Matti Kummu

The main focus of my research is the interaction between human population and earth system. I have been working extensively on assessing the global water scarcity and how it has impacted on food production and availability. To ease the ever-growing pressure on natural resources, we are working actively in deepening the understanding on global food system. Particularly, we are quantifying the potential of different measures, such as diet change, food loss reduction, emerging non-meat protein sources, and yield gap closure, to sustainably increase the food availability globally. Finally, we work also on a more local scale challenges and opportunities on water-energy-food nexus, particularly in Southeast Asian context.

I am part of Water and development research group, under Water and Environmental Engineering group, of which Master's programme I teach "Water and people in developing world"-course.

My ongoing projects include 

Sustainable food futures within safe operating spaces - SOS.aquaterra 

The project aims to identify feasible solutions to meet future food demand globally while staying within local and global safe operating spaces (SOS), such as planetary boundaries. In the project, we will develop a novel integrated modelling system that captures interactions between the relevant planetary boundary processes and the global food system. We will also assess the social feasibility of different measures that would ease the pressure food production puts on the environment. Project is funded by a H2020 ERC CoG grant. See more at https://wdrg.aalto.fi/sos-aquaterra/