Predictive simulation of the water-energy-food nexus for the City of Cape Town

The City of Cape Town (CoCT), South Africa faced a critical situation between 2015 and 2018 in which the municipal water supply was almost completely exhausted. This situation, commonly referred to as Day Zero in South Africa emanated from a decline in rainfall, resulting in one of the most severe droughts in history. The crisis was also aggravated by […]

From Agricultural Waste to Energy: Assessing the Bioenergy Potential of South-Central Texas

This paper addresses the challenge of meeting increasing energy needs by assessing the potential of bioenergy as a sustainable resource option in South Central Texas. Available agricultural crop residues suitable for bioenergy production are evaluated from the 21 counties in South Central Texas Regional Water Planning Area (Region L). The residues produced and available for […]

Water–energy–food–health nexus in Lebanon

This study used a water–energy–food system-of-systems assessment to evaluate the sustainability of the Mediterranean diet in Lebanon. The specific aims were to: 1) identify and quantify the critical interconnections between water, energy and food systems in Lebanon; 2) develop a nexus framework to assess the trade-offs associated with adopting interventions within current water, energy and […]

Examining Lebanon’s Resilience Through a Water-Energy-Food Nexus Lens

Lebanon faces a mix of underlying political and economic challenges, shocks, and triggering events that threaten the sustainability and resilience of its interconnected resource systems. The complex nature of these pressures begs for a systems approach to better understand the existing interconnections and to support the co-creation of cross-sectoral solutions to address them. This article […]

Water-Energy-Food-Health Solutions and innovations for low-carbon, climate-resilient drylands

We live in a world of complex and tightly interconnected grand challenges that threaten the sustainability of our societies. Examples of such challenges are summed up in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs), which include specific goals to address water, energy, and food insecurities. Our ability to address these challenges depends on our readiness […]

Urban FEW Nexus Model for the Otun River Watershed

Urban

The food-energy-water (FEW) nexus has emerged as an alternative to improve the management of the resources used in the food, energy, and water systems. However, there are limited case studies in the Latin American and Caribbean region where a FEW nexus methodology has been implemented. This region will greatly benefit from a FEW nexus approach […]

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 […]

Water-Energy-Food-Health Solutions & Innovations for Low-Carbon, Climate-Resilient Drylands

Primary resources gaps facing dryland, including access to water, food, energy, nutrition, and health care, are expected to increase with demographic, political, and climatic changes. These highly interlinked primary resources carry high risk and vulnerability. Disentangling these to better understand the complex system of systems they represent is crucial and requires multi-disciplinary work that includes […]