The Water–Energy–Food Nexus: Toward Integrated Solutions for Sustainability
A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Water-Energy Nexus".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026
Special Issue Editors
Interests: water–energy–food nexus; soil pollution diffusion; integrated resource manage-ment; irrigation efficiency; environmental sustainability
Interests: water–energy–food nexus; sustainability science; agricultural water management; climate resilience; regional resource optimization
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: water–energy–food nexus; decision support system; water conservation policies; machine learning; food security
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The Water–Energy–Food (WEF) Nexus constitutes a pivotal research domain underpinning global sustainable development, ensuring resource security, and maintaining ecological equilibrium. Through in-depth exploration of the WEF Nexus, the intrinsic synergies and potential trade-offs among water, energy, and food systems can be systematically identified and rigorously analyzed, which further facilitates the formulation of integrated governance strategies to mitigate resource scarcity, cope with climate change, and alleviate environmental pressures. This not only safeguards the stable supply of water, energy, and food resources but also preserves the integrity of the ecological environment. Furthermore, research on the WEF Nexus facilitates the scientific assessment of the sustainability of resource systems, providing evidence-based guidance for rational resource allocation, cross-sectoral coordination, and high-level policy formulation. Against the backdrop of escalating global resource constraints and increasingly complex ecological challenges, interdisciplinary integration and systematic thinking have emerged as indispensable approaches to surmount the inherent limitations of traditional single-sector research. Such approaches can effectively promote the coordinated and sustainable development of water, energy, and food systems, exerting profound practical significance for advancing the achievement of global sustainability objectives.
This Special Issue is interdisciplinary and encourages methodological pluralism. We welcome research-based manuscript submissions from scholars and practitioners working in water resource management, energy science, agricultural science, environmental science, ecological science, and sustainable development policy studies.
Prof. Dr. Lijuan Huo
Dr. Chenglong Zhang
Prof. Dr. Gaiqiang Yang
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
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 (WEF) nexus
- sustainable development
- integrated resource governance
- cross-sectoral coordination
- resource security
- climate resilience
- ecological equilibrium
- machine learning
- decision support system
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