Changing precipitation patterns and shortages of surface and groundwater in important cropping regions pose a serious threat to China’s future food security. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of water used for food production over the period 1998–2010 with a view to identifying pathways for achieving the national target of 580 million tons of grain output by 2020. The analysis was based on modelling of agricultural water use coupled with national and provincial statistics. The present situation was defined by (a) a slow declining trend in national precipitation and internally renewable water resources, (b) 12 out of the 13 so-called breadbasket provinces (which currently produce 74 % of national grain output) already facing water shortages and increasing competition for water from non-agricultural sectors, (c) national crop water productivity (CWP) increases of 19.5 % over the 13 years to 2010, and (d) a widening gap in CWP between breadbasket and non-breadbasket provinces. By 2020 an estimated 510 to 680 km³ of water will be required for food production depending upon future gains in CWP. A concern is that in many of the breadbasket provinces, recent CWP gains have already been substantial and additional large gains may prove difficult especially considering current environmental concerns related to agricultural intensification in China. That said, the historic efficiency gains give reason for optimism provided that there is continued investment in genetic improvement and innovation of farming systems.

The role of water quality, particularly its impact on health, environment and wider well-being, are rarely acknowledged in the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus. Here we demonstrate the necessity to include water quality within the water dimension of the WEF nexus to address complex and multi-disciplinary challenges facing humanity. Firstly, we demonstrate the impact of water quality on the energy and food dimensions of the WEF nexus and vice versa at multiple scales, from households to cities, regions and transboundary basins. Secondly, we use examples to demonstrate how including water quality would have augmented and improved the WEF analysis and its application. Finally, we encourage hydrological scientists to promote relevant water quality research as addressing WEF nexus challenges. To make tangible progress, we propose that analysis of water quality interactions focuses initially on WEF nexus “hotspots,” such as cities, semi-arid areas, and areas dependent on groundwater or climate change-threatened meltwater.

The analysis of water by near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) was the first successful application of this rapid technology which has been developed over the past 30 years into a routine method for many agricultural commodities and food constituents. Nowadays, NIRS technology offers many advantages because its rapidity allows more frequent measurements at all stages from purchase of raw materials and ingredients to the control of the finished products. NIRS-methods are well suited to in-line use. Nevertheless the two dominant and broad peaks, near to 1440 and 1930 nm in nearly every NIR spectrum due to water, are responsible for some typical complications in this analysis. Effects of hydrogen bonding and sample temperature are found to affect the reliability of NIRS results.

Se elaboran unas lineas directrices, basadas en la experiencia de un grupo de laboratorios, para la preparacion a la acreditacion en microbiologia de aguas y alimentos. Se controlan principalmente tres flujos: personas, muestras y material, implantando las BPL a fin de tener una trazabilidad de todo lo que se elabora en un laboratorio para conseguir una fiabilidad y comparabilidad en los analisis y resultados.

Over the last years, there has been an increasing demand for fast, highly sensitive and selective methods of analysis to meet new challenges in environmental monitoring, food safety and public health. In response to this demand, biosensors have arisen as a promising tool, which offers accurate chemical data in a timely and cost-effective manner. However, the difficulty to obtain sensors with appropriate selectivity and sensitivity for a given analyte, and to solve analytical problems which do not require the quantification of a certain analyte, but an overall effect on a biological system (e.g. toxicity, quality indices, provenance, freshness, etc.), led to the concept of electronic tongues as a new strategy to tackle these problems.In this direction, to improve the performance of electronic tongues, and thus to spawn new application fields, biosensors have recently been incorporated to electronic tongue arrays, leading to what is known as bioelectronic tongues. Bioelectronic tongues provide superior performance by combining the capabilities of electronic tongues to derive meaning from complex or imprecise data, and the high selectivity and specificity of biosensors. The result is postulated as a tool that exploits chemometrics to solve biosensors’ interference problems, and biosensors to solve electronic tongues’ selectivity problems.The review presented herein aims to illustrate the capabilities of bioelectronic tongues as analytical tools, especially suited for screening analysis, with particular emphasis in water analysis and the characterization of food and beverages. After briefly reviewing the key concepts related to the design and principles of electronic tongues, we provide an overview of significant contributions to the field of bioelectronic tongues and their future perspectives.

A major water governance concern is how to coordinate the complex relationships of the water, food, and energy sectors and the resulting economic, social, and environmental consequences. Focusing on the challenges in one sector (e.g. water shortage in the water sector) and making decisions without considering other sectors will not solve these problems; rather, it will create a new problem (the decline of food production) in the food sectors. The nexus approach is a novel method to represent the interrelated challenges of the water, food, and energy sectors by considering the sectors’ policies to achieve sustainable development. The present study analyzes the social network of nexus actors in the Yazd-Ardakan aquifer, Yazd province, Iran. For this purpose, 54 partners in the nexus network were first identified in various public, private, semi-private and non-governmental organizations. Three types of interactions (knowledge and information exchange, budget transfer, and collaboration) were analyzed among the actors. The actor-network was, then, assessed at the levels of the entire network and individual actors. Then, a coherence analysis was performed by the density index at the entire network level, and the power analysis was carried out using in-degree, out-degree, betweenness, closeness, and eigenvector centrality indices at the individual actor level. Social network analysis criteria were, then, incorporated with the multi-criteria decision-making model ELECTRE I to select the key and powerful actors in the nexus network. Next, the powerful actors were identified and introduced with respect to 15 criteria employed in the social network analysis. According to the results, the power structure in the nexus network of the research area is not at equilibrium. Most of the power lies with the public sector. The water, food, and energy sectors act alone and they do not exploit their maximum organizational capacities to establish relationships with one another.

Culture-independent techniques were used for the detection of pathogenic bacteria in drinking water at potentially critical control points along the production lines at a German dairy company and a Spanish dry cured ham company. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) was used to describe bacterial population shifts indicating biological instability in the drinking water samples. Autochthonous bacteria were identified by sequencing the excised DGGE DNA bands. More specifically, real-time PCR was applied to detect a number of pathogenic bacteria, i.e. Listeria monocytogenes, Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis, Campylobacter jejuni, Enterococcus spp., Salmonella spp, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Due to the detection limits of the real-time PCR method, a specific protocol was established in order to meet the technical detection requirements and to avoid unwanted polymerase inhibitions. Autochthonous bacterial populations were found to be highly stable at most of the sampling points. Only one sampling point exhibited population shifts at the German dairy company. Enterococci and P. aeruginosa were detected in some water samples from these companies by molecular biology detection methods, but not by conventional culturing methods. Some opportunistic bacteria as Enterobacter sp., Acinetobacter, Sphingomonas sp. and non-pathogenic Bacillus, were also detected after DNA sequencing of DGGE bands.

This article analyses water, food, and energy security in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries using the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus approach. The innovative focus is on identifying past and future development-based drivers of water-energy-food integration in the region. The study presents a critical review of WEF nexus in the Gulf region and identifies links to sustainable development in this area. It concludes that integrating water, energy, and food resources within the nexus is crucial for GCC nations to accomplish resource security and sustainable development.