Dana CordellUniversity of Technology Sydney | UTS · Institute for Sustainable Futures
Dana Cordell
BE(Eng)(UNSW), MSc (LiU), PhD (LiU), PhD (UTS)
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71
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Introduction
Additional affiliations
January 2010 - August 2016
Publications
Publications (71)
Food systems depend on reliable supplies of phosphorus to fertilize soils. Since 2020, a pandemic, geopolitical disputes, trade wars and escalating fuel prices have driven a >400% increase in phosphorus commodity prices, contributing to the current food crisis. The Russia-Ukraine conflict has disrupted phosphate trade further. Concurrently, phospho...
https://theconversation.com/phosphorus-supply-is-increasingly-disrupted-we-are-sleepwalking-into-a-global-food-crisis-196538
This report sets out the UK’s first comprehensive national phosphorus transformation strategy, based on extensive stakeholder consultation across the UK food system, in addition to economic modelling and biophysical analyses. The UK’s food system is in transition, driven in part by major changes to agricultural policy. It is also under pressure fro...
Pakistan has an agriculture-dependent economy vulnerable to climate impacts. Within Pakistan, Punjab province is a leading regional producer of food and cash crops, and an exporter of agricultural commodities of significance in South Asia. Punjab agriculture provides livelihoods for agriculture-dependent communities living in one of the most populo...
Managing phosphorus underpins the sustainability of the food system and is vital in achieving future food security. Strategies to deliver phosphorus sustainability include a transition to circular phosphorus value chains, land-use planning approaches that support greater phosphorus use efficiency and a reduction in consumption of animal products. A...
There are abundant opportunities to transition towards more sustainable phosphorus use. Taken collectively, these solutions unlock multiple environmental and societal benefits. Actions must be delivered cooperatively, as part of an integrated plan across sectors and scales. Indeed, coordinated action on phosphorus to support governments, existing c...
Two of the biggest global challenges for food security – phosphorus scarcity and climate change – are threatening farmers’ livelihoods, agricultural productivity and environmental integrity. In Sri Lanka, the agricultural sector is comprised largely of smallholder farmers where rain-fed rice is often a staple. Yet climate change projections indicat...
Peri-urban areas are the interface between urban and rural regions, with these regions traditionally acting as foodbowls for adjacent urban areas. This peri-urban agriculture provides a diverse suite of benefits to urban areas. Increasingly, however, peri-urban areas are being converted to residential uses, driven in part by higher land values secu...
We explore a novel means of understanding the roles of stakeholders in sustainability transformations. Conventional readings of stakeholders may not reflect the complexity of social-ecological systems otherwise acknowledged in sustainability science and leave it difficult to read the roles they play in transformations. Our approach attempts to reme...
The chaotic distribution and dispersal of phosphorus (P) used in food systems (defined here as disorderly disruptions to the P cycle) is harming our environment beyond acceptable limits. An analysis of P stores and flows across Europe in 2005 showed that high fertiliser P inputs relative to productive outputs was driving low system P efficiency (38...
Local food production in the Sydney basin provides many benefits -from employment to buffering against climate change- and underpins the resilience of the city. Yet competing priorities for Sydney's fertile farmland could threaten future supplies of fresh, local food.
Dans ce chapitre, nous discutons des nouvelles méthodes d’engagement
employées pour étudier les défis et les opportunités de planification en
matière d’agriculture périurbaine à Sydney. La situation dans les zones
périurbaines de Sydney est semblable à n’importe quelle autre périphérie
urbaine à travers le monde. Ainsi, les idées développées et les...
Phosphorus is an essential part of the world food web and a non-substitutable nutrient in all biological systems. Losses of phosphorus occur along the food-supply chain and cause environmental degradation and eutrophication. A key global challenge is to meet rising worldwide food demand while protecting water and environmental quality, and seeking...
Phosphorus is an essential element for food production whose main global sources are becoming scarce and expensive. Furthermore, losses of phosphorus throughout the food production chain can also cause serious aquatic pollution. Recycling urban organic waste resources high in phosphorus could simultaneously address scarcity concerns for agricultura...
https://theconversation.com/companies-should-take-charge-of-the-potential-toxins-in-common-products-78174
Two of the biggest global challenges for food security – phosphorus scarcity and climate change – are threatening farmers’ livelihoods, agricultural productivity and environmental health. Sri Lanka’s agricultural sector is comprised largely of smallholder farmers, where rain-fed rice is often a staple of the diet. Climate change projections indicat...
Global food production and security rely heavily on finite reserves of newly mined phosphate for fertilizers. However, systemic inefficiencies result in the deposition in aquatic ecosystems of much of the phosphorus mined for food production causing costly eutrophication problems that damage aquatic ecosystems and human health. The Sustainable Phos...
