There have been calls for an overhaul of regulatory and governance frameworks to incorporate the implications of the water-energy-food nexus. We map one small component of the regulatory space of the nexus and highlight its immense complexity. We draw on insights from the economics and socio-legal literatures to show that a decentralised approach to regulation based upon procedural justice can enable the trade-offs of the nexus to be considered and addressed. We use a nexus case study of micro hydro-electricity generation in Dartmoor National Park in England to show that when we take into account interactions between state and non-state regulation, the economic concepts of interdependencies and transaction costs, and a recognition that regulation of the nexus is a process involving decisions of procedural justice, some existing regulatory frameworks are already well-equipped to deal with the implications of nexus analysis.

We use an innovative methodology to model the socioeconomic linkages between water, energy, and food in the East Nile Basin. Based upon a theoretical nexus framework, the methodology is expanded into a quantifiable modeling suite that under-lies the analysis of each of three country case studies. The advantages are that, despite resource shortages being a challenge, the modeling suite aids in devising policies and strategies that formulate these sectoral interdependencies and provide the evidence-based research results necessary for their design in a way that exploits synergies existing across sectors, countries, and regions (Al-Zubari n.d.). This paper lays out the methodology and gives an example of an application and scenarios by focusing on three countries in the East Nile Basin. This methodology paper will be followed by three individual country case studies that highlight the water, energy, and food nexus for each. | Non-PR | IFPRI1; CRP2; EgyptSSP; A Ensuring Sustainable food production; D Transforming Agriculture; E Building Resilience; The Water Energy Food Nexus | DSGD; PIM; EPTD | CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM); CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE)

Wadi El-Rayan Protected Area (WERPA) is considered a model protectorate and an ecological restoration success. Development and mismanagement of Wadi El-Rayan vulnerable water resources could lead to the depletion of two artificial lakes and large scale deterioration of ecosystem health. We quantify the environmental value of preserving WERPA by applying the water–food–energy nexus approach and the concept of non-monetary opportunity cost. Three output indicators: agriculture, aquaculture and net energy production are selected to assess the value of different ecosystem health conditions under three water management scenarios. STELLA object oriented modeling environment has been used to simulate the scenarios that led to favorable, satisfactory, and critical ecosystem health conditions. The results demonstrated that the economic output that could be realized by reaching the favorable condition has twice the value of the acceptable condition.

This book provides a survey of technologies available to tackle the problems associated with climate change in the energy, water, and food security nexus with a special focus on the Middle East. It is divided into three main sections. The energy section consists of six chapters, the water section of seven chapters, and finally the food security section has six chapters. The individual chapters are authored by experts and provide discussions and in-depth views on the current status of each topic.

The water, energy and food nexus (WEF nexus) is currently quite popular in environmental management. The concept found a fertile ground in science and policymaking, but there is no consistent view on the meaning of integration within the nexus. Here, a wealth of publications is reviewed in an endeavour to: (1) reveal the lines of justification for the need of the WEF nexus debate and (2) identify the range of tools for analysing the interdependent resource issues of the nexus using an integrated framework of science and policy. There are three drivers behind the emergence of the nexus thinking. These are a) increasing resource interlinks due to growing scarcities, b) recent resource supply crises, and c) failures of sector-driven management strategies. Evaluation of the WEF nexus integrative debate can be carried out using four key criteria, namely ability to change current policy debates, issue and thinking novelty, practicability and measurability, and clearness and implementation roadmap. It is clear that, although the nexus has been quite successful in changing policy debates, issue prioritization is missing and seems to be left to specific case studies and policymakers' choices. There is a high need for ‘incorporation’ and ‘cross-linking’ of issues between the three resources. In this regard, nexus governance is the missing link in the nexus debate.

CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM); CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) | Al-Riffai Perrihan et al., 'Linking the economics of water, energy, and food: A nexus modeling approach', , IFPRI, 2017

This special issue aims to provide a knowledge base that is focused on geospatial mapping approaches for a better understanding of spatiotemporal dynamics of agricultural intensification from food/water security standpoints. This issue is of special importance to researchers engaged in applications of geospatial technologies in various agricultural science and engineering disciplines including agronomy, hydrology, geography, climatology, computer science, and engineering | Mahesh Rao, Chandrashekhar Biradar, Sudhanshu Panda. (1/1/2017). Agricultural Intensification: Combating Food/Water Security Challenges Using Remote Sensing and GIS

Α novel methodology for addressing policyinconsistencies and knowledge gaps that hinder thetransition to a greater resource efficiency Europe isproposed. We focus on the integration of all differentsectors that interact and influence each other, namely the“water- energy- food- land use- climate nexus” and wedevelop tools for identifying and quantifying their complexinterlinkages under the influence of climate change. Inorder to achieve this, we employ a series of sophisticatedmodels (referred to as “thematic models”), each of whichaddresses a different nexus dimension, or a combination ofa few, while none addresses all nexus dimensions in anintegrative manner. We use dynamic systems modelingand other complexity science techniques in order to“merge” different thematic model outputs in a singlecoherent result, which is presented to the user in an easy tocomprehend Serious Game environment. This way, theeffect of policies that are designed to affect one field(nexus dimension) on others can be quantified andsimulated, thus informing policy-makers for theunintended consequences of their policies, reducinguncertainties, covering knowledge gaps and leading to aresource efficient Europe faster.

Food security is a critical issue for the Arabian Peninsula countries due fast population growth, reduced domestic food production and the tighter global food markets because of trading partners‘ strained export surpluses. Water scarcity is a major concern for the AP. The renewable water resources per capita is considered the lowest in the world and has decreased from 1250 m3 in 1950 to 76.2 m3 in 2014. Furthermore, the projected water demand in AP for the year 2025 will exceed the double of the current groundwater availability, estimated at 8030M m3. In response to the alarming water situation, ICARDA in collaboration with the National Agricultural and Extension Systems (NARES) has established a program in AP, which has developed, evaluated, and introduced technology packages that empower growers to produce high-quality crops with less water. These technologies include: 1) the integrated forage production system based on indigenous plant species; 2) the introduction of spineless cactus as animal feed; and 3) protected agriculture with associated developed technologies such as soilless culture (hydroponics). Similarly, ICARDA and NARS works on date palm has resulted in improving water and land productivity for date production. Such water saving technology packages are being transferred to farmers in AP region through ICARDA and National scientists and extension agents. Conclusively, a noticeable impact on the on-farm water management through the increased productivity per unit of water and land created. The demand for more applied research in the region is inevitable to ensure an adequate level of food security based on Climate-smart agriculture practice.

Given the water-food-energy interconnections, integrated planning, policy and management using the nexus approach are required for the food production system. In this study the nexus and non-nexus approaches are compared to propose an optimal cropping patternthat considers water, energy and economic parameters. Linear optimization was applied to compare i) the nexus approach utilizing an objective function to maximize a water-food-energy nexus index and 2) the non-nexus approach utilizing three objective functions for water use, energy use, and agricultural net return. The study showed that the nexus approach is the best. Applying it through a water-food-energy nexus index provides a holistic method for identifying an optimal cropping pattern that reduces water and energy consumption and increases the agricultural net return.