The nexus across water, energy, land and food (WELF): potential for improved resource use efficiency?

Climate and southern Africa's water–energy–food nexus

“…Ref. 18 cites examples of drought impact on the Kariba Dam (Zambezi Basin) during 1991-1992, resulting in estimated reductions of US$102 million in GDP and US$36 million in export earnings; and Kenya, where, during 2000, a 25% reduction in hydropower capacity resulted in an estimated 1.5% reduction in GDP. A review of the economics of climate change in Tanzania profiled the consequences of the 2003 drought, which brought the Mtera Dam reservoir levels close to the minimum required for electricity generation 39 .…”

“…Previous nexus studies have concentrated on global interdependencies 17 , problem framing 18 or case studies of specific systems such as islands 19 and irrigation and hydropower production 20 . Here, we examine southern Africa's nexus from the perspective of climate and modify Hoff 's nexus framework 11 , which integrates global trends (drivers) with fields of action, to highlight the role of climate as a driver (Fig.…”

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

“…The EWFN approach can assist in such aim through informing policies and regulations that promote the implementation of more efficient production technologies. Some examples are solutions for water conservation (like rainwater harvesting) and efficient water use technologies (on time water delivery and micro irrigation), increased fertilizer use efficiency (through more precise application of fertilizers, nitrogen fixing, use of compost), increased yields to input ratio, and reduced carbon intensity of fuel inputs (by using alternative sources for energy production such as wind and solar power or anaerobic digestion) [6,19,51]. Notwithstanding these requirements, existing policies created with a silo approach have traditionally focussed only on food security, while heavily subsidising water and energy requirements for food production.…”

“…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.…”

Impact of Climate Change, Weather Extremes, and Price Risk on Global Food Supply

“…Tackling against food insecurity and hunger is more challenging in the face of rising global population, climate change, and high and volatile food prices (Calzadilla et al 2014;Hertel et al 2010;Ringler et al 2013). Increasing global population, which is projected to reach more than 9 billion in 2050, entails that more food needs to be produced.…”