Exploring the food–energy–water nexus approach to enhance coastal community resilience research and planning

Abstract

Non-technical summary. Coastal communities face environmental challenges that put food, energy, and water systems at risk. Although highly interdependent, it is unknown the extent to which coastal resilience research has considered interactions among food-energy-water systems. Twenty peer-reviewed articles were identified that focused on these systems and coastal resilience. Although a nexus approach was not employed universally, these studies most commonly addressed interactions among these systems related to acute hazards. They consistently acknowledged the influence of energy and transportation systems upon the others. As such, planners should incorporate linkages across all three systems during coastal resilience planning especially in relation to acute hazards. Technical summary. Coastal communities strive for resilience in the face of an ever-growing suite of threats by planning and preparing for numerous uncertain futures. Food, energy, and water systems are highly interconnected and essential to the well-being of coastal communities. However, it is unknown the extent to which coastal resilience research has included food-energy-water nexus considerations. This study used a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed research articles and identified 20 studies that focused on food, energy, and water systems as related to coastal resilience. Results revealed four main findings: (1) the food-energy-water nexus approach was most commonly applied to coastal resilience in the study of US locations and in the context of acute hazards, (2) a direct food-energy-water or other nexus approach was directly employed by only half of the studies, however, all highlighted the relevance of systems interconnections in the context of coastal resilience, (3) the energy system was shown to impact every system to which it was connected, and (4) the transportation system was also shown to impact every system to which it was connected, which suggests that the food-energy-water nexus should be expanded to include transportation systems. Social media summary. Coastal resilience and food-energy-water nexus literature synthesis finds interconnected systems considerations relevant to resilience. salinization which may result in corrosion of pipes, loss of hydraulics, and pumping pressure (Allen et al., 2019).The nexus of food, energy, and water systems (FEW nexus or 'nexus') is increasingly advocated as its own unit of analysis as the three systems are heavily interconnected (

Integrating resilience and nexus approaches in managing flood risk

“…In the first study, a systematic literature review of peerreviewed, academic literature was conducted. This revealed that, as of 2020, only twenty studies had combined the topics of the food-energy-water nexus with resilience (Raub et al, 2021a). In the second exploratory study, a document analysis was conducted to assess how the FEW nexus had been applied in the context of community resilience plans (Raub et al, 2021b).…”

“…For instance, when an electrical substation is damaged as a result of a flooding event, it affects the water, telecommunications, and other systems that are connected to that substation. The literature review also found that while the foodenergy-water nexus can usefully provide a starting point, other systems such as transportation should be added to the nexus, as needed (Raub et al, 2021a). Findings from the analysis of publicly available resilience plans suggested that, while reference to the FEW nexus was not explicit, there was evidence that a broader nexus approach was increasingly recognized as being relevant to resilience planning (Raub et al, 2021b).…”

Examining urban resilience through a food-water-energy nexus lens to understand the effects of climate change

“…If approached with caution, urban resilience planning offers flexibility to incorporate many different contributors, disciplines and their interactions. 34 Furthermore, urban resilience is highly dependent on the interconnectedness of the urban systems—most notably energy and transportation—with long-term effects felt most acutely in the water system 3 , 35 making the Nexus an obvious additional layer in the urban resilience planning fabric.…”

Microgrids Resiliency Enhancement against Natural Catastrophes Based Multiple Cooperation of Water and Energy Hubs

“…A resilience operation method for the formation of several MGs after a natural disaster in the distribution network has been studied in [12], and after the maximum critical load was retrieved by distributed generation sources following the accident, this reference only investigated the effect of distributed generation resources and MG formation on improving resilience and, in the case of natural disasters, on electricity and gas infrastructures. Other forms of energy such as heat, water, etc., are not mentioned, although in the event of natural disasters such as storms, damage to all infrastructures is possible [13]. Such events could result in the outage of important distribution network equipment and cause irreversible damage to the electrical network and must be addressed.…”