Context matters: A framework for assessing the suitability of climate smart agriculture technologies for smallholder farmers
This chapter presents a framework for climate-smart technology adoption that emphasizes the critical role of contextual factors in shaping agricultural resilience. It highlights how socioeconomic conditions, policy environments, and resource availability vary significantly across countries, which ultimately needs to reflect on the choice of technologies to be adopted. The framework synthesizes nine key indicators and […]
Higher Education’s Dual Role in the AI Economy: Balancing Foundational Learning and Micro-Credential Innovation
The global rise of micro-credentials presents an agile solution for targeted technical upskilling, yet most artificial intelligence (AI)-related micro-credentials are offered by private sector organizations and emphasize technical skills. International bodies like the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and the European Commission have created frameworks emphasizing the critical importance of AI literacy for primary […]
Securing Our Future: A Water-Energy-Food Nexus Approach to Climate Risks, Resource Scarcity, and Human Mobility in the Middle East
Global challenges, including disasters escalating from extreme weather, population growth, urbanization, and resource scarcity, strain critical systems. Projected supply–demand gaps by 2030, coupled with migratory crises driven by conflict, famine, and resource deprivation, threaten human security and global stability. The Arab region faces acute water, energy, and food system pressures intensified by resource limitations, population […]
Securing Our Future: A Water-Energy-Food Nexus Approach to Climate Risks, Resource Scarcity, and Human Mobility in the Middle East
This book addresses these pressing issues, providing a comprehensive overview of the challenges posed by climate change and their impacts on society. It also presents a series of innovative actions aimed at enhancing the resilience of modern society. The Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus is a critical area of research aimed at building a more sustainable society. […]
Higher education’s dual role in the AI economy: Balancing foundational learning and micro-credential innovation
The global rise of micro-credentials presents an agile solution for targeted technical upskilling, yet most artificial intelligence (AI)-related micro-credentials are offered by private sector organizations and emphasize technical skills. International bodies like the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and the European Commission have created frameworks emphasizing the critical importance of AI literacy for primary […]
The relevance and challenges in communicating the nexus
Beyond academic debates, the nexus remains a new concept for many practitioners and decision-makers, with often only a fuzzy delineation (intersection of water, energy, food, land, climate, biodiversity, health, etc.) and limited attraction. In addition, its association to ‘complexity’ often hampers the uptake in solution-oriented and sector-specific planning and management, whilst simplified approaches are discarded […]
National and International Funding for Financing Sustainable Development Goal 6: Case of Jordan
In September 2015, the United Nations General Assembly announced the list of new sustainable development goals (SDGs). These goals were put forward to guide the progress and development of member states as they plan into the future. Achieving the 17 goals described in the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development will require unprecedented levels of […]
Modeling the Sustainable Development Nexus as a Complex-Coupled System: System Dynamics Modeling
This chapter begins with defining complex systems, presents an overview of the applied science of dynamical systems by focusing on the main components of complexity and chaos, and introduces the concept of dimensionality of systems. Systems have structural and temporal (dynamic) components – they exist in space and time. This chapter focuses on the time […]
Water-Energy-Food Interconnections: Methods, Tools, and Cross-Sectoral Decision Making
Interdependence, interactions, and linkages refer how variables in a system connect, influence, and depend on one another. Scientific fields, especially the social sciences, primarily analyze how a given variable is affected by one or many others. Across-impact analysis is an approach to determine how those interactions can affect future events or a way to visualize […]
Water-Energy-Food Sustainable Development Goals in Morocco
Water, energy, and food security challenges are complex and tightly interconnected (Hoff 2011; Mohtar and Daher 2012; FAO 2014a; IRENA 2015). Food production demands water; water extraction, treatment, and redistribution demand energy; and energy production requires water. With growing pressures on these interconnected resource systems due to climate change and population growth, it is critical that we understand and […]