There has been a recent surge of interest in the use of food-grade nanoparticles (NPs) for stabilizing food foams and emulsions. Cereal proteins are a promising raw material class to produce such NPs. Studies thus far have focused mostly on wheat gliadin and maize zein-based NPs. The former are effective interfacial stabilizing agents, while the latter due to their high hydrophobicity generally result in poor interfacial stability. Several strategies to modify the surface properties of wheat gliadin and maize zein NPs have been followed. In many instances, this resulted in improved foam or emulsion stability. Nonetheless, future efforts should be undertaken to gain fundamental insights in the interfacial behavior of NPs, to further explore NP surface modification strategies, and to validate the use of NPs in actual food systems.

Water security demands guaranteeing economic, social and environmental sustainability and simultaneously addressing the diversity of risks and threats related to water. Various frameworks have been suggested to support water security assessment. They are typically based on indexes enabling national comparisons; these may, however, oversimplify complex and often contested water issues. We developed a structured and systemic way to assess water security and its future trends via a participatory process. The framework establishes a criteria hierarchy for water security, consisting of four main themes: the state of the water environment; human health and well-being; the sustainability of livelihoods; and the stability, functions and responsibility of society. The framework further enables the analysis of relationships between the water security criteria as well as between water, energy and food security. The framework was applied to a national water security assessment of Finland in 2018 and 2030. Our experience indicates that using the framework collaboratively with stakeholders provides a meaningful way to improve understanding and to facilitate discussion about the state of water security and the actions needed for its improvement.

This special issue was conceived due to the success of the book by Paterson and Lima [...]

Water security demands guaranteeing economic, social and environmental sustainability and simultaneously addressing the diversity of risks and threats related to water. Various frameworks have been suggested to support water security assessment. They are typically based on indexes enabling national comparisons; these may, however, oversimplify complex and often contested water issues. We developed a structured and systemic way to assess water security and its future trends via a participatory process. The framework establishes a criteria hierarchy for water security, consisting of four main themes: the state of the water environment; human health and well-being; the sustainability of livelihoods; and the stability, functions and responsibility of society. The framework further enables the analysis of relationships between the water security criteria as well as between water, energy and food security. The framework was applied to a national water security assessment of Finland in 2018 and 2030. Our experience indicates that using the framework collaboratively with stakeholders provides a meaningful way to improve understanding and to facilitate discussion about the state of water security and the actions needed for its improvement.

The water–climate-food security nexus is uniquely vulnerable in Central Asia, a region replete with transboundary water conflicts, shortages in land and water resources and high sensitivity to climate change. Using a water balance for the Amu Darya River Basin, we present a synthetic evaluation of future water use, crop yields, land and water productivities for the period 2016 to 2055 in Ahal, Dashoguz, Lebap, and Mary provinces in Turkmenistan. Modeled fut socio-economic scenarios include food security and diet change (FSD), export-oriented sustainable adaptation (ESA) and business as usual (BAU). Results show that water requirements and water deficits during growing seasons will exhibit a decreasing trend from 2016 to 2055 in most provinces under all three scenarios. Crop yields and land and water productivities will likely increase in the four provinces under both the FSD and ESA scenarios. Mary province had the highest mean income and losses of irrigated agriculture, with an annual average value of about 7 × 108 USD/year and 1.5 × 103 USD/year, respectively. Ahral province showed the largest annual mean land and irrigation water productivities for all three scenarios, up to about 800 USD/ha/year and 0.40 USD/m3/year respectively. Results obtained from this study provide tools to assist resource managers to identify vulnerabilities in the nexus of water, land and climate to ensure food security, water management, and sustainable development.

Approaching water, energy, and food, as interconnected system of systems, as an alternative to traditional silo-based resources planning and management approaches continues to fall short of expectations of its research-backed benefits. The lack of nexus applications in policy and decision making can be related to numerous factors, with the main barrier being the complex nature of “nexus” systems combined with the disarray of tools attempting to model its interconnections. The paper aims to provide a method for comparing the perceived complexity of nexus tools identified by international organizations as well as primary literature sources. Eight separate criteria are introduced and discussed as measures of a tool “complexity index” and used to score the relative simplicity, or complexity, of a given tool. The result of this process is used to identify trends within existing nexus-assessment tools while guiding potential users towards appropriate tool(s) best-suited for their case study needs and objectives. The main objectives of this paper are to: 1) categorize nexus assessment tools according to a criteria-set which allows for suitable tool selection; 2) identify a method for rapid evaluation of the trade-offs for choosing different tools (simple-complex spectrum). The results of the comparative analysis of the selected nexus assessment tools concur with literature citing a growing gap between nexus research and applications in actual policy and decision-making settings. Furthermore, results suggest that tools receiving higher complexity scores, while being able to capture details to specific resource interactions, are unable to cover a larger number of interactions and system components simultaneously, as compared to lower complexity score tools. Lastly, the outcome of the analysis point towards the need for integrating more preliminary assessment capabilities, i.e. diagnostics, guidelines, and capacity building, into existing tools that improve the communication and translation of model outputs into policy and decision-making.

