At global scale, the majority of world water withdrawal is for the agricultural sector, with differences among countries depending on the relevance of agri-food sector in the economy. Virtual water and water footprint could be useful to express the impact on the water resources of each production process and good with the objective to lead to a sustainable use of water at a global level. International trade could be connected to the virtual water flows, in fact through commodities importation, water poor countries can save their own water resources. The present paper focuses on the bilateral virtual water flows connected to the top ten agri-food products traded between Italy and China. Comparing the virtual water flow related to the top 10 agri-food products, the virtual water flow from Italy to China is bigger than the water flow in the opposite direction. Moreover, the composition of virtual water flows is different; Italy imports significant amounts of grey water from China, depending on the different environmental strategies adopted by the two selected countries. This difference could be also related to the fact that traded commodities are very different; the 91% of virtual water imported by Italy is connected to crops products, while the 95% of virtual water imported by China is related to the animal products. Considering national water saving and global water saving, appears that Italy imports virtual water from China while China exerts pressure on its water resources to supply the exports to Italy. This result at global scale implies a global water loss of 129.29millionm3 because, in general, the agri-food products are traded from the area with lower water productivity to the area with the higher water productivity.

Increasing pressure affects water resources, especially in the agricultural sector, with cascading impacts on energy consumption. This is particularly relevant in the Mediterranean area, showing significant water scarcity problems, further exacerbated by the crucial economic role of agricultural production. Assessing the sustainability of water resource use is thus essential to preserving ecosystems and maintaining high levels of agricultural productivity. This paper proposes an integrated methodology based on the Water-Energy-Food Nexus to evaluate the multi-dimensional implications of irrigation practices. Three different indices are introduced, based on an analysis of the most influential factors. The methodology is then implemented in a catchment located in Puglia (Italy) and a comparative analysis of the three indices is presented. The results mainly highlight that economic land productivity is a key driver of irrigated agriculture, and that groundwater is highly affordable compared to surface water, thus being often dangerously perceived as freely available.

Water, energy, food, land and climate form a tightly-connected nexus in which actions on one sector impact other sectors, creating feedbacks and unanticipated consequences. This is especially because at present, much scientific research and many policies are constrained to single discipline/sector silos that are often not interacting (e.g., water-related research/policy). However, experimenting with the interaction and determining how a change in one sector could impact another may require unreasonable time frames, be very difficult in practice and may be potentially dangerous, triggering any one of a number of unanticipated side-effects. Current modelling often neglects knowledge from practice. Therefore, a safe environment is required to test the potential cross-sectoral implications of policy decisions in one sector on other sectors. Serious games offer such an environment by creating realistic ‘simulations’, where long-term impacts of policies may be tested and rated. This paper describes how the ongoing (2016–2020) Horizon2020 project SIM4NEXUS will develop serious games investigating potential plausible cross-nexus implications and synergies due to policy interventions for 12 multi-scale case studies ranging from regional to global. What sets these games apart is that stakeholders and partners are involved in all aspects of the modelling definition and process, from case study conceptualisation, quantitative model development including the implementation and validation of each serious game. Learning from playing a serious game is justified by adopting a proof-of-concept for a specific regional case study in Sardinia (Italy). The value of multi-stakeholder involvement is demonstrated, and critical lessons learned for serious game development in general are presented.

Sustainable management of natural resources under economic, environmental and social perspective, needs to consider a fair balance between its uses and availability. Sustainable agriculture goal is to establish innovative and new farm tools and service capacities that help the intensive farm sector to optimize input management (energy, nutrients and water) and productivity. The main objective of this paper was to investigate, in a durum wheat production system in central Italy under Mediterranean conditions, the following aspects: (i) environmental sustainability of fertilization treatments through the energy inputs/outputs analysis and reduction of Nitrate (N-NO₃) in water cycle; (ii) agricultural system agronomic and economic performance and (iii) to identify regulatory and economic instruments actually in place to promote sustainable fertilization. To describe and address the sustainability assessment of durum wheat production system we adopt the “Water Energy Food nexus” (WEF) as conceptual framework. The findings of this research showed that there is a great difference between the marketable yields obtained with mineral fertilization strategies and those by organic fertilizer, while considering the environmental sustainability, our results provide evidences of the significance of the reduction of energy use and the high value of renewable energies and the decreasing of non-renewable one. At the same time the reduced impact of groundwater quality due to the organic fertilizer seems to be an interesting result to be analyzed in the long-term perspective. The contraposition between economy and environment is one of the main challenges to be solved through adequate policy instruments.

According to the latest OECD Global Forum on Environment “Water, food and energy are crucial for sustainable long term economic growth and human wellbeing” and crucial is the identification of the strong linkages between all three. As the UN has spotted out agriculture is currently the largest user of water at the global level, accounting for 70% of total withdrawal while the food production and supply chain accounts for about 30% of total global energy consumption. Besides, according to the global population dynamic, projected to increase by 2050 up to 9 billion people along with a 70% increase in food production, the resource competition is turning out to become a fundamental issue. To this extent the inter-linkages analysis within the nexus and the role-played by institutions and policies to handle effectively this resources competition is a challenging food for thought. In addition currently discussion on SDGs is taking in consideration all the three dimensions and wellbeing of people.To this purpose the aim of this work is to deal with the nexus through the lens of the Italian BES (Benessere Equo e Sostenibile) modeling framework. In particular focusing on food, considered as the primary need more strictly related to the wellbeing achievement, all the linkages available with water and energy would be investigated. The analysis will rely on the existing BES domains and indicators and on other possible measures, which can fit the nexus within the BES model.