{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/130148"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/130148","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Enhancing food security in Zambia: supply-demand adaptation and infrastructure development","abstract":"Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'Closed Access', the embargo will last until 2027-08-01","abstract_html":"Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled &#x27;Closed Access&#x27;, the embargo will last until 2027-08-01","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Wang, Junren"],"institution":"University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Civil Engineering","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Konar, Megan","Baylis, Kathy","Cai, Ximing","Gardoni, Paolo"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2025,"date_issued":"2025-07-09","date_published":"2025-07-09","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:06Z","subjects":["Zambia","Food Security","Supply Chain","Infrastructure"],"languages":["en","eng"],"rights":["Copyright 2025 Junren Wang"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/2142/130148","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Konar, Megan","Baylis, Kathy","Cai, Ximing","Gardoni, Paolo"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Wang, Junren"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2025-07-09","2025-08"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Civil Engineering"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Zambia","Food Security","Supply Chain","Infrastructure"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en","eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2025 Junren Wang"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/130148"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'Closed Access', the embargo will last until 2027-08-01","The student, Junren Wang, accepted the attached license on 2025-07-07 at 17:05.","The student, Junren Wang, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2025-07-07 at 17:05.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2025-07-09 at 08:38.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #22433 on 2025-10-25 at 15:53:11","Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) suffers from high food insecurity due in part to its predominantly rain-fed agriculture and lack of infrastructure. Improving infrastructure, particularly transportation and irrigation, can enhance resilience to shocks. However, the lack of high-resolution data on national food supply chains hinders targeted productivity and infrastructure improvements. This dissertation quantifies all aspects of food supply chains in Zambia, including agri-food demand, supply, and flows. First, I begin with a historical analysis of the agri-food system in Zambia to determine how different levels of urbanization impact the expenditure and price elasticity of food and nutrition demand; how current and historical climate shock impact the crop diversification choices at the household- and district- level; and how district-level maize and cassava trade flows reach equilibrium to provide insights into public and private trading dynamics, consumer behavior, and storage decisions in Zambia. By examining empirical food production and consumption patterns and their telecoupled relationship in Zambia, I establish the foundation to forecast urban and rural food reliability in Zambia by 2050, evaluating future food security stresses. This projection leverages several products of high-resolution remote sensing data to overcome data limitation in Zambia, helping to anticipate rising food demand, increased climate shocks, and other evolving risks. Food requirements and supply are predicted and mapped in calories units at the rural-urban subnational level so that locations with potential resource shortages and critical failure potential are identified between steady states under climate shocks. I then explore potential solutions to food insecurity, such as crop expansion and intensification, while assessing the suitability of irrigation and transportation infrastructure improvements. This dissertation provides insights into the dynamics of past and present food supply chains and explores opportunities to optimize future agricultural production and infrastructure investments to enhance food security in Zambia. A comprehensive, high-resolution database on Zambia's food security is developed, capturing the full suite of processes within the food supply chain. The findings enable policymakers and stakeholders to make more informed decisions, strengthen food systems, and better prepare for the uncertainties that lie ahead."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Enhancing food security in Zambia: supply-demand adaptation and infrastructure development"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Konar, Megan","Baylis, Kathy","Cai, Ximing","Gardoni, Paolo"],"dc:creator":["Wang, Junren"],"dc:date":["2025-07-09","2025-08"],"dc:description":["Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'Closed Access', the embargo will last until 2027-08-01","The student, Junren Wang, accepted the attached license on 2025-07-07 at 17:05.","The student, Junren Wang, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2025-07-07 at 17:05.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2025-07-09 at 08:38.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #22433 on 2025-10-25 at 15:53:11","Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) suffers from high food insecurity due in part to its predominantly rain-fed agriculture and lack of infrastructure. Improving infrastructure, particularly transportation and irrigation, can enhance resilience to shocks. However, the lack of high-resolution data on national food supply chains hinders targeted productivity and infrastructure improvements. This dissertation quantifies all aspects of food supply chains in Zambia, including agri-food demand, supply, and flows. First, I begin with a historical analysis of the agri-food system in Zambia to determine how different levels of urbanization impact the expenditure and price elasticity of food and nutrition demand; how current and historical climate shock impact the crop diversification choices at the household- and district- level; and how district-level maize and cassava trade flows reach equilibrium to provide insights into public and private trading dynamics, consumer behavior, and storage decisions in Zambia. By examining empirical food production and consumption patterns and their telecoupled relationship in Zambia, I establish the foundation to forecast urban and rural food reliability in Zambia by 2050, evaluating future food security stresses. This projection leverages several products of high-resolution remote sensing data to overcome data limitation in Zambia, helping to anticipate rising food demand, increased climate shocks, and other evolving risks. Food requirements and supply are predicted and mapped in calories units at the rural-urban subnational level so that locations with potential resource shortages and critical failure potential are identified between steady states under climate shocks. I then explore potential solutions to food insecurity, such as crop expansion and intensification, while assessing the suitability of irrigation and transportation infrastructure improvements. This dissertation provides insights into the dynamics of past and present food supply chains and explores opportunities to optimize future agricultural production and infrastructure investments to enhance food security in Zambia. A comprehensive, high-resolution database on Zambia's food security is developed, capturing the full suite of processes within the food supply chain. The findings enable policymakers and stakeholders to make more informed decisions, strengthen food systems, and better prepare for the uncertainties that lie ahead."],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/130148"],"dc:language":["en","eng"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2025 Junren Wang"],"dc:subject":["Zambia","Food Security","Supply Chain","Infrastructure"],"dc:title":["Enhancing food security in Zambia: supply-demand adaptation and infrastructure development"],"dc:type":["text"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Civil Engineering"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:06Z"}