Water, food, and energy security: scrambling for resources or solutions?

Abstract

Anthropogenic‐induced climate changes and population growth projected by 2050, combined with global economic growth driven by emerging markets, suggest that greater stress will be placed on water, food, and energy resources in the future. These resources are interdependent and are linked in a complex global network of trade. As pressures on the three resources grow, three‐way interactions arise so that a solution to address scarcity in one cannot be achieved without impact on the others. The water security, food security, and energy security trilemma creates a multidimensional web that is a structurally complex network with dynamic links among resources that vary in both weight and direction. Because structure affects function, characterizing the network anatomy that links the resources in three‐way interactions is helpful when setting goals to meet resource security. We argue that water plays a central role in shaping interactions and that the main scarcity issues occur with trade‐offs between thermoelectric power generation and agriculture, between hydroelectric power generation and agriculture, and between biofuel production and food production. Three illustrations—the Apalachicola–Chattahoochee–Flint River Basin in the southeastern United States, the island nation of Sri Lanka, and Brazil—capture the main three‐way interactions that we have identified. Although the problems that strew the path to global sustainability are massive, we suggest alternatives along both technological and nontechnological paths to meet future needs. WIREs Water 2014, 1:49–68. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1004 This article is categorized under: Human Water > Rights to Water

Tracing the Water–Energy–Food Nexus: Description, Theory and Practice

“…Studying three-way and higher resource interactions while accounting for the implications of climate change and other pressures requires in-depth understandings of resource relationships and interconnections across multiple scales (Hussey and Pittock 2012;Peronne and Hornberger 2014). If this is not achieved there can be significant risks of overlooking conf licts and trade-offs with omitted sectors.…”

“…If this is not achieved there can be significant risks of overlooking conf licts and trade-offs with omitted sectors. Yet, interactions among water, energy and food and economic systems are highly complex and there are major uncertainties about socio-environmental and economic futures (Peronne and Hornberger 2014). There are also significant data and modelling constraints to analysing three or more elements as an interrelated system (Bazilian et al 2011).…”

“…The nexus approach faces the obstacles encountered by previous integrative approaches, which have often failed to deliver in practice, frequently because political economy (e.g. the role of power and vested interests) in resource allocation, linkages to markets and equitable approaches for negotiating inter-temporal trade-offs have been inadequately addressed (Allouche et al 2014;Peronne and Hornberger 2014;Rees 2013). Access to and utilisation of water, energy and food are closely linked with structural issues such as political processes, poverty and entitlements; the prevailing development and political-economic environment will therefore strongly inf luence both the way in which nexus approaches are implemented and their outcomes (Allouche et al 2014;Dupar and Oates 2012;Pittock et al 2013;Rees 2013).…”

Climate and southern Africa's water–energy–food nexus

“…Previous nexus studies have concentrated on global interdependencies 17 , problem framing 18 or case studies of specific systems such as islands 19 and irrigation and hydropower production 20 . Here, we examine southern Africa's nexus from the perspective of climate and modify Hoff 's nexus framework 11 , which integrates global trends (drivers) with fields of action, to highlight the role of climate as a driver (Fig.…”

Biocombustibles y agua. La transformación del espacio en Piura, Perú

“…A pesar de que en el ámbito internacional se han documentado los riesgos ambientales que implican los biocombustibles de primera generación 3 (Delucchi, 2010;Elcock, 2010;Gerbens-Leenes, Hoekstra y van der Meer, 2009;Huffaker, 2010;Moraes, Ringler y Cai, 2011;Perrone y Hornberger, 2014;Ramos, 2011), en el Perú la expectativa económica generada sobre estos terminó minimizando los impactos ambientales. En varias regiones del mundo los impactos de los biocombustibles en la tierra y el agua han sido motivo de estudio (Borras et al, 2011a(Borras et al, , 2011b(Borras et al, , 2012a(Borras et al, , 2012b(Borras et al, , 2013; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United 2 Los primeros se derivan de cultivos energéticos, los segundos de residuos agrícolas y los terceros de algas y fuentes de biomasa.…”