We greatly enjoyed reading the paper by Liu et al., which is both timely and rich in insight, as it discusses the challenges in operationalizing the water–energy–food security (WEF) nexus. The nexus approach is gaining increasing attention, both in research and in policy documents, as reflected in the number and content of published documents in the past years and highlighted by the authors.

Clean drinking water and sanitation are fundamental human rights recognized by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly and the Human Rights Council in 2010 (Resolution 64/292). In modern societies, water is not related only to drinking, it is also widely used for personal and home hygiene, and leisure. Ongoing human population and subsequent environmental stressors challenge the current standards on safe drinking and recreational water, requiring regular updating. Also, a changing Earth and its increasingly frequent extreme weather events and climatic changes underpin the necessity to adjust regulation to a risk-based approach. Although fungi were never introduced to water quality regulations, the incidence of fungal infections worldwide is growing, and changes in antimicrobial resistance patterns are taking place. The presence of fungi in different types of water has been thoroughly investigated during the past 30 years only in Europe, and more than 400 different species were reported from ground-, surface-, and tap-water. The most frequently reported fungi, however, were not waterborne, but are frequently related to soil, air, and food. This review focuses on waterborne filamentous fungi, unreported from food, that offer a pathogenic potential.

Accessibility to clean and sufficient water resources for agriculture is key in feeding the steadily increasing world population in a sustainable manner. Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) offer a promising contribution to enhance availability and quality of water for productive purposes and human consumption, while simultaneously striving to preserve the integrity and intrinsic value of the ecosystems. Implementing successful NBS for water management, however, is not an easy task since many ecosystems are already severely degraded, and exploited beyond their regenerative capacity. Furthermore, ecosystems are large and complex and the many stakeholders involved might have conflicting interests. Hence, implementation of NBS requires a structured and comprehensive approach that starts with the valuation of the services provided by the ecosystem. The whole set of use and non-use values, in monetary terms, provides a factual basis to guide the implementation of NBS, which ideally is done according to transdisciplinary principles, i.e. complemented with scientific and case-specific knowledge of the eco-system in an adaptive decision-making process that involves the relevant stakeholders. This discussion paper evaluated twenty-one NBS case studies using a non-representative sample, to learn from successful and failed experiences and to identify possible causalities among factors that characterize the implementation of NBS. The case studies give a minor role to valuation of ecosystem services, an area for which the literature is still developing guidance. Less successful water management projects tend to suffer from inadequate factual and scientific basis and uncoordinated or insufficient stakeholder involvement and lack of long term planning. Successful case studies point to satisfactory understanding of the functioning of ecosystems and importance of multi-stakeholder platforms, well-identified funding schemes, realistic monitoring and evaluation systems and endurance of its promoters.

In their opinion paper, Liu et al. highlight the insufficient development of methods such as integrated modelling tools to assess the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus system complexity. This can be attributed to the lack of research programmes addressing the WEF nexus, especially in the European Union. To enable the development of innovative research methods, we need educational and research programmes that explicitly focus on the WEF security nexus. These programmes should promote interdisciplinary approaches that incorporate hydrology as well as sciences related to energy and food security, and environmental governance.

O sucesso no desenvolvimento de novos produtos alimentares, por substituição total ou parcial de determinados lípidos por congéneres de origem vegetal e seus subprodutos (ex. polímeros), baseiase na garantia da manutenção ou melhoria das características sensoriais dos produtos tradicionais, relativamente aos quais se quer inovar, bem como da estabilidade do produto durante um prazo tido por suficiente. Os cremes de barrar são basicamente emulsões de água-em-óleo (a/o), assemelham-se à manteiga na sua aparência, consistência e composição. A fase lipídica normalmente é uma mistura de óleos vegetais e/ou óleos e gorduras de origem animal contendo corantes naturais (-caroteno), estabilizantes, emulsionantes, aromatizantes, antioxidantes, lecitinas e vitaminas lipossolúveis. A fase aquosa contém proteínas, leite desnatado, onde podem ser incorporadas pequenas quantidades de outros ingredientes, tais como o sal, conservantes, espessantes e vitaminas hidrossolúveis. Presentemente, existe uma enorme quantidade de estudos de caracterização de emulsões alimentares de óleo-em-água (o/a) e esta abundância contrasta com a enorme escassez de estudos análogos sobre emulsões água-em-óleo (a/o). | info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

The excessive water use in Central Asian countries has caused an environmental disaster in the Aral Sea. In this regard, they need to improve the efficiency of the use of shared water resources to overcome their environmental and economic difficulties. Accordingly, the twin objectives of this study were firstly to analyse the challenges for the use of water resources in the Aral Sea Basin and secondly to estimate the agricultural water use efficiency according to the crop types and irrigation methods. The results showed that the economic efficiency of water use in Central Asian countries was lower than that of other Asian countries. Finally, this study illustrated that the selection of crop types and irrigation methods can improve the quantitative and economic efficiency of water use. However, a clear preliminary outline of interactions is necessary to avoid failure of coordination and collaboration for a regional win-win approach. In such an outline, this study will deliver valuable information on water efficiency in the Aral Sea basin.

