Understanding the Food‐Energy‐Water Nexus in Mixed Irrigation Regimes Using a Regional Hydroeconomic Optimization Modeling Framework

Abstract

The availability of food, energy, and water resources is critical for sustained growth of human civilization (Scanlon et al., 2017). The production, consumption, and security of food, energy, and water (FEW) are inextricably linked as global food production accounts for 85.8% of global water withdrawal (D'Odorico et al., 2018). The agricultural production also has significant energy consumption with food-related energy use in the United States representing 16% of the national energy budget. Food systems are also linked to energy systems as crops serve as feedstock for bio-fuel production. The supplies of these interconnected resources are becoming less secure as global demand for FEW resources continues to increase (Cai et al., 2018). We are at a critical junction in identifying sustainable pathways without irreversibly compromising the environmental and biophysical resources (Rockström et al., 2009). Despite international initiatives such as Sustainable Development Goals, we still have to overcome significant challenges in sustainably managing the FEW systems acknowledging the interdependencies among them (Fuso-Nerini et al., 2018). The linkages between the FEW nexus have been extensively studied recently resulting in the development of sectoral and inter-sectoral models and tools for analyzing the nexus

A Systematic Review of Methods for Investigating Climate Change Impacts on Water-Energy-Food Nexus

“…The data sources are listed in the 'Selected articles' in References, some articles are not cited in the manuscript but are selected for review (Carvajal et al 2017;Solaun and Cerda 2017;Yin et al 2017;Bieber et al 2018;Gaudard et al 2018;Hasan and Wyseure 2018;Gohar et al 2019;Ortiz-Bobea 2019;Rigden et al 2020;Beltran-Peña and D'Odorico 2022;Kumar et al 2023).…”