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1
Neto, Ruy de Castro Sobrosa, João Paulo Bohner, Robert Samuel Birch, Ivone Junges, Clarissa Carneiro Mussi, Sandro Vieira Soares, Ana Regina de Aguiar Dutra, and José Baltazar Salgueirinho Osório de Andrade Guerra. "Water, Energy and Food Nexus: A Project Evaluation Model." Water 16, no. 16 (August 8, 2024): 2235. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/w16162235.
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The connections between universal rights to water supply, energy security, and food supply stand out as a challenge that requires project evaluation models that can capture the complex dynamics and interdependencies of these resources. This study proposes the elaboration of a nexus evaluation model (NEM) for projects related to the water–energy–food nexus (WEFN) from the perspective of sustainability, Industry 4.0, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The model considers the three dimensions of sustainability—economic, environmental, and social; the three structuring factors of Industry 4.0—physical, biological, and digital; and the 17 SDGs proposed by the United Nations. A Design Science Research (DSR) approach was adopted in which the design and development of the model, and demonstration and evaluation phases, were supported by a group of experts. The model was applied to three different projects focused on sustainable technological innovation in energy and agriculture, with the results presented in the RGB color scale represented numerically as a number from 0 to 255. The results demonstrated that, in the relationship between nexus and sustainability, the projects presented scores between 162 and 217 for the environmental dimension, between 158 and 202 for the economic dimension and between 170 and 212 for the social dimension. In the nexus and Industry 4.0 relationship, the projects obtained scores ranging from 9 to 94 in the biological factor, from 13 to 141 in the digital factor, and from 13 to 141 in the physical factor. In the nexus and SDG relationship, scores ranged from 214 to 244 for water, from 195 to 255 for energy, and from 30 to 255 for food. These results from the model were consistent with the reality of the projects being evaluated, demonstrating a greater alignment of the projects with the dimensions of sustainability and the SDGs than with the factors of Industry 4.0. The proposal of the model contributes to broaden the understanding of how projects related to the nexus can be evaluated considering multiple contemporary dimensions.
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Zhou, Yan, Xinrui Zhang, Yingshan Chen, and Heng Li. "An Optimisation–Evaluation Framework for the Sustainable Management of the Water–Energy–Food Nexus for an Irrigation District under Uncertainty." Agronomy 13, no. 7 (June 26, 2023): 1714. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13071714.
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The synergistic regulation of the water–energy–food nexus in irrigation districts is important for promoting the sustainable management of agricultural resources in irrigation districts. In this paper, a new integrated optimization–evaluation modelling framework for the water–energy–food nexus in agricultural irrigation areas is developed. It can measure the synergistic effects of economic, social and environmental multidimensional objectives on the sustainable management of agricultural resources in irrigation areas. The model couples an optimisation module and an evaluation module, combines a multiobjective nonlinear planning model with an opportunity-constrained planning model and uses an entropy-weighted TOPSIS assessment approach to sustainably assess the multidimensional indicators of the water–energy–food nexus in irrigation districts, with full consideration given to the effects of uncertainty in agricultural water and soil resources and social systems. The feasibility of the constructed model is verified through a study of the Jinxi irrigation district. The results show that compared to the actual area, the optimised surface water and groundwater availability increased by 23.5% and 22.7%; the optimised total area increased by 4%, whereas corn decreased by 40%, rice increased by 34.6% and soybean decreased by 33.8%; the energy consumption decreased by 17.6% and the total recycled resources amounted to 8.97 × 109 kg, with a combined net economic benefit of CNY 1.25 × 109 more than the actual current amount. The synergistic development of the water–energy–food nexus (WEFN) in the district is relatively harmonious, suggesting that the district should focus on developing agricultural mechanisation and balancing economic benefits with environmental and ecological protection; furthermore, the model constructed should provide decision-making support for the efficient use of agricultural resources in the irrigation district.
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Sušnik, Janez. "Machine learning for water-energy-food-ecosystems nexus policy." Open Access Government 43, no. 1 (July 8, 2024): 66–367. http://dx.doi.org/10.56367/oag-043-11546.
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Machine learning for water-energy-food-ecosystems nexus policy Dr Janez Sušnik, from the IHE Delft Institute for Water Education and NEXOGENESIS Coordinator, guides us through the use of machine learning for improving policy advice in the water-energy-food-ecosystems nexus. Water, energy, and food (WEF) form a coherent interconnected system often referred to as the WEF nexus (Hoff, 2011). The WEF nexus interacts strongly with ecosystems, forming the wider WEFE nexus. Ecosystems provide the ‘base’ of the WEFE nexus, helping ensure the quantity, quality, timing, and accessibility of WEF resources, for example, by providing services including water purification, contributing freshwater provisioning, pollution reduction and control; maintaining healthy landscapes, contributing towards crop growth for food and energy crops; biodiversity providing pollinating insects for crop production and; forest and floodplain ecosystems provide biomass that as act as a global carbon sink and oxygen supply (Bell et al. 2016; Martinez- Hernandez et al. 2017).
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Zeng, Yujie, Dedi Liu, Shenglian Guo, Lihua Xiong, Pan Liu, Jiabo Yin, and Zhenhui Wu. "A system dynamic model to quantify the impacts of water resources allocation on water–energy–food–society (WEFS) nexus." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 26, no. 15 (August 2, 2022): 3965–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-3965-2022.
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Abstract. Sustainable management of the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus remains an urgent challenge, as interactions between WEF and human sensitivity and reservoir operation in the water system are typically neglected. This study proposes a new approach for modeling the WEF nexus by incorporating human sensitivity and reservoir operation into the system. The co-evolution behaviors of the nexus across water, energy, food, and society (WEFS) were simulated using the system dynamic model. Reservoir operation was simulated to determine the water supply for energy and food systems by the Interactive River–Aquifer Simulation water resources allocation model. Shortage rates for water, energy, and food resulting from the simulations were used to qualify their impacts on the WEFS nexus through environmental awareness in society. Human sensitivity indicated by environmental awareness can then adjust the co-evolution behaviors of the WEFS nexus through feedback loops. The proposed approach was applied to the mid–lower reaches of the Hanjiang River basin in China as a case study. Results indicate that environmental awareness shows the potential to capture human sensitivity to shortages from water, energy, and food systems. Parameters related to boundary conditions and critical values can dominate environmental awareness feedback to regulate socioeconomic expansion to maintain the integrated system from constant resource shortages. The annual average energy shortage rate thereby decreased from 17.16 % to 5.80 % by taking environmental awareness feedback, which contributes to the sustainability of the WEFS nexus. Rational water resources allocation can ensure water supply through reservoir operation. The annual average water shortage rate decreased from 15.89 % to 7.20 % as water resources allocation was considered. Threats from water shortage on the concordant development of the WEFS nexus are significantly alleviated, particularly for the area with a limited regulating capacity for the water project. Therefore, this study contributes to the understanding of interactions across the WEFS systems and helps in improving the efficiency of resource management.
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Kanda, Edwin Kimutai, Willis Awandu, Elizabeth Lusweti, and Micah M. Mukolwe. "Water-energy-food-ecosystem nexus and sustainable development in the Horn of Africa." F1000Research 12 (February 7, 2023): 143. http://dx.doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.130038.1.
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Water, energy and food (WEF) security are key indicators of sustainable development. Realization of sustainable development goals (SDGs) by countries is achieved through a water-energy-food-ecosystem nexus framework. Climate change is a threat to food, energy and water security in the Horn of Africa. The main aim of this review is to assess the status and prospects of WEF nexus as it relates to SDGs in the horn of Africa. The countries considered were Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Djibouti. The review indicated that the four countries have a challenge in achieving SDGs 2, 6 and 7. Djibouti had the highest (50.9) WEF index in the region followed by Ethiopia and Somalia at 47.5 and 36.8, respectively while Eritrea had the lowest WEF index of 35.8. The energy sub-index was the best performer in the region with an average index of 56 while water and food sub-indices were the worst at 36. Political instability, insecurity, inadequate infrastructure, weak institutional and legal framework are some of the challenges facing WEF and sustainable development in the region. Climate change adaptation measures should be incorporated into the water, energy, food and ecosystem (WEFE) nexus using an integrated approach. Modelling WEFE requires integration of models and should also focus on interactions among the sub-systems.
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Endo, Aiko, Terukazu Kumazawa, Michinori Kimura, Makoto Yamada, Takaaki Kato, and Kouji Kozaki. "Describing and Visualizing a Water–Energy–Food Nexus System." Water 10, no. 9 (September 14, 2018): 1245. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/w10091245.
