Given their substantial societal benefits, such as supporting economic activities and providing better livelihoods in rural areas, ecosystem services should gain higher importance in water-food-energy nexus debates. Yet, not all values from ecosystems are quantifiable, data is often not adequate and methods of measuring these values are not sound. This situation challenges researchers and water managers to improve research tools and give adequate attention to ecosystem services by implementing interdisciplinary approaches and integrated management of ecosystems and their services.

Food, energy, and water (FEW) systems are inexorably linked. Earth's changing climate and increasing competition for finite land resources are creating and amplifying challenges at the FEW nexus. Managing FEW systems to mitigate these negative impacts and stresses is a pressing policy issue. The FEW interface is often managed as three independent systems, missing disruptive opportunities for streamlined integrated management. We contend that existing technologies can be reframed and emerging technologies can be harnessed for integrated FEW management, changing the way that each resource system operates within the broader system. We discuss solutions to three main challenges to integrating FEW system management: resolving spatiotemporal disconnections over multiple scales; closing resource loops; and creating actionable information. Sustainable resource management is critical for humanity, as well as for functioning trade systems and ecological health. Embracing integrated management in FEW systems would enable policy makers and managers to more efficiently and effectively secure critical resource systems in the face of global change.

In this study, a multi-level interval fuzzy credibility-constrained programming (MIFCP) method is developed for planning the regional-scale water-energy-food nexus (WEFN) system. MIFCP can not only deal with uncertainties expressed as interval parameters and fuzzy sets, but also handle conflicts and hierarchical relationships among multiple decision departments. The MIFCP approach is then applied to planning the WEFN system of Henan Province, China. Solutions of three different decision targets in various hierarchy levels, five scenarios with different decision makers’ objectives and five credibility levels toward different necessity degrees are examined. Several findings in association with various planting structures, water resources demand, energy consumption, fertilizer and pesticide utilizations and system benefits are achieved. Results reveal that the future total irrigation water can decrease by 1.49% from years 2020–2025. Results also disclose that the total cultivated area can change by 1.91% owing to the variation of fertilizer and pesticide change. Compared to single level programming (SLP) and bi-level programming (BP) approaches, the MIFCP-WEFN model can help decision-makers identify the optimal agricultural water resources management schemes by means of the leadership of water resources managers as well as the feedback of two diverse followers (i.e. energy managers and agricultural managers).

The sterile insect technique is used to manage or control fruit flies throughout the world. The technique relies on large scale production before delivery to release managers. As part of the mass production phase, there are many quality control tests to demonstrate and maintain high quality pupae and flies. One highly desirable characteristic is adults with a long life so that these adults can reach sexual maturity and sterile males mate with wild fertile flies in the field and thus produce no viable offspring. Originally longevity was assessed allowing adults to have unlimited access to food and water. As quality and longevity increased, this methodology added significantly to workload and space demands and many facilities moved to testing longevity under stress where no food or water was provided. Here we examined >27,000 Queensland fruit fly Bactrocera tryoni (Froggatt) from 160 weekly production batches from July 2004 to October 2009 where flies were not provided food or water. The mean longevity was 54.4 ± SE hours. Longevity was significantly shorter from August to March, and the longevity was significantly longer in June. Longevity was not related to pupal weight, contrary to expectations. Weights were significantly lower in June and highest in summer.

There is an increasing appreciation that food–energy–water (FEW) nexus problems are approaching criticality in both the developing and developed world. As researchers and managers attempt to address these complex resource management issues, the concept of the FEW nexus has generated a rapidly growing footprint in global sustainability discourse. However, this momentum in the FEW nexus space could be better guided if researchers could more clearly identify what is and is not a FEW problem. Without this conceptual clarity, it can be difficult to defend the position that FEW innovations will produce desired outcomes and avoid unintended consequences. Here we examine the growing FEW nexus scholarship to critically evaluate what features are necessary to define a FEW nexus. This analysis suggests that the FEW nexus differs from sector-focused natural resource or sustainability problems in both complexity and stakes. It also motivates two new foci for research: the identification of low-dimension indexes of FEW system status and approaches for identifying boundaries of specific FEW nexuses.

This paper explores the role of business cases as a tool for supporting decision-making processes regarding water management. Based on an analysis of survey and interview data from 300+ organisations within the European food sector, it is concluded that the relative emphasis on business cases and payback times influences the average level of water management engagement. However, the findings from the analysis also indicate that use of business cases are not set in stone but can be adapted and changed through ongoing dialogue and negotiations. The paper contributes to the existing academic literature by moving beyond generic discussions of the business case for corporate sustainability to exploring the concrete use of business cases as a decision-making tool for managers.