Review of transdisciplinary approaches to food-water-energy nexus: A guide towards sustainable development

Ghodsvali, Maryam; Krishnamurthy, Sukanya; Vries, Bauke de

doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2019.09.003

Cited by 90 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 71 publications

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“…(1) the limited number of duly suited optimised and scalable WEF nexus modelling frameworks, (2) insufficient relevant input data (at appropriate spatial-temporal scales), (3) lack of requisite knowledge and skillset required to operationalise the WEF nexus, and (4) limited application of transdisciplinary research approaches that bring scholars, practitioners and society as co-creators of WEF nexus knowledge.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The nexus of water, energy and food (hereafter WEF nexus) is undoubtedly complex, yet critical, for it mediates numerous issues that humankind faces today. These three resource systems are intimately interlinked and essential to the livelihoods of mankind [1], whereby actions in one sector are likely to have reciprocal impacts on other sectors, resulting in conflicts or competition [2]. It is widely recognised at the community level, and the national, regional and even global scale that WEF supplies are under strain and will soon be stressed to their limits.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Review of the Water–Energy–Food Nexus Research in Africa

Botai

Ncongwane

et al. 2021

Sustainability

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Notwithstanding the dispersed nature of the water, energy and food (WEF) nexus scholarship in the African continent, its strategic importance to the African agenda has gained widespread attention in research and planning circles. In this regard, the bibliometric science mapping and content analysis of the WEF nexus scientific publication trends, the conceptual, intellectual and social structures, as well as the inherent paradigmatic shifts in the WEF nexus body of knowledge in the African continent have been undertaken, using the nexus body of literature accessed from the Web of Science and Scopus core collection databases. The review results confirmed that, whilst the WEF nexus scholarship has expanded since 2013, there is also evidence of growth in the conceptual, intellectual and social structures of the WEF nexus in the African continent. These shifts have resulted in the emergence of hot topics (subfields) including modelling and optimization, climate variability and change, environmental ecosystem services sustainability, and sustainable development and livelihoods. The review further determined that these structures have evolved along two main perspectives of WEF nexus research development, i.e., the interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary domains. In support of the interpretation of the visual analytics of the intellectual structure and changing patterns of the WEF nexus research, the shifts in positivist, interpretivist and pragmatic paradigmatic perspectives (these are underpinned by the ontology, epistemology, and methodology and methods) are considered when explaining WEF nexus research shifts: (a) From the unconnected silo paradigms that focus on water, energy and food (security concerns) to interconnected (and sometimes interdependent or nested) linkages or systems incorporating environmental, social-economic and political drivers (also viewed as subfields) in a bid to holistically support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across the African continent; and (b) in the evaluation of the WEF nexus scholarship based on novel analytical approaches. We contend that whilst the theories of science change underpin this apparent expansion, the macro-economic theory will find use in explaining how the WEF nexus research agenda is negotiated and the Integrative Environmental Governance (IEG) is the duly suited governance theory to bridge the inherent disconnect between WEF nexus output and governance processes uncovered in the literature. Overall, operational challenges and opportunities of the WEF nexus abound, transitioning the WEF nexus research to practice in Africa, motivating the need to take advantage of the scholar–practitioner research underpinnings, as contemplated in the transdisciplinary research approach, which is characterised by the dual quest for new knowledge and considerations of use. Yet, there is need for more coordinated and collaborative research to achieve impact and transition from WEF nexus thinking to WEF nexus practice.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of the Water–Energy–Food Nexus Research in Africa

Botai

Ncongwane

et al. 2021

Sustainability

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“…Particularly in light of population growth and increasing urbanisation, the adequate provision of food, energy, water and health services creates complex governance and management problems that can only be addressed in an integrated manner (Folke et al, 2016;Olsson et al, 2017;Stafford-Smith et al, 2017;Walker et al, 2009;Weitz et al, 2017;Williams et al, 2017). The need for "nexus thinking" has been invoked to focus on understanding the connections, synergies and trade-offs between interconnected sustainability challenges, and increasingly also beyond those traditionally associated with the energy-food-water nexus (Cairns and Krzywoszynska, 2016;Ghodsvali et al, 2019;Green et al, 2017;Portney et al, 2018;Leck et al, 2015). Liu et al define the nexus as "linkages between multiple distinct entities among sectors, scales and regions", and specifically call for an expansion of nexus frameworks beyond energyfood-water sectors and to other scales "to overcome traditional 'silo' approaches by specialized institutions and agencies" (2018: 466).…”

Section: The Need For Nexus Thinkingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Originally devised for assessing the availability and use of energy, food and water across varying scales (Bazilian et al, 2011), the growing nexus agenda pays attention to persistent linkages and inter-dependencies between different issues across space and time (Bansal et al, 2018a;Pahl-Wostl et al, 2018). It particularly recognizes socio-ecological synergies, tensions and potential trade-offs across multiple sectors (Pahl-Wostl, 2019) and there are increasing calls for nexus thinking to become recognized as a broader approach for encouraging inter-and transdisciplinary research, governance and practice (Bowen et al, 2017;Ghodsvali et al, 2019;Leck et al, 2015;Liu et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nexus thinking in business: Analysing corporate responses to interconnected global sustainability challenges

Dahlmann

Bullock

2020

Environmental Science & Policy

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“…In the academic literature, the concept of sustainable development embraces both the macro [37][38][39][40][41] and micro levels [42] of agriculture. In general, there are some common features of the concept, which are the identification of the three structural interconnected components of sustainable industry development: environmental, social, and economic [37][38][39].…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable Condition of the Agricultural Sector’s Environmental, Economic, and Social Components from the Perspective of Open Innovation

Semin

Betin

Namyatova

et al. 2021

Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity

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The aim of the study is to elaborate an econometric model to determine the conditions for ensuring the balanced development of environmental, economic, and social components of the Russian agricultural sector within the Eastern European region. The method of fuzzy sets was used to build an integral model for assessing the level of sustainable development of the agricultural sector in Eastern Europe on the basis of economic, environmental, and social sustainability indicators. The control indicators (independent variables) and integral economic, environmental, social sustainability (dependent variables) helped build multifactor linear regression models and calculate the indicators of elasticity of dependent variables from independent variables, which characterize the change in sustainable development indicators with the growth of controlling factors by 1%. This model allows us to define and analyze the levels of sustainable development of the industry, both in a specific country and within the region in general. The study shows that, for Russia and Eastern European countries, innovation is one of the crucial factors in ensuring sustainable development of agriculture in the region, taking into account the current state and level of economic development.

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Review of transdisciplinary approaches to food-water-energy nexus: A guide towards sustainable development

Cited by 90 publications

References 71 publications

A Review of the Water–Energy–Food Nexus Research in Africa

A Review of the Water–Energy–Food Nexus Research in Africa

Nexus thinking in business: Analysing corporate responses to interconnected global sustainability challenges

Sustainable Condition of the Agricultural Sector’s Environmental, Economic, and Social Components from the Perspective of Open Innovation

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