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The objective of this study is to describe a target water–energy–food (WEF) nexus domain world including causal linkages and trade-off relationships between WEF resources and their stakeholders, and to develop a WEF nexus system map as an interdisciplinary tool used for understanding the subsequent complexity of WEF nexus systems. An ontology engineering method, which is a qualitative method, was applied for the replicability of the WEF nexus domain ontology and the map, because ontology engineering is a method of semantic web development for enhancing the compatibility of qualitative descriptions logically or objectively. The WEF nexus system map has three underlying concepts: (1) systems thinking, (2) holistic thinking, and (3) an integrated approach at an operational level, according to the hypothesis that the chains of changes in linkages between water, energy, and food resources holistically and systemically affect the WEF nexus system, including natural and social systems, both temporally and spatially. This study is significant because it allows us to (1) develop the WEF nexus domain ontology database, including defining the concepts and sub-concepts of trade-offs relating to WEF for the replicability of this study; (2) integrate the qualitative ontology method and quantitative network analysis method to identify key concepts serving as linkage hubs in the WEF nexus domain ontology; and (3) visualize human–nature interactions such as linkages between water, energy, and food resources and their stakeholders in social and natural systems. This paper also discusses future challenges in the application of the map for a science–policy–society interface.
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Rhouma, Ali, Jerome El Jeitany, Rabi Mohtar, and José Maria Gil. "Trends in the Water–Energy–Food Nexus Research." Sustainability 16, no. 3 (January 30, 2024): 1162. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su16031162.
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This paper aims to analyze the scientific evolution and research trends concerning the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus, as well as its development within scientific databases. To achieve this, a bibliometric analysis has been conducted using publications sourced from Scopus and Web of science databases. This study examined key aspects such as primary journals, prominent authors, affiliated institutions, countries of origin, subject areas, and notable keywords. Furthermore, there is a dedicated section that delves into research and innovation gaps within publications related to the WEF nexus. Results reveal that research on the WEF nexus has experienced exponential growth over the past decade, with the majority of publications emerging between 2017 and 2023. The United States leads in this field, with engineering and environmental science being the predominant research categories, with Spain and Italy being the prominent countries in Europe. The WEF nexus concept in the agriculture sector is notably underdeveloped, particularly in its ties with the Sustainable Development Goals and the science–policy–society interface. The study stresses the importance of integrating health considerations into the WEF Nexus to understand the interconnections and their implications on public health, thereby enriching the Nexus approach with a critical dimension of human well-being. This situation underscores the urgent need to create a nexus community that bridges science and practice, and to incorporate this specialized discipline into university curricula.
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Mehmood, Sajid, Sajid Mehmood, Sajid Mehmood, Muhammad Imtiaz, Muhammad Rizwan, Saqib Bashir, Gutha Yuvaraja, et al. "A Report on Water, Energy and Food Relationship." International Journal of Nutrition 3, no. 3 (February 15, 2019): 17–21. http://dx.doi.org/10.14302/issn.2379-7835.ijn-19-2585.
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With the possibility of the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus since a long time back, overlooked interlinkages between WEF are getting the chance to be indisputable. Nonetheless, agriculture is responsible for quite a bit of fresh water over-use. Food production further effects the water and energy sectors through degradation of land, changes in overflow, disturbance of groundwater release, water quality, accessibility of water and land for different purposes. The responsibilities of this unparalleled issue include particular parts of the organization around the Nexus. While a couple of papers try to conceptualize the Nexus-Governance, this phenomenal report gives a rich combination of work for further WEF-Nexus ponders and integrative methodologies.
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Botai, Joel O., Christina M. Botai, Katlego P. Ncongwane, Sylvester Mpandeli, Luxon Nhamo, Muthoni Masinde, Abiodun M. Adeola, et al. "A Review of the Water–Energy–Food Nexus Research in Africa." Sustainability 13, no. 4 (February 6, 2021): 1762. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13041762.
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Notwithstanding the dispersed nature of the water, energy and food (WEF) nexus scholarship in the African continent, its strategic importance to the African agenda has gained widespread attention in research and planning circles. In this regard, the bibliometric science mapping and content analysis of the WEF nexus scientific publication trends, the conceptual, intellectual and social structures, as well as the inherent paradigmatic shifts in the WEF nexus body of knowledge in the African continent have been undertaken, using the nexus body of literature accessed from the Web of Science and Scopus core collection databases. The review results confirmed that, whilst the WEF nexus scholarship has expanded since 2013, there is also evidence of growth in the conceptual, intellectual and social structures of the WEF nexus in the African continent. These shifts have resulted in the emergence of hot topics (subfields) including modelling and optimization, climate variability and change, environmental ecosystem services sustainability, and sustainable development and livelihoods. The review further determined that these structures have evolved along two main perspectives of WEF nexus research development, i.e., the interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary domains. In support of the interpretation of the visual analytics of the intellectual structure and changing patterns of the WEF nexus research, the shifts in positivist, interpretivist and pragmatic paradigmatic perspectives (these are underpinned by the ontology, epistemology, and methodology and methods) are considered when explaining WEF nexus research shifts: (a) From the unconnected silo paradigms that focus on water, energy and food (security concerns) to interconnected (and sometimes interdependent or nested) linkages or systems incorporating environmental, social-economic and political drivers (also viewed as subfields) in a bid to holistically support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across the African continent; and (b) in the evaluation of the WEF nexus scholarship based on novel analytical approaches. We contend that whilst the theories of science change underpin this apparent expansion, the macro-economic theory will find use in explaining how the WEF nexus research agenda is negotiated and the Integrative Environmental Governance (IEG) is the duly suited governance theory to bridge the inherent disconnect between WEF nexus output and governance processes uncovered in the literature. Overall, operational challenges and opportunities of the WEF nexus abound, transitioning the WEF nexus research to practice in Africa, motivating the need to take advantage of the scholar–practitioner research underpinnings, as contemplated in the transdisciplinary research approach, which is characterised by the dual quest for new knowledge and considerations of use. Yet, there is need for more coordinated and collaborative research to achieve impact and transition from WEF nexus thinking to WEF nexus practice.
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Kanakoudis, Vasilis, and Stavroula Tsitsifli. "Insights on the Water–Energy–Food Nexus." Water 12, no. 10 (October 16, 2020): 2882. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/w12102882.
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This Special Issue addresses topics on the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus along with other water-related topics, such as water resources, irrigation and drinking water supply systems, hydraulics and pollution. Several threats jeopardize freshwater availability and quality, energy and food availability. Integrated management approaches are absolutely necessary for pursuing sustainability. This Special Issue addresses various subjects and includes 29 peer-reviewed papers that have been grouped into the following categories: the WEF nexus, water resources and irrigation systems, drinking water supply systems, hydraulics and pollution. Some of them were selected from the Third Efficient Water Systems (EWaS) International Conference, entitled “Insights on the Water–Energy–Food Nexus,” after a thorough content update. Summaries of the papers are briefly presented in this Editorial.
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Mabhaudhi, Tafadzwanashe, Sylvester Mpandeli, Luxon Nhamo, Vimbayi Chimonyo, Charles Nhemachena, Aidan Senzanje, Dhesigen Naidoo, and Albert Modi. "Prospects for Improving Irrigated Agriculture in Southern Africa: Linking Water, Energy and Food." Water 10, no. 12 (December 19, 2018): 1881. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/w10121881.
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Increasing agricultural productivity has always been a prominent feature on the regional agenda due to a high incidence of food and nutrition insecurity. This review assessed the current status of irrigated agriculture in southern Africa from a water–energy–food (WEF) nexus perspective. Gaps and opportunities for improving irrigated agriculture within the context of the WEF nexus were also assessed in terms of the feasible limits to which they can be exploited. Southern Africa faces water scarcity, and climate projections show that member states will face increased physical and/or economic water scarcity by as early as 2025, which will have negative impacts on water, energy and food production. Recurrent droughts experienced across the region reaffirm the sensitive issues of food and energy insecurity as well as water scarcity. Projections of an increasing population within the region indicate increased water, energy and food demand. With agriculture already accounting for about 70% of water withdrawals, increasing the area under irrigation will place additional demand on already strained energy grids and scarce water resources. This poses the question—is increasing irrigated agriculture a solution to improving water access, food security and energy supply? While there are prospects for increasing the area under irrigation and subsequent improvement in agricultural productivity, adopting a WEF nexus approach in doing so would mitigate trade-offs and unintended consequences. Consideration of the WEF nexus in integrated resources planning and management eliminates the possibilities of transferring problems from one sector to other, as it manages synergies and trade-offs. While it is acknowledged that improving water productivity in irrigated agriculture could reduce water and energy use while increasing yield output, there is a need to decide how such savings would then be reallocated. Any intervention to increase the irrigated area should be done in the context of a WEF nexus analytical framework to guide policy and decision-making. Technical planning should evolve around the WEF nexus approach in setting targets, as WEF nexus indicators would reveal the performance and impact of proposed interventions on any of the three WEF nexus components.
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Li, Yan, and Ruilian Zhang. "A Review of Water-Energy-Food Nexus Development in a Just Energy Transition." Energies 16, no. 17 (August 28, 2023): 6253. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/en16176253.
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The water-energy-food (WEF) nexus has emerged as a crucial framework for addressing the interdependencies and trade-offs between these vital resources. In the context of a just energy transition, where the pursuit of sustainable and equitable energy systems is paramount, understanding the WEF nexus becomes even more critical. We explore the evolving concept of the WEF nexus and its relevance to achieving a sustainable energy transition that considers social equity, environmental sustainability, and economic development. This paper highlights key challenges and opportunities in implementing a just energy transition within the context of the WEF nexus, with a focus on promoting social inclusion, ensuring water and food security, and optimizing energy production and consumption. Additionally, we discuss the importance of integrated policymaking, cross-sectoral collaboration, and innovative technologies in addressing the complex interactions between water, energy, and food systems.
