Understanding the conceptual frameworks and methods of the food–energy–water nexus at the household level for development-oriented policy support: a systematic review

Abstract

This paper undertakes a systematic review of the literature to understand current trends in the food–energy–water (FEW) nexus for development-oriented policy support. The paper follows three steps: (a) a bibliometric analysis of FEW nexus research, (b) a content analysis of FEW nexus research, and (c) development of a framework that fills existing gaps in FEW nexus research. The review found that FEW nexus approaches have gained ground in academia as a resource management tool and policy guide; however, the process does not have a robust conceptualization. The current FEW nexus approaches focus on national, regional, and international scales of analysis to understand the three sectors’ interactions. Further, these approaches underline the nexus processes, which have been researched in detail, including synergies and tradeoffs. However, research on the FEW nexus has not adequately explored the social factors that form part of the nexus, especially at the local household scale. Factors such as the gender dynamics of resource ownership, work roles at different scales, household incomes, and culture are essential components that are yet to be explored in FEW nexus research. Most of the existing frameworks on the FEW nexus overemphasize models and the quantitative measurement of processes while paying limited attention to social aspects. Still, these social aspects are crucial, especially on the household scale; therefore, to overcome these gaps, this paper proposes a FEW nexus framework at the local household scale that includes socio-economic determinants.

The nexus across water, energy and food (WEF): Learning from research, building on evidence, strengthening practice

“…Unfortunately, distribution in the scale of focus found in Nexus documentation may further reflect a failure to adopt an outcome orientation. Consistent with the previous findings of Itayi et al (2021) who found that Nexus research often focused on large (national, regional and global) scales and Chang et al (2021) who found 34% out of about 100 analysed WEF articles focused on the global scale, our review found Nexus documents were most often focused at larger scales (e.g. global and national).…”

“…Further, there is fairly diverse sectoral participation in WEF activities. Similar to the results of Itayi et al (2021) who determined water‐centrism of WEF Nexus by analysing frequency of keywords in research papers and determined water as the most common keyword and energy as the least, our paper used a larger and diverse set of documents to confirm that Nexus activities are indeed more often driven by the water sector. Nonetheless, our paper was able to add considerable nuance by identifying that sectoral diversity in project teams is considerable regardless of sectoral driver—with the exception of the energy sector which may be somewhat underrepresented.…”

“…To provide an example from a different field of transboundary waters, cooperation at smaller scales is more typically oriented towards development-oriented outcomes like hydropower development, whereas large-scale cooperation is more oriented towards facilitation and coordination (Holmatov & Lautze, 2016). Moreover, since qualitative analysis can be undertaken more easily at smaller scales (Itayi et al, 2021), a small-scale focus may serve as a constructive approach for engaging and co-producing knowledge and solutions with stakeholders representing different parts of WEF systems.…”

Capturing Stakeholders’ Challenges of the Food–Water–Energy Nexus—A Participatory Approach for Pune and the Bhima Basin, India

“…Ranging from simpler footprinting and material flow models [25,26] to system dynamics [27] and large integrated assessment models (IAM) [28]. Several reviews on FWE modeling show the full scope of approaches [19,[29][30][31]. They have noted that urban FWE models are largely positioned in the realm of industrial ecology, typically applying material flow analyses and similar concepts within urban metabolism frameworks.…”