Two of the biggest global challenges for food security – phosphorus scarcity and climate change – are threatening farmers' livelihoods, agricultural productivity and environmental integrity. Risks are particularly high in low-middle income Asia-Pacific countries, yet remain insufficiently assessed or mitigated. In Sri Lanka, with an agricultural se...
Does the complex nature of trandisciplinarity require a special kind of researcher and practitioner? Interviewing 14 of the world’s transdisciplinary leaders, revealed a suite of core qualities that go far beyond skills to include fundamental dispositions and attitudes. We synthesize these as the “Six C’s”: Curiosity, Creativity, Commitment, Critic...
The framework presented in this paper offers an alternative starting point for transdisciplinary research projects seeking to create change. The framework begins at the end: it distinguishes three distinct ‘transdisciplinary outcome spaces’ and proposes articulating their content for purposive transdisciplinary research projects. Defining upfront t...
The impact of global phosphorus scarcity on food security has increasingly been the focus of scientific studies over the past decade. However, systematic analyses of alternative futures for phosphorus supply and demand throughout the food system are still rare and provide limited inclusion of key stakeholders. Addressing global phosphorus scarcity...
Using Sydney as a case study, this report aims to develop an understanding of what best practice looks like for land-use planning on the urban fringe.
Peri-urban areas around the world have traditionally been the food bowls of our cities. Increasing urbanisation is threatening the existence of peri-urban agriculture, paving over the soils that have...
Changes in human diets, population increases, farming practices, and globalized food chains have led to dramatic increases in the demand for phosphorus fertilizers. Long-term food security and water quality are, however, threatened by such increased phosphorus consumption, because the world’s main source, phosphate rock, is an increasingly scarce r...
Phosphorus is essential to food production, but current management practices fail to ensure equitable access to farmers globally and often results in polluted waterways. There is a lack of local and global governance mechanisms to ensure phosphorus is sustainably managed. The P-FUTURES research initiative aims to address this gap by working with st...
The framework presented in this paper offers an alternative starting point for transdisciplinary research projects seeking to create change. The framework begins at the end: it distinguishes three distinct 'transdisciplinary outcome spaces' and proposes articulating their content for purposive transdisciplinary research projects. Defining upfront t...
Without phosphorus, we could not produce food. Farmers need access to phosphate fertilizers to achieve the high crop yields needed to feed the world. Yet growing global demand for phosphorus could surpass supply in the coming decades, and the world currently largely relies on non-renewable phosphate rock that is mined in only a few countries. Moroc...
The framework presented in this paper offers an alternative starting point for transdisciplinary research projects seeking to create change. The framework begins at the end: it distinguishes three distinct ‘transdisciplinary outcome spaces’ and proposes articulating their content for purposive transdisciplinary research projects. Defining upfront t...
Phosphorus underpins global food systems by ensuring soil fertility, farmer livelihoods, agricultural productivity and global food security. Yet there is a lack of research and effective governance at global or national scales designed to ensure the future availability and accessibility of this global resource. The world’s main source of phosphorus...
Phosphorus security is emerging as one of the twenty-first century's greatest global sustainability challenges. Phosphorus has no substitute in food production, and the use of phosphate fertilizers in the past 50 years has boosted crop yields and helped feed billions of people. However, these advantages have come at a serious cost. Mobilizing phosp...
This chapter identifies a vision for a sustainable future for phosphorous use. It describes a range of measures or actions that would move us toward that vision. It discusses several obstacles to the implementation of these measures, and enumerates a range of policy tools that would help to overcome those barriers. It presents a "way forward" for s...
Phosphorus underpins the world's food systems by ensuring soil fertility, maximising crop yields, supporting farmer livelihoods and ultimately food security. Yet increasing concerns around long-term availability and accessibility of the world's main source of phosphorus—phosphate rock, means there is a need to investigate sustainable measures to bu...
Phosphorus is a crucial nutrient for the production of food, but at the same time it is a key contributor to eutrophication of aquatic environments through leakage and runoff from agricultural land. Hence, sustainable future pathways of phosphorus use in food production and consumption need to consider a variety of sectors. This chapter discusses t...
The element phosphorus underpins the viability of global and national food systems, by ensuring soil fertility, maximising crop yields, supporting farmer livelihoods and ultimately nutritional security of the global population. The implications of global phosphorus scarcity therefore have serious potential consequences for future food security, yet...
Phosphorus is a critical element on which all life depends. Global crop production depends on fertilisers derived from phosphate rock to maintain high crop yields. Population increase, changing dietary preferences towards more meat and dairy products, and the continuing intensification of global agriculture supporting this expansion will place incr...