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Kitessa, Bedassa Dessalegn, Semu Moges Ayalew, Geremew Sahilu Gebrie, and Solomon T/mariam Teferi. "Optimization of urban resources efficiency in the domain of water–energy–food nexus through integrated modeling: a case study of Addis Ababa city." Water Policy 24, no. 2 (January 31, 2022): 397–431. http://dx.doi.org/10.2166/wp.2022.213.
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Abstract This study aims to understand the long-term (2020–2050) urban water–energy–food (WEF) resources access and sustainability in Addis Ababa city through a nexus modeling approach. Several feasible scenarios in line with improving WEF resources supply and access through conservation, system rehabilitation and technology input are explored. The water system scenarios include rehabilitation and conservation scenario, water supply enhancement scenario, technology input scenario and integrated water improvement scenario. The energy scenario includes energy conservation scenario and new renewable supply enhancement scenarios and integration of both scenarios as integrated energy scenario. The food system scenarios include crop yield productivity and irrigation water use efficiency scenarios of urban agricultural system. The integrated WEF nexus scenario is the integration of all scenarios under one nexus framework. The results are evaluated against baseline scenario. At a system level, the integrated water scenario result provides a water saving potential of 26 and 52% from the baseline scenario by 2030 and 2050, respectively, whereas the integrated energy use scenario saves energy by as much as 22 and 48%. For respective years, under the integrated WEF nexus scenario, the integrated water use scenario for low energy intensity reduces the energy use for urban water system by 23 and 72% from the baseline scenario. Similarly, urban food production have also shown enhancement. Urban food production system in Addis Ababa city is relatively small and does not significantly affect the food import from other parts of the country. Overall, the results WEF nexus modeling approach revealed the importance of exploring integrated nexus approach to sustainable urban water energy and food development and management as a first attempt at the urban scale.
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Rezaei Kalvani, Somayeh, and Fulvio Celico. "The Water–Energy–Food Nexus in European Countries: A Review and Future Perspectives." Sustainability 15, no. 6 (March 10, 2023): 4960. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su15064960.
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The interaction between water, energy, and food as the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus has drawn much attention recently to solve upcoming uncertainty in food security. The aim of this study is to investigate the status of the WEF nexus in European countries. It is indicated that the largest nexus studies (among 27 European countries) have been conducted in Spain and Italy. It is confirmed that there is a large number of nexus studies in water-stressed countries while there are few studies on water-abundant countries (Slovakia and Luxembourg). Based on existing research, the majority of nexus studies focused on energy production. It is highlighted that most of the nexus studies were focused on water quantity aspects (rarely related to quality aspects) and energy; however, other resources including land, climate, ecosystem, soil, and environment received little attention. The migration of people as a result of climate change in the WEF nexus is not considered. Moreover, there is a lack of common and standard frameworks for nexus assessment. Therefore, we suggest a standard approach for nexus studies and produce a cross-sectoral and holistic approach for the evaluation of a water (quantity and quality)–energy–food–land–climate (WqEFLC) nexus that takes into consideration the circular economy.
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Canessa, Carolin, Andreas Vavvos, Sofia Triliva, Iosif Kafkalas, Maria Vrachioli, and Johannes Sauer. "Implementing a combined Delphi and Focus Group qualitative methodology in Nexus research designs—The case of the WEFE Nexus in Apokoronas, Crete." PLOS ONE 17, no. 7 (July 14, 2022): e0271443. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0271443.
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In recent years, researchers and policymakers have emphasised the importance of understanding the complex relationships between Water, Energy, Food and Ecosystems (WEFE). The primary reason for capturing these complexities is to understand how decisions made in the water, food and energy sectors can affect one another. Crucially, biodiversity and ecosystem services (E) play a mediating role in these relationships by making material and non-material contributions to all other sectors (W, E, F). The Nexus approach has been widely used for capturing these interdependencies and identifying opportunities for increasing efficiency, reducing trade-offs and building synergies for sustainable resource use across the WEFE nodes. One challenge in using this framework is the need to harmonise the technical and managerial dimensions of the WEFE interlinkages with the perceptions and priorities of local populations directly involved in the use and management of resources. This paper presents a methodological framework that seeks to integrate the perspectives of experts, practitioners and local stakeholders on the WEFE Nexus through the combined application of the Delphi and Focus Group methods. In this paper, the municipality of Apokoronas in Crete, Greece has served as the case in point. The combined framework allowed us to explore the Nexus understanding at the local level and was instrumental in the identification of initiatives for more integrated resource management. The triangulation of results captured the differences in priorities between practitioners and the local community at large, but also, more specifically, it pointed to discrepancies within groups and across WEFE sectors. The outcomes of this paper demonstrate that awareness and learning play a central role in Nexus actions to overcome conflicts and perceived inequalities, and to internalise solutions. The inclusion of the ecosystems node in the traditional WEF Nexus encouraged participants to contemplate the pivotal role of ecosystems in supporting the rest of the WEF sectors.
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Zhang, Qin, Jing Shao, Jianmin Qiao, Qian Cao, and Haimeng Liu. "Coupling Relationships and Driving Mechanisms of Water–Energy–Food in China from the Perspective of Supply and Demand Security." Land 13, no. 10 (October 8, 2024): 1637. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/land13101637.
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The rapid increase in population and economy, coupled with accelerated urbanization, is placing immense pressure on the water–energy–food (WEF) system. In this context, the water–energy–food nexus framework has emerged, recognizing the interdependencies and interactions among water, energy, and food systems, with the aim of optimizing resource management through cross-sectoral collaboration to promote sustainable development. Understanding the spatio-temporal differentiation patterns of the WEF nexus and elucidating the driving mechanisms behind changes in their coupling relationships is essential. This knowledge is crucial for ensuring the security of each subsystem and enhancing the overall sustainability of interconnected systems through coordinated efforts. To address these challenges, this study first established evaluation indicators for water, energy, and food security to quantify their levels and spatio-temporal dynamics. Subsequently, the degrees of coupling coordination within the WEF nexus were calculated. Finally, the WEF nexus’s spatial correlations were analyzed by using a spatial autocorrelation model. Spatial econometric models then identified key factors affecting its coordination. The results revealed significant spatial heterogeneity in water, energy, and food security across mainland China’s provinces. From 2002 to 2022, water security improved substantially in 87% of the provinces, while energy security began to improve in the eastern regions following a phase of high consumption. Food security saw significant enhancements, particularly in Inner Mongolia and the northeastern provinces. The overall coupling coordination of the WEF nexus improved across 30 provinces, progressing toward primary coordination. However, Henan and Anhui provinces experienced fluctuations in WEF nexus coordination. Spatial correlation analysis showed upward trends and increased clustering in WEF nexus coordination. Factors such as economic development and population positively influenced coordination, while economic agglomeration, education, and effective irrigation area had negative effects. This study elucidates the complex interconnections and key influencing factors within the WEF nexus, providing a reference framework and practical recommendations for equitable resource management.
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Sargentis, G. Fivos, and Demetris Koutsoyiannis. "The Function of Money in Water–Energy–Food and Land Nexus." Land 12, no. 3 (March 12, 2023): 669. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/land12030669.
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The water–energy–food (WEF) and land nexus is a basic element of prosperity. However, the elements of WEF are not equally distributed, and the dynamics of trading drives the distribution of goods. Money controls the trading, but money is just a convention and not a stable measure. Therefore, we have used the data of gross domestic product (GDP) and the price of electricity of each country in order to convert money to stable energy units. To evaluate the role of money in the WEF nexus, we also convert all the elements of the nexus, in energy units. In addition, we observe that land is the base of WEF and is positively correlated with all of its elements. However, we find that even the richest countries are facing critical deficits in WEF. Adding the money (GDP in energy units) to the WEF nexus, the balance becomes positive and we conclude that trading is necessary for both survival and prosperity. This may be obvious, but at present, global geopolitical conflicts which use economic sanctions as a tool transform the global balance of the WEF nexus, putting the global prosperity in jeopardy.
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Bian, Zeyang, and Dan Liu. "A Comprehensive Review on Types, Methods and Different Regions Related to Water–Energy–Food Nexus." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18, no. 16 (August 4, 2021): 8276. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18168276.
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Water, food, and energy are three of the most important resources for long-term survival and development. The term “nexus” is used to underline the need of controlling these primary components collectively rather than separately because they are interconnected and linked. With the purpose of better understanding nexus thinking and showcasing nexus analysis approaches and tools, this study explores the current state of the approach to the water–energy–food relationship, which has gotten a lot of attention in recent years. Water–energy, water–food, water–energy–food, water–energy, and climate are the four forms of nexus. This paper examines a variety of methodologies based on their principal objectives and provides a basic overview of a wide range of currently available methods and instruments for analyzing the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus. According to this study, the quantity of studies on the water–energy–food nexus has increased significantly, as the scientific community’s ability to analyze water, food, and energy interlinkages at a greater resolution. The integration and optimization of this multi-centric nexus is explored, with focus on four regions—Asia, Europe, America, and Africa—as a case study. The WEF nexus should be used in case studies to help illustrate its intricacies. Furthermore, this study builds a methodology and frameworks to find study linkages between water, energy, food, and other components, for a nexus analysis and discuss the major challenges and its solutions. This study also includes a scientometric analysis that looks at the countries and keyword mapping. Furthermore, the study is being planned, with an emphasis on quantitative analysis of the water–energy–food nexus which is helpful for the water security at local and global scale. This study aids in the coordination of research efforts to solve the difficult issues in nexus research and create sustainable and adaptable water, energy, and food systems.
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Kim, Gene Uhc. "A Study on Governance of Water-Energy-Food Nexus in Northeast Asian Countries." Asia Europe Perspective Association 16, no. 4 (December 30, 2019): 39–71. https://doi.org/10.31203/aepa.2019.16.4.03.
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This paper analyses current situation of Water-Energy-Food(WEF) nexus in northeast asian countries(China, Japan, Korea) and proposes the policy of improvement of the Water-Energy-Food governance. As the climate change threatens security of Water-Energy-Food and increases future uncertainty and risk, WEF nexus is one of the important issues. As the United Nations University (UNU) initiated the first nexus programme, the Bonn 2011 Nexus Conference contributed to better understanding of the WEF nexus concept and the Dresden conference gave explicit attention to the Water-Energy-Food nexus. The establishment of optimal policies for Water-Energy-Food can be characterized in three stages. The first stage is integrated management of three sectors(water, energy, food). The second is characterized as security including that of the nations, human health, livelihood and ecosystem services. The third stage will be the nexus of the Water-Energy-Food systems. The nexus framework considers the interconnected nature of the water, energy and food,which include the synergies and tradeoffs. Even thought OECD Council recommended that Adherents enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of water governance, Integrated Water Resources Management(IWRM) has several problems which consist of no agreement of integrated issues, lack of local situations, lack of administrative capacity, conflict of interests and views, finally coordinative mechanism. Whereas IWRM tries to engage all sectors from a water management perspective, the nexus approach treats different sectors(water, energy, food) as equally important. Elements of governance of WEF nexus involve public agencies and non-state actors exercising authority in the pursuit of desirable goals. Achieving these goals involves strengthening institutions and processes that support horizontal coordination, vertical coordination, stakeholder engagement. Horizontal coordination involves collaboration between different government ministries or departments working in the public sector. Vertical coordination involves interaction between different administrative decision-making levels. A third dimension is the interface or engagement between government and non-state actors(civil society, business, researchers etc.). Comparing IWRM and nexus, the nexus includes broader norms for integrating policy sectors. According to six different categories of Worldwide Governance Indicators for Northeast Asian countries, japanese governance level is highest and China is lowest country. As China and Japan’s relative weakest criterion is the ‘voice and accountability’, Korean governance is the lowest level of ‘political stability & absence of violence/terrorism’ relatively. Among Northeast asian countries, Japan is more advanced the application and implementation of WEF nexus approaches. The Ministry of Water Resources and Ministry of Environmental Protection in China are not only national environmental authorities but also primarily responsible for the environmental governance. Basin commissions serve as designated agencies of Ministry of Water Resources. Local government are authorized by the central government to manage the water resources that flow through their jurisdictions. As China’s Water-Energy-Food nexus raises a number of issues. chinese government would like to solve these issues with neighbouring countries. Because Korea is the lowest level in the water stress among three countries, the OECD is committed to supporting Korean government to reform policies that influence the availability, use and management of Water-Energy-Food. The Korean local governments consider appling the Japanese approach for harmonize three sectors(WEF) together.
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Purwanto, Aries, Janez Sušnik, Franciscus X. Suryadi, and Charlotte de Fraiture. "Water-Energy-Food Nexus: Critical Review, Practical Applications, and Prospects for Future Research." Sustainability 13, no. 4 (February 10, 2021): 1919. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13041919.
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This paper presents knowledge gaps and critiques on the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus that have emerged since the concept of the WEF nexus was proposed by the World Economic Forum and the Bonn 2011 Conference. Furthermore, this study analyses current innovations on the WEF nexus concept, applications, and impacts during the period of 2012–2020. This begins by reviewing ten WEF nexus frameworks developed by international organizations and researchers. On this basis, several gaps and omissions in nexus frameworks are obvious in almost all developed frameworks. Studies that start to address some of these gaps are analysed, but they are relatively few and do not address all gaps. Several proposed improvements to nexus frameworks are identified to narrow the gaps and put the concept into practical implementation in WEF resources management and governance. Four principles and the perspective of “from local to global” for future WEF nexus framework development and analysis are suggested to ensure that the security of water, energy, and food resources can be achieved sustainably in local communities. This will improve the impact of national and global ambitions on WEF security.
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Hamidov, Ahmad, and Katharina Helming. "Sustainability Considerations in Water–Energy–Food Nexus Research in Irrigated Agriculture." Sustainability 12, no. 15 (August 4, 2020): 6274. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12156274.
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Irrigated agriculture is essential to satisfying the globally increasing demand for food and bio-based products. Yet, in water scarce regions, water-use for irrigation aggravates the competition for the use of water for other purposes, such as energy production, drinking water and sanitation. Solutions for sustainable food production through irrigated agriculture require a systemic approach to assess benefits and trade-offs across sectors. Here, the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus has become an important concept in natural resource management. It has been conceptualized to analyze linkages and trade-offs between the three sectors, across temporal and spatial scales. However, the concept has so far mainly been conceptual, with little empirical evidence or proof of concept in real world cases. The objective of this paper was to take stock of the rapidly advancing literature on the WEF nexus in irrigated agriculture, and to analyze how the concept was actually implemented in research studies, and how the nexus between water, food and energy was actually dealt with. The study period ranges from 2011 to 2019, and includes 194 articles. Results showed that the WEF nexus is indeed very relevant in irrigated agriculture, and the respective literature makes up one third of all WEF nexus papers. Modeling and empirical research have caught up with conceptual synthesis studies during the last four years, thereby indicating that the WEF nexus concept is indeed increasingly operationalized. However, most studies addressed the WEF nexus from a perspective of either socioeconomic, technological or environmental categories, and they place one of the dimensions of water, food or energy into the foreground. To address sustainable development, there is a need to fully integrate across research disciplines and thematic dimensions. Such studies are only starting to emerge. These findings are an important evidence-base for future WEF nexus research on irrigated agriculture, in support of sustainable solutions for water scarce regions, especially in settings undergoing transformations.
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Correa-Porcel, Víctor, Laura Piedra-Muñoz, and Emilio Galdeano-Gómez. "Water–Energy–Food Nexus in the Agri-Food Sector: Research Trends and Innovating Practices." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18, no. 24 (December 8, 2021): 12966. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182412966.
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Natural resources are becoming scarcer and, together with the growth of the population, a widespread situation of overexploitation is inevitable that has become the biggest challenge for today’s world. In this context, the agri-food sector has a considerable environmental impact in terms of water and energy consumption. For about two decades, the Water–Energy–Food Nexus (WEF) Nexus has been trying to address this problem, focusing on efficient interrelationships among these dimensions. The objective of this work is to analyse the evolution of research on WEF Nexus in the agri-food sector and its development in scientific databases. For that purpose, a bibliometric study was carried out with publications obtained from the Scopus database, examining the main journals, authors, institutions, countries, subject areas, funding sponsors, and keywords. Moreover, a final section is specifically dedicated to the agri-food innovations in WEF Nexus in order to explore innovative aspects to effectively overcome technical barriers that hinder a real implementation of the Nexus approach. The results show that, over the past decade, Nexus research in the agri-food sector has been growing exponentially. The top country in this field is USA, the most studied area is environmental science, and the most relevant keywords are “energy use”, “water budget”, “food security”, “sustainable development”, and “water resources”.
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Sušnik, Janez. "Stakeholder engagement, governance analysis, and co-creation for more effective WEFE Nexus management." Open Access Government 44, no. 1 (October 10, 2024): 386–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.56367/oag-044-11559.
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Stakeholder engagement, governance analysis, and co-creation for more effective WEFE Nexus management Dr Janez Sušnik, from the IHE Delft Institute for Water Education and Coordinator of NEXOGENESIS, provides insights on stakeholder engagement, governance analysis, and co-creation to enhance WEFE Nexus management. In the July 2024 edition, the Water- Energy-Food-Ecosystems (WEFE Nexus), was introduced as a coherent interconnected resource system, strongly interacting with ecosystems (to form the WEFE Nexus), and supporting societal development.
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Ali, Majid, Muhammad Naveed Anjum, Donghui Shangguan, and Safdar Hussain. "Water, Energy, and Food Nexus in Pakistan: Parametric and Non-Parametric Analysis." Sustainability 14, no. 21 (October 24, 2022): 13784. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su142113784.
