Water–Energy–Food Nexus: Principles and Practices

Water–Energy–Food Nexus: Theories and Practices highlight the importance of water, energy and food as key resources to sustain life as well as global, regional and national economies. Exacerbating demands of the three resources combined with concerns over environmental and climate change presents a set of scientific, policy and management issues that are critical for sustainability. The three resources are interlinked in several ways, and the term nexus can better describe the interconnections. The nexus addresses the concerns of key constituencies, governments and their citizens and businesses. It has therefore been the highly debated topic in most of the international flora. The nexus has been discussed, researched, and advocated widely; however, the discussions are focused mostly on water–energy or water–food or energy–food domains. To get the real benefit of the nexus approach in terms of resource use efficiency, it is essential to understand, operationalize and practice the nexus of all these three resources.

Volume highlights include:

Contributions to the global debate on water–energy–food nexus through knowledgebase generation Theoretical and/or conceptual aspects of the water–energy–food nexus and ways to overcome operational challenges of the nexus approach of the resources management Cases of the nexus approach in practice from different regions of the world, and opinions on future of the nexus agenda

Water–Energy–Food Nexus: Theories and Practices is a valuable resource for students, research scholars and professionals in academic institutions with strong interests on interdisciplinary research involving hydrology, cryosphere, energy, earth science, sustainability science, international development, sustainable resource management, and ecological economics. The volume will also be useful for I/NGOs, water and environmental consultants, practitioners, government agencies, international agencies and policy and decision makers.

Section I: Understanding the nexus

1 The need for the nexus approach
P Abdul Salam, Vishnu Prasad Pandey, Sangam Shrestha, Anil Kumar Anal

2 Evolution of the nexus as a policy and development discourse
Vishnu Prasad Pandey, Sangam Shrestha

3 The nexus contribution to better water management and its limitations
Mike Muller

4 The emergence of a new paradigm: the water–food–energy nexus
Alex Smajgl, Johan Ward

5 Urban nexus: an integrated approach for the implementation of the sustainable development goals
Donovan Storey, Lorenzo Santucci, Banashri Sinha

Section II: Operationalizing the nexus

6 Modeling the water–energy–food nexus: a 7–question guideline
Bassel Daher, Sang–Hyun Lee, Amjad Assi, Rabi H. Mohtar

7 Water–Energy–Food nexus: selected tools and models in practice
Victor R. Shinde

8 Governing for the nexus: empirical, theoretical and normative dimensions
David Benson, Animesh K Gain, Josselin Rouillard, Carlo Giupponi

9 The role of international cooperation in operationalizing the nexus in developing countries: Emerging lessons of the nexus observatory
Kristin Meyer, Mathew Kurin

10 Assessing the potential of transboundary regional cooperation in Eastern Nile Basin: Framing nexus cooperation issues
Mohammad Al–Saidi, Nadir Ahmed Elagib, Lars Ribbe, Tatjana Schellenberg, Emma Roach, Deniz Oezhan

11 Energy–centric operationalizing of the nexus in rural areas: cases from South Asia
Parimita Mohanty, Satwik Patnaik

Section III: Nexus in practice

12 The water–energy–food nexus from a South African perspective
Olusola Ololade, Surina Esterhuyse, Audrey D. Levine

13 Water–food–energy nexus: Examples from USA
Soni M Pradhanang

14 WEF nexus cases from California with climate change implications
Qinqin Liu

15 Water, Energy and Food security nexus in West Asia Region
Mohamed Abdel Hamyd Dawoud

16 Assessment of water, energy and carbon footprints of crop production: A case study from Southeast Nepal
Sangam Shrestha, Saroj Adhikari

17 The Food–Water–Energy nexus in modern rice cultivation in Bangladesh
Sophia Barkat, Zachary A. Smith

18 Riverbank filtration technology at the nexus of Water–Energy–Food
Thomas B. Boving, Kavita Patil

Section IV: Future of the nexus agenda

19 Water–Energy Food (WEF) nexus and sustainable development
Ashim Das Gupta

Dr. P Abdul Salam, Associate Professor of Energy, Thematic Leader, Low Carbon, and Sustainable Production & Consumption Technologies and Management, School of Environment, Resource and Development (SERD), Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand

Dr. Sangam Shrestha, Associate Professor of Water Engineering and Management (WEM), School of Engineering and Technology (SET), Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand

Dr. Anil Kumar Anal, Coordinator of Food, Agriculture and Bio Systems Cluster, Associate Professor of Food Engineering and Bioprocess Technology (FEBT), School of Environment, Resource and Development (SERD), Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand

Dr. Vishnu Prasad Pandey, Research Fellow, Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand