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Synergies and Trade-Offs in Water–Energy–Food–Ecosystem Nexus

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Water Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 August 2023) | Viewed by 4549

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Faculty of Science and Technology, Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), 1432 Ås, Norway
Interests: urban water systems; integrated water resource management; risk assessment of water infrastructure; hydroinformatics; hydrological modeling; climate change adaptation
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Water, food, energy and ecosystem sectors are facing challenges due to issues such as increasing population, climate change, socioeconomic development, limited water resources, etc. Therefore, establishing water, energy, and food security as well as ecosystem conservation is a remarkable concern for all stakeholders and managers. The water–energy–food–ecosystem security nexus is an approach to reduce tradeoffs, promote synergies, increase system efficiency, and find sustainable development solutions. Through the nexus and quantifying the interactions between sectors we can investigate the impacts of different driving forces (e.g., socioeconomic, climatic variables and water availability) on water, energy, food and ecosystem interactions, and can identify the trade-offs and synergies across the nexus under various decision-making strategies. Indeed, a nexus approach to managing resources could greatly enhance water, energy and food security as well as environmental conditions.

To move towards this goal, this Special Issue aims to publish high-quality studies from various related areas including, but not limited to, any of the following topics:

Water–energy–food–ecosystem nexus modelling; climate change and nexus; sustainable development and nexus; agriculture and water–energy–food security; qualitative approaches; global risks and food–water–energy–ecosystem security; methodologies for the assessment of interconnections between WEF nexus and ecosystem; application of AI and optimization in the nexus approach; governance and nexus; nexus-related uncertainties; links between nexus and socioeconomic issues; real case studies focusing on water, energy, food and ecosystem interactions. 

Dr. Abbas Roozbahani
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • water–energy–food-ecosystem nexus
  • water management
  • sustainable energy
  • water and food security
  • synergies
  • trade-offs
  • nexus modelling
  • climate change

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

16 pages, 811 KiB  
Review
The Water–Energy–Food Nexus in European Countries: A Review and Future Perspectives
by Somayeh Rezaei Kalvani and Fulvio Celico
Sustainability 2023, 15(6), 4960; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15064960 - 10 Mar 2023
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 4054
Abstract
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 [...] Read more.
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. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Synergies and Trade-Offs in Water–Energy–Food–Ecosystem Nexus)
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