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Analyzing the efficiency of the water, energy, and food (WEF) nexus is critical for effective governance strategies. Therefore, three-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) was used to measure the efficiency level of WEF in the 36 districts of Punjab, Pakistan, for the period from 2015 to 2021. Furthermore, the stochastic frontier was used to analyze the effect of external environmental factors on these efficiency scores of the WEF nexus. The results of the DEA showed that the number of frontier efficiency districts decreased, and most districts experienced rank change over time. Overall, the performance of 50% of the districts declined over time. The relative decline in efficiency was found to be higher in districts Bahwalnaghar and Rahim Yar Khan. The performance of districts Multan and Sheikhupura increased over time, while districts Vehari and Sargodha were the most complete and efficient in actual performance. According to the SFA’s findings, the WEF nexus efficiency of South Punjab districts was negatively impacted by external environmental factors (urbanization rate, manufactured industry output, population), leading to severe stress across WEF sectors. Districts in central and southern Punjab, however, were more likely to have lower rankings because of the positive impact of external environmental factors on the efficiency of the WEF nexus. The substantial rise of external environmental variables focused on scale expansion rather than quality improvement, which created a wide gap in WEF inputs and, hence, reduced the efficiency of the WEF nexus in the districts. The findings of this study provide valuable insights for developing governance strategies based on external environmental factors and WEF resource endowment, and they complement the efficiency calculation of WEF nexus research. Future research should focus on the Baluchistan region, the most deprived area in terms of water, energy, and food.
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Borge-Diez, David, Francisco José García-Moya, and Enrique Rosales-Asensio. "Water Energy Food Nexus Analysis and Management Tools: A Review." Energies 15, no. 3 (February 3, 2022): 1146. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/en15031146.
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In order to eradicate water–energy–food poverty, Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) proposed milestones to overcome the feeding problem. The development of water–energy–food (WEF) nexus management tools, and approaches has increased during last years. The aim of this research is to review WEF nexus management methods, tools, and examples to identify gaps, goals, or future development that arise when modelling goods management issues for designing a sustainable development framework. It is also presented the food–biofuel competition for resources problem focusing in threatened systems. In addition to the resource trade-off quantification issue, it proposed an analysis for WEF systems management from economic, environmental, and practical points of view with the aim of identifying results, challenges, gaps, or assumptions for nexus. The renewable energy highlights as an enabler for sustainable development.
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El Youssfi, Lahcen, Wesley Doorsamy, Adil Aghzar, Sidi Imad Cherkaoui, Ihssan Elouadi, Alex Godoy Faundez, and Diego Rivera Salazar. "Review of water energy food nexus in Africa: Morocco and South Africa as case studies." E3S Web of Conferences 183 (2020): 02002. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202018302002.
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The population of the African continent is significantly increasing which has given rise to societal, economic and environmental changes. This will generate an increase in demand for food, water and energy. Thus, strategies for sustainable management of natural resources need to be adopted urgently in order to match the future needs and to ensure sustainable development on the continent. The Water Energy Food (WEF) nexus is one the avenues for studying the current and future interactions and interdependencies of the WEF sectors under different scenarios and challenges in the effort towards establishing sustainable use of natural resources. Policies around the nexus approach are few or absent at the continental and countrylevels. This paper is a first review on the adoption of the Nexus in two model African countries, Morocco and South Africa. The review compares the water, energy and food sectors and the related national policies, plans and frameworks. The data related to the WEF Nexus revealed key difficulties of availability in both countries. A comparative analysis of the situation in both countries demonstrated differences in policies relating to the WEF Nexus across the sectors: water, energy, and agriculture. Additionally, the paper explores the relevance of technology-assisted frameworks for the WEF nexus and also analyzed risks to agriculture and food security in the context of the reviewed countries.
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Wang, Jue, Keyi Ju, and Xiaozhuo Wei. "Where Will ‘Water-Energy-Food’ Research Go Next?—Visualisation Review and Prospect." Sustainability 14, no. 13 (June 25, 2022): 7751. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su14137751.
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Research on water, energy, and food (WEF) is gradually becoming a global research hotspot in response to threats caused by the overexploitation of resources. In this study, 13,202 documents were selected from the WoS database and CiteSpace to judge frontier development in WEF research. In this study, visualisation research was carried out in 1547 papers that are most relevant to WEF research. The results show that WEF research has gradually increased during the research period, especially since 2015. The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, Hoff, and Bazilian have the greatest influence on the promotion of WEF research and there is significant cooperation between institutions and countries. The United States, China, and the United Kingdom were the main contributors. The WEF nexus has become the most important hotspot in WEF research. In this case, 823 papers focused on the WEF nexus were selected to demonstrate the research contents, frontiers and clusters, and methods of the WEF nexus. Applied researches on the WEF nexus, such as security issues and multi-objective optimisation are current frontiers. Some new topics such as the pandemic and geopolitics have not attracted enough attention relative to their potential importance. A comprehensive data platform for the inter-department of water, energy, and food subsystems should be constructed in the near future.
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Anika, N., D. A. Ramadhani, L. Wijaya, I. N. Azizah, M. Mahardika, A. I. Fauzi, and Y. Bindar. "Water, Food, and Energy Nexus in Lampung Province, Indonesia." IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science 1038, no. 1 (June 1, 2022): 012006. http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/1038/1/012006.
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Abstract Lampung Province’s population growth rate has increased in recent decades. Population growth and mobility increase the need for water, energy, and food (WEF). Hence, maintaining food security, water consumption in the agricultural sector, and energy consumption have all been considered sustainable development. The potential of the three critical sectors can be increased using the nexus approach by taking into account several factors such as availability, accessibility, resource quality to generate positive synergies and effectively manage losses. The Nexus approach enhanced complex systems’ decision-making and responded to system shocks. Furthermore, it was used to identify and eliminate contradictory policies required to achieve integrated and coherent policies that address interconnected resource sectors. WEF Nexus approaches must comprehend how the governed’s trade-off and resource use efficiency affects outcomes in terms of social equity, externalities, and socio-ecological resilience. Based on WEF analysis for Lampung Province, water security is a significant factor for food and energy security, while water availability is in high vulnerability in the dry season due to lack of water resources infrastructure and catchment area degradation.
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Sabah, Noor, Mustafa Al-Mukhtar, and Khalid Shemal. "Water - food and energy nexus systems: analysis integrated policy making tool." 3C Empresa. Investigación y pensamiento crítico 12, no. 01 (March 31, 2023): 324–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.17993/3cemp.2023.120151.324-344.
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This research discusses and analyses cutting-edge applications for water-energy-food nexus system analysis. It is axiomatic that substantial data should be acquired for a comprehensive model. The WEF nexus simulator may therefore be built to any extent by using simulated data future integral field spectroscopic (IFs and THENs) for WEF nexus interaction. The required data was then organized, and interactions (IFs and THENs) between the three subsystems were investigated. These IFs and THENs aid in our understanding of and ability to address the intricacy of the WEF. Given that the present study’s objective is to review various solutions for WEF Nexus We can now use these classifications to simplify the WEF nexus idea. In other words, the relationship between the three subsystems is demonstrated by the IFs and THENs variables. It would make sense to remove one of the following THEN variables from one subsystem if one of the IF variables in another subsystem remained. Because earlier Nexus initiatives did not provide information on how to initiate and discover interactions, it will be simple to determine interactions. This study demonstrates how a thorough nexus simulation model can access and communicate a wide range of data. The nexus model's interrelationships and interactions with other subsystems can be easily recovered thanks to this classification approach, and none of them will be missed because of ignorance of the nexus system. These IFs and THENs variables are also seen to be an excellent way to simplify the implementation of the Nexus system. The overall score for each project was then calculated by adding the weighted scores, which provided a methodical and objective way to rank the 29 irrigation and hydroelectric dam projects. This study is the first study in Iraq about water-energy and food nexus and helping to streamline decision-making at the nexus due to the size of the several sectors in the Iraqi human society Following input from NWDS stakeholders, three new factors to take into account when deciding which irrigation project options to pursue were identified: a) Fighting poverty; b) Building irrigation projects close to Iraq's borders to ensure border security. 3) Rural Population Decline or Poverty Exodus. It's important to note that the nation places the highest priority on these three factors (Key Priorities National). Irrigation projects may now be planned in a deliberate manner that takes into account the observations of the relevant authorities thanks to the adoption of these aims together with the strategic assessment criteria. It takes scientific input to create "resource indexes".
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Prokisch, József, Daniella Sári, Arjun Muthu, Antal Nagy, Hassan El-Ramady, Neama Abdalla, and Judit Dobránszki. "Biotechnology of Nanofiber in Water, Energy, and Food Sectors." Agronomy 13, no. 11 (October 30, 2023): 2734. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13112734.
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Natural resources including water, energy, and food have an increase in demand due to the global population increases. The sustainable management of these resources is an urgent global issue. These resources combined in a very vital nexus are called the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus. The field of nanotechnology offers promising solutions to overcome several problems in the WEF nexus. This review is the first report that focuses on the suggested applications of nanofibers in the WEF sectors. An economic value of nanofibers in WEF sectors was confirmed, which was mainly successfully applied for producing clean water, sustainable energy, and safe food. Biotechnological solutions of nanofibers include various activities in water, energy, and food industries. These activities may include the production of fresh water and wastewater treatment, producing, converting, and storing energy, and different activities in the food sector. Furthermore, microbial applications of nanofibers in the biomedicine sector, and the most important biotechnological approaches, mainly plant tissue culture, are the specific focus of the current study. Applying nanofibers in the field of plant tissue culture is a promising approach because these nanofibers can prevent any microbial contamination under in vitro conditions, but the loss of media by evaporation is the main challenge in this application. The main challenges of nanofiber production and application depend on the type of nanofibers and their application. Different sectors are related to almost all activities in our life; however, enormous open questions still need to be answered, especially the green approach that can be used to solve the accumulative problems in those sectors. The need for research on integrated systems is also urgent in the nexus of WEF under the umbrella of environmental sustainability, global climate change, and the concept of one’s health.