This article reviews the theoretical foundations for the concept of peak minerals; drawing on similarities and differences with peak oil as modelled using Hubbert style curves. Whilst several studies have applied peak modelling to selected minerals, discussion of the appropriateness of using Hubbert style curves in the minerals context remains larg...
Global food production is dependent on constant inputs of phosphorus. In the current system this phosphorus is not predominantly derived from organic recycled waste, but to a large degree from phosphate-rock based mineral fertilisers. However, phosphate rock is a finite resource that cannot be manufactured. Our dependency therefore needs to be addr...
This paper reviews the latest information and perspectives on global phosphorus scarcity. Phosphorus is essential for food production and modern agriculture currently sources phosphorus fertilizers from finite phosphate rock. The 2008 food and phosphate fertilizer price spikes triggered increased concerns regarding the depletion timeline of phospha...
Historically in Australia, disposal to landfill has been the dominant means for managing waste, however today there are a large range of measures in use that can be classified as disposal, recovery, reuse or avoidance measures. This project takes a purposefully broad perspective on managing waste and resources, in line with international best pract...
The increased generation of food waste is a global and national problem. It has several facets, all of which can benefit from a clear understanding of the size and nature of food waste generated across all phases of the food production and consumption cycle. Of most concern to many stakeholders is the impact food waste has on the generation of gree...
The element phosphorus has no substitute in sustaining all life and food production on our planet. Yet today's phosphorus use patterns have resulted in both a global environmental epidemic of eutrophication and led to a situation where the future availability of the world's main sources of phosphorus is uncertain. This paper examines the important...
Human intervention in the global phosphorus cycle has mobilised nearly half a billion tonnes of the element from phosphate rock into the hydrosphere over the past half century. The resultant water pollution concerns have been the main driver for sustainable phosphorus use (including phosphorus recovery). However the emerging global challenge of pho...
Mineral phosphorus (P) fertilizers processed from fossil reserves have enhanced food production over the past 50 years and, hence, the welfare of billions of people. Fertilizer P has, however, not only been used to lift the fertility level of formerly poor soils, but also allowed people to neglect the reuse of P that humans ingest in the form of fo...
Commercially viable reserves of rock phosphate are limited and only a few countries are significant producers. China and the US will play a much smaller role within 50 years time and the bulk of the world's mined phosphorus will come from Morocco. A conservative estimate of longevity of the resource shows that at a 1% exponential increase for the n...
As sustainable phosphorus use will sooner or later become essential for global food security, action is needed. As far as the required actions are concerned, the report has identified short-term and long-term policy options which could improve the current level of phosphorus use efficiency in agriculture. The report emphasizes, however, that polici...
Food production requires application of fertilizers containing phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium on agricultural fields in order to sustain crop yields. However modern agriculture is dependent on phosphorus derived from phosphate rock, which is a non-renewable resource and current global reserves may be depleted in 50–100 years. While phosphorus d...
This paper presents a process of systemic inquiry into the roles, relationships and perceptions in the management of phosphorus resources in the context of global food security. Phosphorus, like water, energy and nitrogen, is critical for food production. All modern food production and consumption systems are dependent on continual inputs of phosph...
Phosphorus is a critical resource for food production in the form of fertilizers, yet current global phosphate reserves could be depleted this century. More concerning is a global peak in phosphorus production - peak phosphorus - based on current official estimates of world resources, is estimated to occur around 2030, only decades after the likely...
There are three demand management responses to imbalances in water demand and supply: conserve water, substitute potable water with a different source, and augment existing supplies. Of these, water conservation is both the most cost-effective and the most resource-use-effective i.e. it saves materials and energy required for treatment, distributio...
This paper addresses the "do's and don't's" of collecting primary (directly sourced) residential water end-use data based on experiences of the authors. Proper planning is fundamental. Insufficient consideration of important factors can affect the quality and usefulness of the data and in turn the model or outcome for which the data is being collec...
Projects
Projects (4)
In this project, an interdisciplinary research team covering the biological, environmental and socio-economic sciences aims to quantify the vulnerability of UK agriculture and the UK food system to a future P scarcity and assess the thresholds at which P scarcity might impact on agricultural production at farm, catchment and national scale. The work programme will develop and prioritise the adaptations that might overcome this vulnerability; for example through technological innovations to improve P use efficiency and reuse of secondary sources of P and the necessary institutional infrastructure to support these.
http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/rephokus/
The phosphorus RCN has three principal aims:
1. Coordinate and integrate disconnected geological, agronomic, biogeochemical,
economic, and sociological data and perspectives related
to phosphorus sustainability;
2. Design and assess institutional, commercial, technological, and
psychological solutions in conservation, recycling, and equitable
distribution to establish phosphorus sustainability;
3. Engage policy makers to bridge the gap between understanding and
enacting solutions.