Basin perspectives on the Water–Energy–Food Security Nexus

Lawford, R. G.; Bogárdi, János J.; Marx, Sina; Jain, Sharad K.; Wostl, Claudia Pahl; Knüppe, Kathrin; Ringler, Claudia; Lansigan, Felino P.; Meza, Francisco

doi:10.1016/j.cosust.2013.11.005

Cited by 172 publications

(88 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Given that the majority of current nexus analyses are water-centred and the nexus literature emphasises the importance of building on existing institutional settings [2], different river basin organisations have been actively engaged in nexus discussions (e.g., [17,22]). While the nexus can help to refocus the RBOs' activities and extend their understanding and even political leverage [25], we nevertheless feel that the nexus as a multisectoral and multilevel process should preferably not have a single owner. Rather, it would be important to implement the nexus through a multi-stakeholder process [127][128][129], where key actors from food and energy sectors also take initiative and ownership of the process.…”

Section: Transboundary Context's Implications For the Nexusmentioning

confidence: 96%

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The Water-Energy-Food Nexus and the Transboundary Context: Insights from Large Asian Rivers

Keskinen

Guillaume

Kattelus

et al. 2016

Water

120

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Abstract:The water-energy-food nexus is a topical subject for research and practice, reflecting the importance of these sectors for humankind and the complexity and magnitude of the challenges they are facing. While the nexus as a concept is not yet mature or fully tested in practice, it has already encouraged a range of approaches in a variety of contexts. This article provides a set of definitions recognizing three perspectives that see the nexus as an analytical tool, governance framework and as an emerging discourse. It discusses the implications that an international transboundary context brings to the nexus and vice versa. Based on a comparative analysis of three Asian regions-Central Asia, South Asia and the Mekong Region-and their related transboundary river basins, we propose that the transboundary context has three major implications: diversity of scales and perspectives, importance of state actors and importance of politics. Similarly, introducing the nexus as an approach in a transboundary context has a potential to provide new resources and approaches, alter existing actor dynamics and portray a richer picture of relationships. Overall, the significance of water-energy-food linkages and their direct impacts on water allocation mean that the nexus has the potential to complement existing approaches also in the transboundary river basins.

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Section: Transboundary Context's Implications For the Nexusmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Water 2016, 8,193 2 of 25 international borders [17,[22][23][24][25]. Despite all these publications, the actual added value provided by the nexus approach in different contexts remains partly unclear and also contested.…”

Section: To Transboundary River Basins Crossingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Water-Energy-Food Nexus and the Transboundary Context: Insights from Large Asian Rivers

Keskinen

Guillaume

Kattelus

et al. 2016

Water

120

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“…It has also been defined a "security" nexus, as access to all three elements must The ultimate goal for analysing the connections between water, energy and food, and highlighting the potential areas for conflict, trade-offs and synergies, is to guide policy-making towards integrated solutions and approaches to resource use [12,13,[18][19][20]. For example, a EWFN approach can dismantle the logical basis of policies that, in order to ensure food security, heavily subsidize electricity for pumping ground water for irrigation.…”

Section: Definition and Aimmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has also been defined a "security" nexus, as access to all three elements must be ensured in order to have prosperity and peace [18]. Both of these matters further emphasize the importance of achieving this result.…”

Section: Definition and Aimmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overcoming Food Security Challenges within an Energy/Water/Food Nexus (EWFN) Approach

2016

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Abstract:The challenge of feeding nine billion people by 2050, in a context of constrained resources and growing environmental pressures posed by current food production methods on one side, and changing lifestyles and consequent shifts in dietary patterns on the other, exacerbated by the effects of climate change, has been defined as one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century. The first step to achieve food security is to find a balance between the growing demand for food, and the limited production capacity. In order to do this three main pathways have been identified: employing sustainable production methods in agriculture, changing diets, and reducing waste in all stages of the food chain. The application of an energy, water and food nexus (EWFN) approach, which takes into account the interactions and connections between these three resources, and the synergies and trade-offs that arise from the way they are managed, is a prerequisite for the correct application of these pathways. This work discusses how Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) might be applicable for creating the evidence-base to foster such desired shifts in food production and consumption patterns.

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“…In particular, the production and supply of food and energy are closely interconnected with water availability and quality (Bazilian et al, 2011;Ringler et al, 2013;Lawford et al, 2013;5 Damerau et al, 2016). Climate change may add further constraints to the sustainable use of water resources, by causing increased drought frequency and intensity in vulnerable regions such as the Euro-Mediterranean area (Planton et al, 2012;IPCC, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrological assessment of atmospheric forcing uncertainty in the Euro-Mediterranean area using a land surface model

Gelati¹,

Decharme²,

Calvet³

et al. 2017

Preprint

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Abstract. The understanding of land surface hydrology is critical for planning human activities involving freshwater 10 resources. We assess how atmospheric forcing data uncertainties affect land surface model (LSM) simulations by means of an extensive evaluation exercise using a number of state-of-the-art remote sensing and station-based datasets. discharge. The atmospheric forcing data are also compared to reference datasets. Precipitation is the most uncertain forcing variable across datasets, while the most consistent are air temperature, and SW and LW radiation. At the monthly time scale, SSM and LAI simulations are relatively insensitive to forcing uncertainties. Some discrepancies with ESA-CCI appear to be forcing-independent and may be due to different assumptions underlying the LSM and the remote sensing retrieval algorithm. All simulations overestimate average summer and early autumn LAI. Forcing uncertainty impacts on simulated 25 river discharge are larger on mean values and standard deviations than on correlations with GRDC data. Anomaly correlation coefficients are not inferior to those computed from raw monthly discharge time series, indicating that the model reproduces inter-annual variability fairly well. However, simulated river discharge time series generally feature larger variability compared to measurements. They also tend to overestimate winter-spring high flows and underestimate summer-autumn low flows. Considering that several differences emerge between simulations and reference data, which may not be completely 30 explained by forcing uncertainty, we suggest several research directions. These range from further investigating the Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., https://doi

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Basin perspectives on the Water–Energy–Food Security Nexus

Cited by 172 publications

References 17 publications

The Water-Energy-Food Nexus and the Transboundary Context: Insights from Large Asian Rivers

The Water-Energy-Food Nexus and the Transboundary Context: Insights from Large Asian Rivers

Overcoming Food Security Challenges within an Energy/Water/Food Nexus (EWFN) Approach

Hydrological assessment of atmospheric forcing uncertainty in the Euro-Mediterranean area using a land surface model

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