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Wicaksono, Albert, Gimoon Jeong, and Doosun Kang. "Water–Energy–Food Nexus Simulation: An Optimization Approach for Resource Security." Water 11, no. 4 (March 31, 2019): 667. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/w11040667.
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The water–energy–food nexus (WEF nexus) concept is a novel approach to manage limited resources. Since 2011, a number of studies were conducted to develop computer simulation models quantifying the interlinkage among water, energy, and food sectors. Advancing a nationwide WEF nexus simulation model (WEFSiM) previously developed by the authors, this study proposes an optimization module (WEFSiM-opt) to assist stakeholders in making informed decisions concerning sustainable resource management. Both single- and multi-objective optimization modules were developed to maximize the user reliability index (URI) for water, energy, and food sectors by optimizing the priority index and water allocation decisions. In this study, the developed models were implemented in Korea to determine optimal resource allocation and management decisions under a plausible drought scenario. This study suggests that the optimization approach can advance WEF nexus simulation and provide better solutions for managing limited resources. It is anticipated that the proposed WEFSiM-opt can be utilized as a decision support tool for designing resource management plans.
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Pueppke, Steven. "Ancient WEF: Water–Energy–Food Nexus in the Distant Past." Water 13, no. 7 (March 28, 2021): 925. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/w13070925.
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The concept of water–energy–food (WEF) nexus is gaining favor as a means to highlight the functions of the three individual nexus elements as interrelated components of a single complex system. In practice, the nexus approach projects forward from the present, seeking to maximize future WEF synergies and avoid undesirable tradeoffs. A complementary approach was employed here to gain insights into how the ancients dealt with WEF relationships, whether currently relevant nexus principles were practiced long ago, and how past WEF dynamics compare to those of today. Two examples, both dating to before the common era (BCE), are considered in detail. The qanats of ancient Persia brought groundwater to the surface and directed it to clusters of agricultural fields in arid areas where crop production was not otherwise feasible. In contrast, the Dujiangyan irrigation scheme of ancient China harnessed previously destructive surface water flows to stabilize food production across a vast agricultural plain. Designed and constructed under highly uncertain conditions and with a long-term perspective, both relied on local resources and expertise to exploit the tight coupling of water and the intrinsic energy from its flows to produce food. Ingenious infrastructure combined with sound governance allowed both to achieve remarkable synergies among the WEF components with minimal apparent tradeoffs. Although both are now challenged by climate change and the increasing complexity of modern WEF relationships, qanat systems and the Dujiangyan irrigation scheme have survived for millennia and still exist in recognizable form. This is due in large part to the persistence of governance systems that devolved significant decision-making authority to those who used water and energy for food production. Although it is not feasible to roll back technology to that of an earlier time, the successful attributes of earlier WEF governance systems warrant more attention in the future.
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Sun, Chengshuang, Guangxia Li, Ke Zhou, Daohan Huang, and Qianmai Luo. "Towards a Sustainable Structure of an Urban Water–Energy–Food Nexus: Based on Network and Hierarchy Analysis." Water 16, no. 15 (July 23, 2024): 2074. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/w16152074.
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Water, energy, and food (WEF) are critical resources to sustain urban development, which requires a sustainable structure of the urban WEF nexus to address trade-offs and achieve synergies. Although interactions in the WEF nexus are widely explored, its sustainable structure has largely been ignored. This study constructs a framework of WEF nexus sustainability factors. Based on a literature review and expert opinions, 21 factors influencing urban WEF nexus sustainability were extracted and their interrelationships determined. We used social network analysis (SNA) and interpretive structural modeling (ISM) to analyze the structure of the urban WEF network. The results indicate that technological investment and industrial added-value energy consumption are the most critical and fundamental factors for promoting the sustainable development of the urban WEF nexus. Additionally, the balance of water supply and demand and the comprehensive management of waste pollutants are also driving and supporting factors for the sustainability of the urban WEF nexus. The results of this study complement the interaction mechanism research of the urban WEF nexus and provide practical references for sustainable decision-making in urban WEF nexus practices.
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Saidmamatov, Olimjon, Inna Rudenko, Stephan Pfister, and Jacek Koziel. "Water–Energy–Food Nexus Framework for Promoting Regional Integration in Central Asia." Water 12, no. 7 (July 3, 2020): 1896. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/w12071896.
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This paper focuses on regional integration through the lenses of the Water–Food–Energy (WEF) nexus, a concept putting strong emphasis on cross-sectoral and multi-level interactions as well as on resource interdependencies. There is an extensive amount of published research focusing on the Aral Sea basin. In this paper, the authors build upon these different contributions and provide a meta-analysis of the literature of WEF nexus opportunities in Central Asia (CA) countries. This paper contributes to ongoing discussions regarding how the WEF Nexus can represent an opportunity for reinforced collaboration regarding resources management. To do so, focusing on existing literature, this paper first (1) explores how the nexus can be a relevant instrument for regional integration. Second (2), it provides an overview of water, food, energy conditions and challenges in the Aral Sea basin in particular. Third (3), synthesizing existing research, the authors identify critical variables to be considered as hurdles or leverage points for WEF nexus implementation in the Aral Sea basin. Finally (4), we go back to our initial set of questions and identify some possible avenues for future research.
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Xu, Shasha, Weijun He, Juqin Shen, Dagmawi Mulugeta Degefu, Liang Yuan, and Yang Kong. "Coupling and Coordination Degrees of the Core Water–Energy–Food Nexus in China." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 16, no. 9 (May 11, 2019): 1648. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16091648.
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Achieving sustainable development in the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus is gaining global attention. The coupling and coordination degrees are a way to measure sustainable development levels of a complex system. This study assessed the coupling and coordination degrees of the core WEF nexus and identified key factors that affect sustainable development. First, an index system for assessing coupling and coordination degrees of the core WEF nexus was built. Second, the development levels of three subsystems as well as the coupling and coordination degrees of the core WEF nexus in China were calculated. The results showed that from 2007 to 2016, the mean value of the coupling degree was 0.746 (range (0.01, 1)), which was a high level. This proved that the three resources were interdependent. Hence, it was necessary to study their relationship. However, the mean value of the coordination degree was 0.395 (range (0, 1)), which was a low level. This showed that the coordination development of the core WEF nexus in China was low. It is necessary to take some measures to improve the situation. According to the key factors that affect the development levels of water, energy, and food subsystems, the authors put forward some suggestions to improve the coordination development of the WEF system in China.
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Huang, Angela, and Fi-John Chang. "Prospects for Rooftop Farming System Dynamics: An Action to Stimulate Water-Energy-Food Nexus Synergies toward Green Cities of Tomorrow." Sustainability 13, no. 16 (August 12, 2021): 9042. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13169042.
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Rooftop farming is a practical solution of smart urban agriculture to furnish diverse socio-environmental benefits and short food supply chains, especially in densely populated cities. This study aims to raise urban food security with less use of public water and energy in food production, through utilizing green water and energy for sustainable management. A system dynamics (SD) model framed across the nexus of climate, water, energy and food (WEF) sectors is developed for a rooftop farm in Taipei City of Taiwan. The urban WEF Nexus is structured to address how local weather affects water and energy utilization to grow vegetables. The SD results showed that the annual yields of sweet potato leaves achieved 9.3 kg/m2, at the cost of 3.8 ton/m2 of harvested rainwater and 2.1 ton/m2 of tap water together with 2.1 kwh/m2 of solar photovoltaic power and 0.4 kwh/m2 of public electricity. This study not only demonstrates that green resources show great potential to make a significant reduction in consuming urban irrigation resources for rooftop farming, but contributes to urban planning through a sustainable in situ WEF Nexus mechanism at a city scale. The WEF Nexus can manifest the rooftop farming promotion as cogent development to facilitate urban sustainability.
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Herrera-Franco, Gricelda, Lady Bravo-Montero, Jhon Caicedo-Potosí, and Paúl Carrión-Mero. "A Sustainability Approach between the Water–Energy–Food Nexus and Clean Energy." Water 16, no. 7 (April 1, 2024): 1017. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/w16071017.
