Identifying leverage points for shifting Water-Energy-Food nexus cases towards sustainability through the Networks of Action Situations approach combined with systems thinking

Abstract

In the twenty-first century, the world´s demand for natural resources is more pressing and deeply interconnected than ever before. The Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus has gained growing interest as a promising concept for complex resource management challenges. However, knowledge about the root causes of cross-sectoral coordination problems and how they can be shifted towards sustainability is still lacking. This paper fills this gap by conceptualising a WEF nexus case with the Networks of Action Situations approach combined with systems thinking. This approach allows a deep analysis of the root causes of coordination gaps, facilitates a joint understanding of the system dynamics to identify leverage points for shifting the WEF nexus towards sustainability, and to envision the impact of potential interventions on the network of action situations and their outcome. The value and the reciprocal benefits of the combined approach introduced are illustrated for a case in Switzerland, Europe. The results show a coordination gap between the different sectors and that not all sectors were considered equally. This leads to a prioritization of energy production over water-bound biodiversity and food production. The root causes for this outcome are a focus to mitigate climate change and awareness of biodiversity but much less awareness of the impacts of climate change on Swiss water bodies. The study identifies five deep leverage points for interventions, which are expected to ensure a shared systemic problem understanding and more balanced coordination between different sectors resulting in the sustainable and equitable provision and utilization of WEF resources.

Networks of action situations in social–ecological systems: current approaches and potential futures

“…Using game-theoretic models of herding mobility and the political economy of policy implementation, they find that a critical mass of complying herders leads to institutional complementarity across ASs. Kellner (2022) combines the NAS approach with systems thinking to identify leverage points for shifting water-energy-food nexus cases towards sustainability. In transdisciplinary co-production, this approach facilitates joint understanding of system dynamics and envisioned impacts of potential interventions on the NAS and their outcomes.…”

“…Because the NAS approach helps identifying connected ASs it prevents omission of key governance variables impacting ASs (Delaroche et al 2022). Institutional silos arranged around a particular sustainability problem or established sectors are typically not fit for purpose when multiple sustainability problems need to be addressed (Kellner 2022;Warbroek et al 2022). Looking at NAS in governing relational resources such as groundwater can uncover adjacent ASs of resource users in and peripheral ASs that are important context (Oberhauser et al 2022).…”

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

“…However, recent studies have started to address this gap through e.g., integrating qualitative and social science methods in nexus studies and consequently contribute to breaking disciplinary silos (Sušnik and Staddon, 2021). Scholars with a background in institutional analysis started to use the nascent Networks of Action Situations (NAS) approach to study nexus cases (Möck et al, 2019;Srigiri and Dombrowsky 2021;Kellner 2022). This approach conceptualises nexus cases as a network of (social) action situations at different levels to identify linkages across water, energy, and food-related action situations, and how the outcome of action situations limit or facilitate synergies and trade-offs along the nexus cases affecting energy, water, and food systems (Kellner 2022).…”

“…Scholars with a background in institutional analysis started to use the nascent Networks of Action Situations (NAS) approach to study nexus cases (Möck et al, 2019;Srigiri and Dombrowsky 2021;Kellner 2022). This approach conceptualises nexus cases as a network of (social) action situations at different levels to identify linkages across water, energy, and food-related action situations, and how the outcome of action situations limit or facilitate synergies and trade-offs along the nexus cases affecting energy, water, and food systems (Kellner 2022). The NAS approach helps to understand the interdependence of WEF-related interactions by actors in various interlinked action situations and the performance of the governance processes in nexus cases (Srigiri and Dombrowsky 2021).…”

“…The NAS approach helps to understand the interdependence of WEF-related interactions by actors in various interlinked action situations and the performance of the governance processes in nexus cases (Srigiri and Dombrowsky 2021). The study of Kellner (2022) goes one step further in identifying interventions in the NAS of a nexus case for the transformation towards sustainable and equitable provision and utilization of nexus resources.…”