Oil and gas extraction in the western United States generates significant volumes of produced water (PW) that is typically injected into deep disposal wells. Recently, crop irrigation has emerged as an attractive PW reuse option, but the impact on plant immune response is not known. In this study, we conducted a 3-month greenhouse pot study. Spring wheat (Triticum aestivum) was irrigated 3 times a week with 150 mL (∼80–100% of soil water holding capacity) with one of four irrigation treatments: tap water control, 10% PW dilution, 50% PW dilution, and salt water (NaCl50) control containing the same amount of total dissolved solids as PW50 to determine the effect on disease resistance. The wheat leaves were inoculated with either bacterial or fungal pathogens and changes in pathogenesis-related PR-1 and PR-5 gene expression were measured from the leaf tissue. PW50 experienced the largest relative suppression of PR-1 and PR-5 gene expression compared to noninfected wheat, followed by PW10, NaCl50, and the tap water control. A combination of PW contaminants (boron, total petroleum hydrocarbons, and NaCl) are likely reducing PR-gene expression by reallocating metabolic resources to fight abiotic stresses, which then makes it more challenging for the plants to produce PR genes to fight pathogens. This study provides the first evidence that plant disease resistance is reduced due to irrigation with reused PW, which could have negative implications for food security.

The water–energy–food nexus (WEF nexus) concept is a novel approach to manage limited resources. Since 2011, a number of studies were conducted to develop computer simulation models quantifying the interlinkage among water, energy, and food sectors. Advancing a nationwide WEF nexus simulation model (WEFSiM) previously developed by the authors, this study proposes an optimization module (WEFSiM-opt) to assist stakeholders in making informed decisions concerning sustainable resource management. Both single- and multi-objective optimization modules were developed to maximize the user reliability index (URI) for water, energy, and food sectors by optimizing the priority index and water allocation decisions. In this study, the developed models were implemented in Korea to determine optimal resource allocation and management decisions under a plausible drought scenario. This study suggests that the optimization approach can advance WEF nexus simulation and provide better solutions for managing limited resources. It is anticipated that the proposed WEFSiM-opt can be utilized as a decision support tool for designing resource management plans.

The emerging popularity of the nexus discussion reflects the ongoing transition from a sectoral or silo approach to an integrative approach to address the global challenges pertinent to the three essential resources: food, energy, and water (FEW). Cities are critically important for advancing regional sustainable development and are thus placed at the center of the FEW nexus. This paper provides a comprehensive literature review to debate the current concepts and methods of the FEW nexus at different scales, with the aim of developing a conceptual knowledgebase framework for scientific analysis and policy making associated with the urban FEW nexus. Although the concept of nexus thinking has been widely accepted, a consistent and explicit cognition of the FEW nexus is still lacking, and a sophisticated methodological modeling framework is urgently required at various scales. As such, we proposed a three-dimensional conceptual framework of the urban FEW nexus from the perspective of resource interdependency, resource provision and system integration. This framework is useful in steering the systematic modeling and integrative management of the complex nexus issues of urban systems with different perspectives. Finally, the future directions of urban nexus research are identified from four aspects, including systematic characterization, cross-region tele-connection mechanisms, co-decision model development, and governance transition.

The water–energy–food nexus (WEF nexus) concept is a novel approach to manage limited resources. Since 2011, a number of studies were conducted to develop computer simulation models quantifying the interlinkage among water, energy, and food sectors. Advancing a nationwide WEF nexus simulation model (WEFSiM) previously developed by the authors, this study proposes an optimization module (WEFSiM-opt) to assist stakeholders in making informed decisions concerning sustainable resource management. Both single- and multi-objective optimization modules were developed to maximize the user reliability index (URI) for water, energy, and food sectors by optimizing the priority index and water allocation decisions. In this study, the developed models were implemented in Korea to determine optimal resource allocation and management decisions under a plausible drought scenario. This study suggests that the optimization approach can advance WEF nexus simulation and provide better solutions for managing limited resources. It is anticipated that the proposed WEFSiM-opt can be utilized as a decision support tool for designing resource management plans.