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The excessive use of energy from fossil fuels, which corresponds to population, industrialisation, and unsustainable economic growth, is the cause of carbon dioxide production and climate change. The Water–Energy–Food (WEF) nexus is an applicable conceptual framework that helps manage the balance between human development and natural resource constraints, and it becomes a valuable tool to address the challenges of resource depletion and clean energy. This article aims to analyse the relationship between the WEF nexus and clean energy through a statistical analysis and a systematic review of knowledge on energy sustainability. The methodology involves the selection of bibliographic information databases such as Scopus and Web of Science (WoS), a statistical analysis, specifically the Scientometrics applied to the information obtained, and the identification of 179 scientific publications related to the study variables through a screening process called Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). The interaction of green energy and sustainability with the WEF nexus has been approached mainly by developed countries such as China (10%), the United States (9.49%), India (7.26%), and Brazil (5.02%). The review of 55 scientific papers identified strategies that balance economic growth and environmental impact, applying clean energy systems (e.g., solar and wind), and the importance of adaptation to the subsystems of the WEF nexus. This study also highlights adaptability to climate change in rural and urban communities. Therefore, it is consistent with the four pillars of sustainable development (Economic: 7 papers, Environmental: 22, Social: 18, and Cultural: 8). This study highlights the following: (a) the importance of the use of renewable energy either in mixed systems and consumption, energy storage, and seeking energy efficiency in systems adapted to diverse environments and (b) the relevance of community participation in the decision-making process for the use of clean energy, such as a strategy for climate change adaptation.
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Albatayneh, Aiman. "Water Energy Food Nexus to Tackle Climate Change in the Eastern Mediterranean." Air, Soil and Water Research 16 (January 2023): 117862212311702. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/11786221231170222.
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Integrating water, energy, and food (WEF) systems can generate synergies and help Eastern Mediterranean countries solve climate change-related concerns. The WEF nexus strategy provides a comprehensive and integrated approach to solving the issues faced by climate change and a roadmap toward sustainable water, energy, and food systems. The significance of understanding the WEF nexus in the context of climate change cannot be emphasized, and further study and implementation are required to reach its full potential. In this study, we investigated the available options for decision-makers to combat climate change; for example, renewable energy is seen as a critical component for assisting the water, energy, and food sectors in addressing the issues faced by climate change. Renewable energy may supply clean, dependable, and sustainable electricity for water treatment and distribution systems, agricultural and food processing enterprises, and energy-intensive businesses. In addition, for the region’s sustainable development, cooperation between Eastern Mediterranean countries in addressing the issues of climate change and the WEF nexus is crucial. Promoting cross-border commerce and establishing regional frameworks and initiatives can play a vital role in tackling these difficulties and assuring the region’s sustainable future.
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El Majdoubi, Ghizlane, and Houda El Ayadi. "Analyzing the Water, Energy, and Food Security Nexus Index in Morocco." BIO Web of Conferences 109 (2024): 01009. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/bioconf/202410901009.
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The WEF Nexus Index’s quantitative perspective provides a way to evaluate the trade-offs that need to be taken into account for sustainable development. Morocco’s natural resources are being impacted by climate change, and the demand for energy, water, and food are increasing the pressure on these resources. Academics are becoming more interested in measuring the synergies and trade-offs between this resource. The purpose of this paper is to offer an interpretation of how the Morocco WEF Nexus Index has changed over the course of 5 years, as determined by open databases. The index’s value decreased and Morocco’s ranking deteriorated during this period, as evidenced by the results. The results are useful for evaluating Morocco’s progress in managing integrated resources and aiding in decision-making and policy development. On an interactive website, A group of visual representations linked to WEF Nexus Index has been put together.
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Wu, Lina, Amin Elshorbagy, and Md Shahabul Alam. "Dynamics of water-energy-food nexus interactions with climate change and policy options." Environmental Research Communications 4, no. 1 (January 1, 2022): 015009. http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/2515-7620/ac4bab.
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Abstract Understanding the dynamics of water-energy-food (WEF) nexus interactions with climate change and human intervention helps inform policymaking. This study demonstrates the WEF nexus behavior under ensembles of climate change, transboundary inflows, and policy options, and evaluates the overall nexus performance using a previously developed system dynamics-based WEF nexus model—WEF-Sask. The climate scenarios include a baseline (1986–2014) and near-future climate projections (2021–2050). The approach is demonstrated through the case study of Saskatchewan, Canada. Results show that rising temperature with increased rainfall likely maintains reliable food and feed production. The climate scenarios characterized by a combination of moderate temperature increase and slightly less rainfall or higher temperature increase with slightly higher rainfall are easier to adapt to by irrigation expansion. However, such expansion uses a large amount of water resulting in reduced hydropower production. In contrast, higher temperature, combined with less rainfall, such as SSP370 (+2.4 °C, −6 mm), is difficult to adapt to by irrigation expansion. Renewable energy expansion, the most effective climate change mitigation option in Saskatchewan, leads to the best nexus performance during 2021–2050, reducing total water demand, groundwater demand, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and potentially increasing water available for food&feed production. In this study, we recommend and use food&feed and power production targets and provide an approach to assessing the impacts of hydroclimate and policy options on the WEF nexus, along with suggestions for adapting the agriculture and energy sectors to climate change.
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Pérez, Leonardo Martín. "Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem (WEFE) Nexus: A key concept for a more resilient adaptation to the climate crisis." Natural Resources Conservation and Research 6, no. 1 (July 17, 2023): 2324. http://dx.doi.org/10.24294/nrcr.v6i1.2324.
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The Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem (WEFE) Nexus is a pretty novel cross-thinking concept, meaning that answers to current environmental hazards must follow a multisectoral approach rather than a traditional unidirectional vision[1]. Since water supply, energy flows, and food security—and its connection with the surrounding ecosystems—are intimately linked together, every impact in one of such areas will have undoubtedly impacts on the others. The most important signifi-cance of the WEFE Nexus approach is that further exploitation of clean water supplies, agricultural soils, and energy resources should not de-stabilize nor weaken the provision of these ecoservices to the current and future societies. ...
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Wicaksono, Albert, Gimoon Jeong, and Doosun Kang. "Water, energy, and food nexus: review of global implementation and simulation model development." Water Policy 19, no. 3 (March 13, 2017): 440–62. http://dx.doi.org/10.2166/wp.2017.214.
Full textAbstract:
Water, energy, and food (WEF) have complex interconnections. Water is required to produce energy, while energy is needed for water extraction, treatment, and distribution. The food sector requires water and energy to produce food products, while fertilizer and pesticide from farmland have a negative impact on water quality; however, biomass is a potential alternative energy source. Understanding these interconnections will help determine the developmental framework that connects all of the elements. Some global regions have implemented a variety of sustainable management concepts to manage the natural resources, however, mainly for an individual resource. Furthermore, various computer models have been developed to estimate the interdependency of each resource and to quantify future requirements of WEF; the limitations of current models have opened opportunities for development through the addition of components and features such as feedback analysis, optimization, and visualization. We reviewed the literature to determine the present state of the WEF nexus, especially its global implementation and simulation model. We concluded that the involvement of stakeholders, integration of policies, and development of a nexus simulation model are required for successful implementation of the WEF nexus, which is an emerging issue for a sustainable resources' management.
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Forbes, Paula J., Ruth E. Falconer, Daniel Gilmour, and Nikolay Panayotov. "Interactive Visualisation of Sustainability Indicators for Water, Energy and Food Innovations." Water 13, no. 11 (June 1, 2021): 1571. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/w13111571.
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The Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus describes the synergies and trade-offs between water, energy and food. Despite the significant attention that the WEF nexus has received in recent years, challenges remain, primarily related to gaps in integrated data, information and knowledge related to the most critical inter-linkages and their dynamics. These WEF nexus complexities and uncertainty make decision-making and future forecasting extremely difficult. Policy makers and other stakeholders are currently faced with the task of understanding longer term environmental impacts and tJhe benefits and limitations of innovations that could be potentially beneficial, such as Anaerobic Digestion as a waste solution or insect protein production. This paper describes an approach to support decision making for local-level innovations within the WEF nexus by creating a set of sustainability indicators and an accompanying interactive visualisation. The indicators were derived from stakeholder consultation processes and workshops, and they were selected to include a much broader assessment than just financial aspects when considering the viability of such innovations. By taking this bottom-up approach and placing stakeholders at the heart of the project, we produced a visualisation tool to support sustainable decision making when considering the implementation of WEF innovations. Considering other, often overlooked factors and giving greater priority to these deepens knowledge and the recognition of influential issues that in conventional processes may be overlooked. This visualisation tool is designed to support decision makers to engage in a exploration of the different interlinkages, and to be the basis of stakeholder dialogue around sustainability. The visualisation tool developed was designed to be easily modifiable in order to be updated with new insights and to include other future innovations.
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Nugroho, Hunggul Yudono Setio Hadi, Dewi Retna Indrawati, Nining Wahyuningrum, Rahardyan Nugroho Adi, Agung Budi Supangat, Yonky Indrajaya, Pamungkas Buana Putra, et al. "Toward Water, Energy, and Food Security in Rural Indonesia: A Review." Water 14, no. 10 (May 20, 2022): 1645. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/w14101645.
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Indonesia is an archipelago with significant variations in natural resources, infrastructure, socioeconomic, culture, human resource capacity, accessibility, and access to financial and technical assistance. In this situation, integrated and unique efforts are needed to manage natural resources and build synergy between their protection and utilization to achieve water, energy, and food (WEF) security in accordance with the SDG targets. This paper analyzes the implementations of the WEF nexus in rural Indonesia by examining existing legal frameworks and other related policies, journals, textbooks, and publications. We explore factors influencing the success and failure of the implementation of the WEF nexus approaches from technical, socioeconomic, cultural, political, and institutional perspectives of the rural development framework.
