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.

The San Antonio Region is home to a rapidly growing population with developing energy and agricultural sectors competing for water, land, and financial resources. Despite the tight interconnectedness between water, energy, and food challenges, little is known about the levels of communication and coordination among the various officials responsible for making the decisions that affect the management and planning of the three resource systems. It has been postulated that efficient communication is a prerequisite to developing resource allocation strategies that avoid potential unintended negative consequences that could result from inefficient allocation of natural resources and competing demands. Factors that may impact communication are identified and their potential roles are considered in improving existing levels of communication between San Antonio's water officials and those at other energy, food, and water institutions in the San Antonio Region. A questionnaire designed to gather information on stakeholder concerns, frequency of communication, and participation in engagement forums was sent to public water officials in the Region. Using social network analysis and bivariate Ordinary Least Square regression analysis, the authors conclude that while modest levels of communication exist among water institutions, a very low level of communication exists between water institutions and those responsible for food and energy. It was further concluded that the frequency of communication among officials at different water institutions is higher among those that participated in stakeholder engagement activities. However, there is insufficient evidence to suggest that participation in stakeholder engagement activities improves communication frequency between water stakeholders and those in the food and energy sectors. There is also insufficient evidence to conclude that people at water institutions in San Antonio would have a higher frequency of communication with other water, energy, and food stakeholder in correlation with a higher level of concern about future water availability in the Region.

Food-energy-water (FEW) nexus governance includes the communication and collaboration among multi-level stakeholders across sectoral boundaries of the resources for decision-making. It can increase resource security and decrease unintended consequences, as compared to single-sector governance approaches. Despite these benefits, in practice, many decisions continue to be made separately from one another without cross-sector collaboration. This research integrates the theory of collaborative governance with the concept of the FEW nexus to identify and understand the barriers to this collaboration and to provide recommendations for increased collaborative FEW nexus governance. Focusing on the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area, a water-scarce region with a growing population, we conduct a comprehensive case study with social network analysis, participant observation, and interviews. We present the results of our analysis in three sections. First, we identify the key barriers to collaborative FEW nexus governance within four identified themes: structural asymmetries, process asymmetries, communication and coordination, and external influences. Second, we unpack how stakeholders in our study case experience these barriers. Finally, from our case study, we provide recommendations for overcoming barriers and implementing collaborative FEW nexus governance in practice, such as building trust and finding mutual benefit. We conclude that “sector mismatch,” similar to scale mismatch, is the main cause of the identified barriers and that approaches to collaborative FEW nexus governance must address this mismatch for successful engagement.

In the last decade, the debate on the governance of water, energy, and food (WEF) has intensified, spurring the emergence of the term “nexus governance.” In general, the reduction of trade-offs and construction of synergies between WEF have been placed on the scientific, political, and economic agenda. However, although increasingly used, it is difficult to find a clear meaning and definition of what the term represents. Based on a systematic literature review (SLR), using text-mining and machine learning algorithms, this article investigates what are the conceptual basis of the nexus governance debate, and attempts to clarify the main themes, networks, and gaps within this literature. The analysis is based on quantitative and qualitative methods, combining social network analysis (SNA) and discourse analysis (DA). The results highlighted that twenty-four governance-related concepts support this literature, breaking down into eight groups: water and basin governance; environmental and systems governance; risk and resource security governance; economic governance; global governance; urban governance; integrative and cooperative governance; and “epistemic” and transdisciplinary governance.