Challenges and Innovations in Resilience of the Water-Energy-Food Nexus
A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Water-Energy Nexus".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 22 September 2025 | Viewed by 2958
Special Issue Editors
Interests: issues of prosperity; water-energy-food nexus; natural hazards; civil engineering; art & aesthetics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: mathematical simulation and analysis of water resources systems (with emphasis in agricultural uses); soil–water movement; soil–water–plants–atmosphere relationships; water resources management; irrigation techniques; hydroinformatics; spatial analysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: hydrological modeling; renewable energy; flood risk; water-energy-nexus; stochastic hydrology; water resources management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The water-energy-food nexus is the cornerstone of human prosperity.
The efficiency of this nexus depends on various technical optimizations, such as irrigation and drainage works, soil fertilization, energy production optimization, and energy consumption allocation. The overarching goal is to optimize food production with the use of minimum resources, while safeguarding human health and well-being.
Stochastic uncertainty in the water-energy-food nexus poses significant challenges to its efficient operation. Historical examples of famine and drought highlight the devastating consequences of failing to address these uncertainties.
Understanding the underlying causes and learning from these events is essential to prevent similar crises in the future.
In this Special Issue, we welcome articles that explore stochastic variability to highlight potential risks to the nexus, such as those posed in periods of drought.
By highlighting the risk of the natural cycles, we aim to attract original, simple, and comprehensible studies that serve as practical tools for optimizing the nexus in multiple scales.
To gain deeper insights into achieving the objectives we describe in our SI, we invite papers in the following themes:
- Descriptions of technical solutions to safeguard the nexus within case studies, with potential applications in broader regions;
- Analysis of the trade-offs or synergies between fertilization and water use, supported by case studies and scalable applications which could be more resilience;
- Small-scale autonomous water-energy-food nexus systems in multiple climatic regions: Requirements, infrastructure, and cost-effectiveness;
- Historical case studies of famine and drought, with analysis of the root causes and cascading effects;
- Strategies and technologies for improving nexus robustness in the face of stochastic variability;
- Modeling approaches to predict and mitigate uncertainty in water, energy, and food systems;
- Lessons learned from past failures and how to apply them to modern systems to ensure food security and resource sustainability.
Dr. G.-Fivos Sargentis
Dr. Nikolaos Malamos
Dr. Theano Iliopoulou
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- water-energy-food nexus
- prosperity
- technology water-energy-food nexus
- self-sufficient communities
- historic famine and plagues due to water-energy-food nexus
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