Emerging Themes and Future Directions of Multi-Sector Nexus Research and Implementation

Abstract

Water, energy, and food are all essential components of human societies. Collectively, their respective resource systems are interconnected in what is called the “nexus”. There is growing consensus that a holistic understanding of the interdependencies and trade-offs between these sectors and other related systems is critical to solving many of the global challenges they present. While nexus research has grown exponentially since 2011, there is no unified, overarching approach, and the implementation of concepts remains hampered by the lack of clear case studies. Here, we present the results of a collaborative thought exercise involving 75 scientists and summarize them into 10 key recommendations covering: the most critical nexus issues of today, emerging themes, and where future efforts should be directed. We conclude that a nexus community of practice to promote open communication among researchers, to maintain and share standardized datasets, and to develop applied case studies will facilitate transparent comparisons of models and encourage the adoption of nexus approaches in practice.

Learning from Past Coevolutionary Processes to Envision Sustainable Futures: Extending an Action Situations Approach on Water-Energy-Food Nexus

“…The nexus concept was formulated in response to siloed thinking and emphasizes the examination of critical interlinkages across resources by focusing on trade-offs and synergies between sub-systems. Despite this intention, scholars predominantly apply approaches which provide a narrow perspective on interactions among water, energy, and food systems (Albrecht et al, 2018;Khan et al, 2022). Consequently, conclusions of these studies often fail to address underlying drivers of current trajectories and therewith a transformation of the system toward sustainability.…”

‘Nexus’ Narratives in Urban Vulnerable Places: Pathways to Sustainability via Municipal Health Programs in Brazil

“…We follow the suggestion of Leach et al [8] to differentiate 'sustainability' ('the general capability to maintain any unspecified feature of system structure or function over indefinite periods of time', p. 18) from Sustainability ('the capability of maintaining specified values of human well-being, social equity and environmental quality over indefinite periods of time ', p. 18). This perspective on Sustainability, resorting in this definition to the three pillars of sustainable development, but replacing economic viability with human well-being, seems suitable to host the debate on the nexus research and its relation to health issues [9].…”

Integrating “Neoliberal-Turn” and “Social-Turn” Constructs in Examining Sustainable Development and Happiness and Life Satisfaction: A Global-, Country Cluster-, and Country-Level Study

“…In recent decades, numerous sets of models, both static and dynamic, from both the natural and social sciences, have increasingly integrated social, economic, and environmental dimensions [5,[13][14][15]]. However, it seems strange that the social dimension has been somewhat "forgotten and/or sidelined", having been the first and undoubtedly the most critical development dimension.…”