Exploring Factors Enhancing Resilience Among Marginalized Older Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Marginalized older adults are highly vulnerable to COVID-19 due to social isolation and physical and functional limitations. Despite these stressors, they appear to be resilient by leveraging individual, community, and societal resources. This study conducted in-depth interviews with marginalized older adults to understand how COVID-19 affected their mobility and daily lives.

Iowa Urban FEWS: Integrating Social and Biophysical Models for Exploration of Urban Food, Energy, and Water Systems.

Most people in the world live in urban areas, and their high population densities, heavy reliance on external sources of food, energy, and water, and disproportionately large waste production result in severe and cumulative negative environmental effects. Integrated study of urban areas requires a system-of-systems analytical framework that includes modeling with social and biophysical data. We describe preliminary work toward an integrated urban food-energy-water systems (FEWS) analysis using co-simulation for assessment of current and future conditions, with an emphasis on local (urban and urban-adjacent) food production.

Analysis of Food Hub Commerce and Participation Using Agent-Based Modeling: Integrating Financial and Social Drivers.

Objective: Factors influencing long-term viability of an intermediated regional food supply network (food hub) were modeled using agent-based modeling techniques informed by interview data gathered from food hub participants.

Background: Previous analyses of food hub dynamics focused primarily on financial drivers rather than social factors and have not used mathematical models.

Method: Based on qualitative and quantitative data gathered from 22 customers and 11 vendors at a midwestern food hub, an agent-based model (ABM) was created with distinct consumer personas characterizing the range of consumer priorities.