability. Local planners and policy-makers
seek scientific guidance and learning opportunities about mechanisms to navigate towards sustainable urban
food systems. This project will develop interdisciplinary methods, innovative understandings, and practical
managerial insights bridging socio-spatial contexts in China and Europe. It will shed light on trends of urban
food production and consumption in Chinese and European cities, and identify the natural and societal
factors that will influence the vulnerability and resilience of urban food supply chains. This project will reveal
how new business models, social entrepreneurship, and other innovations in the urban food sector are
evolving locally. Our research outcomes will enhance the governance capacity in transitioning urban food
systems, and establish learning arenas that illuminate similarities and differences of urban planning and
decision-making on urban food system governance in China and Europe.

The UK team will specifically be responsible or closely involved in two work packages (WP2 and WP4). WP 2 will look into the changing patterns of global supply chains of specific categories of food products in each case city. The project team will work with the leading global food brands and local suppliers/vendors to extract food supply chain data at the city level. Based on the business-level data sets, the team will apply GIS-based data monitoring or processing to track the food flows among place of interests (POIs) in city regions. This will establish a solid foundation to estimate the potential impact or even disruptions on those supply chains due to natural climate change and socioeconomic transformation, globally and locally. To be more specific, collected data will be overlapped with Remote Sensing data sets wherever appropriate to track urban food flows (e.g., processing, packaging, grocery, household, waste) geographically.

WP4 will empirically examine how the case study cities (intend to, or not yet recognise to) govern the transformation towards a sustainable urban food system. It will initiate a critical science-policy discussion on whether the cities currently have the necessary capacities, or whether new governance arrangements might be required to address the sustainability challenges and transformation demands of the urban food system as identified in WPs 1-3. We will explore the histories, presents, and outcomes of urban food governance and policy implementations, in particular, to analyze the governance of urban food systems in the four case cities. This will provide a trans-local understanding of the mechanisms through which urban food policies are mobilised and altered in various places and how these processes shape food systems in cities. we will then analyse how actors in the case cities translate urban food policies into concrete practices to initiate changes in the urban food system, and how food sustainability, resilience or innovations are prioritised politically (or not). Based on multi-level governance theories and content analysis of institutional documents on governance strategies, the vital urban actors in the public sector and their strategies (e.g. leapfrogging, experimental governance) and concrete practices of implementation will be studied.

The proposed project will interact with many key stakeholders through various approaches during the three-year exploration on urban food systems. The policy insights from the proposed project will deliver knowledge
exchange, policy learning, business impact and societal benefits for a sustainable urban future. Supported
by city partners and impact group partners, the research is designed from the very beginning to identify and
actively engage with users and stakeholders in the following ways:

-Urban planning and policy making
Public policy and regulation in both China and Europe can be insufficient in terms of lagging political
agenda and misplaced rule-making. In the context of trans-locality again, the jurisdictions of urban
planners and local decision-makers can be quite limited or not prioritised for the food sector. Such
insufficiency is especially significant for environmental or social sustainability-related issues. The
proposed project will generate policy briefs that will improve the planning and implementation
practices for managing the urban food system. It will also facilitate practical learning for key actors in
the public sector through interactive workshops, continuous advisory engagement and digital
network platform, so that the actors will be prepared with knowledge, skills and resources to tackle
urban food challenges.

-Business community
Focal brand companies in the food industries have their own agenda of sustainability management,
but are also facing enormous pressures from investors, NGOs, media and the consumers who have
various sustainability concerns. By working with food companies and food suppliers and social
20 entrepreneurs, extensive knowledge exchange will be expected during the research development, to
shed lights on the resilience of their supply chain management, and explore the interconnections
between supply chain risk and urban resilience.

In the meantime, the proposed project will also offer valuable knowledge and expertise to SMEs and
social entrepreneurs - including digital start-ups, civil societies, urban-farming communities, and
smallholders in the food sectors - e.g., Mom and Pop shops instead of chain store supermarkets.
The project will explore the business innovation niche in the context of sustainability and transitions,
and provide best practices to scale up or become adaptive, so that food-related SMEs can improve
both sustainability and economic performance of their business. The researchers will also engage
with them on the proper strategies to adaptively manage customer relationship with focal companies,
so that more win-win solutions can be achieved at practical level to realise supply chain sustainability.

-Citizens and society
The project outcomes will lead to positive changes in food policies and urban food management in
both public and private sectors. Thus the project shall improve the quality of life and urban livability
regarding healthier dietary structure, stable urban food prices, secured urban food supply and less
environmental impact in urban farming.