Recent years have shown increased awareness that the use of the basic resources water, food, and energy are highly interconnected (referred to as a ‘nexus’). Spatial scales are an important but complicating factor in nexus analyses, and should receive more attention – especially in the policy-oriented literature. In this paper, we ‘unpack' the nexus concept, aiming to understand the differences between water, food and energy resources, especially in terms of spatial scales. We use physical indicators to show the differences in terms of absolute magnitude of production and the distance and volume of physical trade, for seven resource categories: water withdrawal, crops, animal products, bio-energy, coal, oil, and natural gas. We hypothesize that the differences in trade extent are related to physical characteristics of these resources: we expect high priced, high density, geographically concentrated resources to be traded more and over longer distances. We found that these factors, taken together, can explain some of the differences in trade extent (and thus spatial scale involved), although for each individual factor there are exceptions. We further explore the spatial scales by showing the bidirectional physical trade flows at the continental scale for crops, animal products, bio-energy and fossil fuels. We also visualize how nexus resources are directly dependent on each other, using a Sankey diagram. Since both direct dependencies and physical trade are present, we investigate the role of resource-saving imports, which is a form of virtual trade. The resource-saving imports highlight the importance of continental and global scales for nexus analyses.

The food processing industry is one of the largest consumers of energy and water in the manufacturing sector. It is vital that conservation measures are taken to reduce the use of electricity, fuel, and water for producers to have long-term, sustainable growth. The Pacific Northwest (PNW) region includes some the largest food processers in the United States, particularly with products such as fruit and vegetable preserves, apples products, potato products, and milk. Energy and water consumption in PNW food processing facilities are quantified as well as techniques to increase efficiency and reduce waste. Mechanical drive systems and refrigeration consumes the most electricity in the industry and the implementation of energy management plans has the largest potential to save electricity in PNW facilities. Heating and cooling process needs are the largest consumers of energy in the food processing industry. Implementing cogeneration/trigeneration technology, replacing of older equipment, capturing waste heat, and reusing wastewater can have significant impacts on both energy and water consumption. Novel, emerging technologies such as membrane separation, high-pressure processing, microwave assist, ultrasound, pulsed high electric fields, ozone, and hydrogen/electricity generation have significant potential to benefit the food processing industry by increasing efficiency and allowing companies to stay competitive in an industry where sustainable practices are becoming increasingly important to the public.

Smart integration of technology can help create sustainable urban food ecosystems (UFEs) for the rapidly expanding urban population in the developing world. Technology, especially recent advances in digital-enabled devices based on internet connectivity, are essential for building UFEs at a time when food production is increasingly limited on a global scale by the availability of land, water, and energy. By 2050, two-thirds of the world will be urban—and most of the net world population growth will occur in urban regions in the developing world. A food crisis is looming, with the developing world ill-prepared to sustainably feed itself. We identify 12 innovative technology platforms to advance the UFEs of the developing world: (1) connectivity—information delivery and digital technology platforms; (2) uberized services; (3) precision agriculture (GPS, IoT—Internet of things, AI—artificial intelligence, sensing technology); (4) CEA—controlled environment agriculture, including vertical farms; (5) blockchain for greater transparency, food safety, and identification; (6) solar and wind power connected to microgrids; (7) high-quality, enhanced seeds for greater yield, nutrition, climate, and pest resistance; (8) advanced genetics, including gene editing, synthetic biology, and cloud biology; (9) biotechnology, including microbiome editing, soil biologicals, cultured meat, alternative proteins to meat and dairy; (10) nanotechnology and advanced materials; (11) 3-D printing/additive manufacturing; and (12) integration of new tech to scale-up underutilized, existing technologies. The new tech-enabled UFEs, linked to value-chains, will create entrepreneurial opportunities—and more efficiently use resources and people to connect the nexus of food, water, energy, and nutrition.

While the world is facing unprecedented transitions and threats we need to deeply rethink the relationships between water and energy use, food production, and ecosystem protection. This includes the development and deployment of ambitious, out‐of‐the‐box solutions towards sustainable development. This paper is based upon recent discussions before and during the 2nd World Irrigation Forum in Chiang Mai, Thailand. This paper takes stock of current knowledge and analyses the most recent trends in water, irrigation and the environment. It discusses the requirements for strategic approaches and the contributions of irrigation and drainage to Sustainable Development Goals. Firstly, we concentrated on renewed and more balanced relationships between water, energy, food and ecosystems in the context of irrigation and drainage management. Secondly, we assessed the positive and negative impact of agricultural water use in order to demonstrate and improve its performance. Given exacerbated competition and water resource scarcity, a better understanding of the positive effects and valuable ecosystem services provided by irrigation and drainage systems could pave the way to maximizing benefits and safeguarding the environment. Lastly, we tried to address the role of stakeholders in irrigation governance. This includes active contribution to policy‐making and planning, incentives, and most importantly, capacity development. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.