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Mpandeli, Sylvester, Dhesigen Naidoo, Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi, Charles Nhemachena, Luxon Nhamo, Stanley Liphadzi, Sithabile Hlahla, and Albert T. Modi. "Climate Change Adaptation through the Water-Energy-Food Nexus in Southern Africa." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 15, no. 10 (October 19, 2018): 2306. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15102306.
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Climate change is a complex and cross-cutting problem that needs an integrated and transformative systems approach to respond to the challenge. Current sectoral approaches to climate change adaptation initiatives often create imbalances and retard sustainable development. Regional and international literature on climate change adaptation opportunities and challenges applicable to southern Africa from a water-energy-food (WEF) nexus perspective was reviewed. Specifically, this review highlights climate change impacts on water, energy, and food resources in southern Africa, while exploring mitigation and adaptation opportunities. The review further recommends strategies to develop cross-sectoral sustainable measures aimed at building resilient communities. Regional WEF nexus related institutions and legal frameworks were also reviewed to relate the WEF nexus to policy. Southern Africa is witnessing an increased frequency and intensity in climate change-associated extreme weather events, causing water, food, and energy insecurity. A projected reduction of 20% in annual rainfall by 2080 in southern Africa will only increase the regional socio-economic challenges. This is exacerbating regional resource scarcities and vulnerabilities. It will also have direct and indirect impacts on nutrition, human well-being, and health. Reduced agricultural production, lack of access to clean water, sanitation, and clean, sustainable energy are the major areas of concern. The region is already experiencing an upsurge of vector borne diseases (malaria and dengue fever), and water and food-borne diseases (cholera and diarrhoea). What is clear is that climate change impacts are cross-sectoral and multidimensional, and therefore require cross-sectoral mitigation and adaptation approaches. In this regard, a well-coordinated and integrated WEF nexus approach offers opportunities to build resilient systems, harmonise interventions, and mitigate trade-offs and hence improve sustainability. This would be achieved through greater resource mobilisation and coordination, policy convergence across sectors, and targeting nexus points in the landscape. The WEF nexus approach has potential to increase the resilience of marginalised communities in southern Africa by contributing towards attaining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, and 13).
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Bazzana, Davide, Nicola Comincioli, Cristina El Khoury, Fernando Nardi, and Sergio Vergalli. "WEF Nexus Policy Review of Four Mediterranean Countries." Land 12, no. 2 (February 14, 2023): 473. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/land12020473.
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The Water–Energy–Food (WEF) nexus describes natural resource use in the context of social needs and economic development, addressing food, water, and energy security. Population growth and rising economic prosperity will increase the demand for energy, food, and water in the Mediterranean region, compromising the sustainable use of resources. As governments are required to make decisions in order to cope with increasing demands for resources, this paper performs a review of the legislation and WEF policies, identifying the main political and institutional actors involved and the possible policy (in)coherence in four MED countries located on two continents: Egypt, Italy, Spain, and Tunisia. This choice will allow the identification of the barriers and catalysts influencing the implementation of WEF policies and will improve our understanding of the WEF trade-offs and synergies by exploring them on national, regional, and local scales.
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Rezaei Kalvani, Somayeh, and Fulvio Celico. "Analysis of Pros and Cons in Using the Water–Energy–Food Nexus Approach to Assess Resource Security: A Review." Sustainability 16, no. 7 (March 22, 2024): 2605. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su16072605.
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The water–energy–food (WEF) nexus is drawing much attention in scholarly literature as a novel alternative to address complex resources and achieve resource security. The aim of this study is to analyze and review existing nexus studies to investigate the current status of nexus research worldwide. This study used a narrative review approach to provide a comprehensive overview on the WEF nexus using a variety of databases. It is indicated that the majority of studies in Asia and Africa focused on the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus. China and Brazil had the largest nexus research. Based on the existing literature, most of attention has been paid to food production. However, food consumption patterns and dietary change are rarely evaluated, and there is a lack of study on impacts of dietary change on the WEF nexus. Moreover, there is a lack of frameworks for the evaluation of the WEF nexus under dietary change scenarios. The major challenge of the nexus approach is data availability in crop production, which can be solved by using remote sensing data. There is a lack of standard and conceptual frameworks for nexus assessment and, then, an essential need to provide a new holistic and standard approach that be applicable worldwide to increase connections between researchers and decision makers, as well as the applicability of nexus approaches. Future research must couple the development of a holistic standard approach with experimental tests in different areas, involving interdisciplinary research groups able to carry out all the experimental activities, the numerical simulations, and the statistical analyses of climatic time series (in a climate change perspective) indispensable to demonstrate the real benefits of using a WEF-derived nexus approach.
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Li, Jiawei, Junxia Ma, Lei Yu, and Qiting Zuo. "Analysis and Regulation of the Harmonious Relationship among Water, Energy, and Food in Nine Provinces along the Yellow River." Water 14, no. 7 (March 25, 2022): 1042. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/w14071042.
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China has proposed “ecological conservation and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin” to a major national strategy, which puts forward higher requirements for water, energy, and food along the Yellow River (TYR). However, the water–energy–food nexus (WEF) system in TYR basin is very complicated. Based on the theory and method of harmonious regulation, this paper puts forward a new WEF harmony framework (WEFH) to study the harmonious balance of WEF in TYR. WEFH cannot only evaluate the harmonious balance of WEF, but also identify the main influencing factors, and further study the harmonious regulation of WEF. For the key steps of regulation and control, we provide a variety of methods to choose from in this framework. In practice, we apply this framework to the regulation of WEF in the nine provinces along TYR. The results show that during 2005–2018, the harmony degree of WEF in the nine provinces along TYR is between 0.29 and 0.58. The harmony degree of WEF has improved over time, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. Among them, per capita water resources, hydropower generation ratio, carbon emissions, and another 12 indicators have great influence on the harmony of WEF. We have established eight control schemes for nine of these indicators. In eight control schemes, most areas have reached a moderate level of harmony degree. These results show that the framework proposed in this paper is helpful to the comprehensive management of regional WEF and provides a viable scheme for the optimization of WEF.
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Rodríguez-de-Francisco, Jean Carlo, Bibiana Duarte-Abadía, and Rutgerd Boelens. "Payment for Ecosystem Services and the Water-Energy-Food Nexus: Securing Resource Flows for the Affluent?" Water 11, no. 6 (May 31, 2019): 1143. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/w11061143.
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Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) is not only a prominent, globally promoted policy to foster nature conservation, but also increasingly propagated as an innovative and self-sustaining governance instrument to support poverty alleviation and to guarantee water, food, and energy securities. In this paper, we evaluate a PES scheme from a multi-scalar and political-ecology perspective in order to reveal different power dynamics across the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus perspective. For this purpose, we analyze the PES scheme implemented in the Hidrosogamoso hydropower project in Colombia. The paper shows that actors’ strongly divergent economic and political power is determinant in defining how and for whom the Nexus-related water, food, and energy securities are materialized. In this case, the PES scheme and its scalar politics, as fostered by the private/public hydropower alliance, are instrumental to guaranteeing water security for the hydropower scheme, which is a crucial building-block of Colombia’s energy security discourse. For this, the water and food securities of the adjacent, less powerful communities are sacrificed. Examining the on-the-ground politics of WEF Nexus is key to understanding their impact on equitable and sustainable governance of water, energy, and food in the everyday lives of millions of resource users. We conclude that politicizing the Nexus can help to trace both the flows of resources and the flows of power.
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Ioannou, Alexandra E., and Chrysi S. Laspidou. "Cross-Mapping Important Interactions between Water-Energy-Food Nexus Indices and the SDGs." Sustainability 15, no. 10 (May 15, 2023): 8045. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su15108045.
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Worldwide, many developing countries are making efforts to achieve sustainability through the 17 SDGs and at the same time to contribute to environmental security. The Nexus approach enables a more integrated and sustainable use of resources that extends beyond traditional siloed thinking and is applicable at multiple scales. This is especially important in a globalized world where collaboration is becoming increasingly important for societies. In this framework, we present an analysis that will assist policymakers set priorities in investments by investigating the influence of the WEF nexus on the 17 SDGs and vice versa. Following the Nexus approach may thus enhance synergies and contribute to increased performance in connected SDGs that are positively influenced. In this article, we present an analysis that allows stakeholders to adapt it to their specific needs by entering new scores based on the characteristics of each case study; the results of this methodology should be considered in light of the specific conditions, including socio-cultural aspects and geographical, geopolitical, and governance realities, as well as the scale of the case study in question. A Fuzzy Cognitive Map analysis is also conducted on the scores to quantify SDG impact and identify the SDGs that most strongly “influence” nexus-coherent policies and the SDGs that are most strongly “influenced by” the nexus. This is achieved by analyzing the causality in this complex system of positive and negative interlinkages. Through this analysis, three SDGs, namely SDG 2 (Food), SDG 6 (Water) and SDG 7 (Energy), are indicated as the most influenced by the WEF nexus, revealing either synergies or trade-offs, while other SDGs are identified as having little interaction with the WEF nexus system.