Water-food-energy nexus for transboundary cooperation in Eastern Africa

Elsayed, Hamdy; Djordjević, Slobodan; Savić, Dragan; Tsoukalas, Ioannis; Makropoulos, Christos

doi:10.2166/ws.2022.001

Cited by 9 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…It has been applied to understand and analyze the complexity of interactions among the water, energy, and food sectors, and of policy interventions therein (Bakhshianlamouki et al, 2020;Sušnik et al, 2021;Wang et al, 2023;Wen et al, 2022;). It has used to deal with water management in transboundary basins (Elsayed et al, 2022). Following the development of CMs and CLDs, an SDM was built using stock-flow diagrams (SFDs) to represent the Ain Temouchent WEF nexus, using the CLD as a guide and maintaining a focus on water-energy interaction, mainly the energy consumption for desalination and on water food nexus, focusing on the intensive agriculture production leading to the overexploitation of the groundwater.…”

Section: System Dynamics Modelling (Quantitative Assessment)mentioning

confidence: 99%

A water–energy–food nexus analysis of the impact of desalination and irrigated agriculture expansion in the Ain Temouchent region, Algeria

Mostefaoui,

Sušnik,

Masia

et al. 2024

Environ Dev Sustain

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The need for an integrated approach to sustainable resources management to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals has become widely recognized. Population growth, climate change, environmental degradation, and scarcity of resources have been identified as the major factors affecting society’s future. Given the fundamental societal needs for food, energy, and water, the Water–Energy–Food (WEF) nexus has emerged as a useful sustainable resource management framework and has been widely applied. However, in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, there have been relatively few studies that adopt a nexus approach. In this study, the Ain Temouchent region in Algeria is used as a WEF Nexus case study. The region has a strong agricultural-based economy and the increased intensity of agricultural production in the region has resulted in the overuse of groundwater resources. Establishing a reverse osmosis desalination plant with a daily production capacity of 200,000 m3 significantly alleviated the resulting water crisis, yet its energy consumption and environmental impact raise several questions. This study identifies the critical links between the WEF sectors and using this understanding, the dynamics between them are assessed using System Dynamics Modelling. The study reveals that any further increase in agricultural production in Ain Temouchent may lead to excessive use of groundwater resources. Although desalination can help alleviate the water crisis, its high energy consumption raises concerns. The analysis shows that the use of surface water and recycled wastewater for irrigation could be possible alternatives. The study emphasizes the value of adopting a WEF nexus approach to achieve a balance between agricultural development, energy sustainability, and water resource management in the Ain Temouchent region.

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Section: System Dynamics Modelling (Quantitative Assessment)mentioning

confidence: 99%

A water–energy–food nexus analysis of the impact of desalination and irrigated agriculture expansion in the Ain Temouchent region, Algeria

Mostefaoui,

Sušnik,

Masia

et al. 2024

Environ Dev Sustain

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“…The central role of water in modulating energy and food provision can be illustrated through case studies. Elsayed et al (2022) develop a system dynamics model (cf. Sterman, 2000;Ford, 2009) to assess how hypothetical governance approaches of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) in Ethiopia could lead to water, energy, and food implications in Nile-basin countries.…”

Section: Water In the Wef Nexusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water as a key enabler of nexus systems (water-energy-food)

Sušnik¹,

Masia²,

Teutschbein³

2023

Camb. prisms Water

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This review article positions water front-and-center as a key enabler of water-energy-food (WEF) nexus systems. It demonstrates the critical role of water in human civilization, progress, and development, including how water is central to the achievement of many of the United Nations' sustainable development goals. It is suggested that water may in fact be the most important resource needed in a broader WEF nexus context, as well as in the broader scope of human development. The review shows the consequences of 'water going wrong'when there is too much or too little, and the global impacts of increasing frequency of such events, largely due to an ever more 'hyperconnected' world. The review concludes by urging greater 'nexus awareness' and systems thinking, especially in policy and decision-making, while cautioning against the potentially ironic situation of returning to a sectoral, water-centric view of resources management. Introduction: The water-energy-food nexusWater (W) supply and demand, energy (E) generation and consumption, and food (F) demand and production, linked to land availability and land use, form a coherent 'hyperconnected' global network, referred to as the WEF nexus (Hoff, 2011) governed by complexity and feedback (WEF, 2013(WEF, , 2016Bleischwitz et al., 2018), and pressured by population growth, climate change, policy implementation, and socioeconomic development. The effective functioning and sustainability of nexus resources are essential for human well-being, and human development demands abundant, high-quality, easily accessible resources (cf. Sušnik and van der Zaag, 2017). Yet about 1 billion people lack access to clean water, 2.5 billion people lack basic sanitation, 1.4 billion have no electricity and over 850 million are chronically malnourished while global food waste is estimated at 30% of

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“…Applying a WEF nexus in transboundary water resources can help to solve water crises and to enhance mutual collaboration among different countries [15]. Moreover, it provides cooperation opportunities in shared water resources [17] and provides flexible solutions for water crises [15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of Pros and Cons in Using the Water–Energy–Food Nexus Approach to Assess Resource Security: A Review

Rezaei Kalvani,

Celico

2024

Sustainability

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The water–energy–food (WEF) nexus is drawing much attention in scholarly literature as a novel alternative to address complex resources and achieve resource security. The aim of this study is to analyze and review existing nexus studies to investigate the current status of nexus research worldwide. This study used a narrative review approach to provide a comprehensive overview on the WEF nexus using a variety of databases. It is indicated that the majority of studies in Asia and Africa focused on the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus. China and Brazil had the largest nexus research. Based on the existing literature, most of attention has been paid to food production. However, food consumption patterns and dietary change are rarely evaluated, and there is a lack of study on impacts of dietary change on the WEF nexus. Moreover, there is a lack of frameworks for the evaluation of the WEF nexus under dietary change scenarios. The major challenge of the nexus approach is data availability in crop production, which can be solved by using remote sensing data. There is a lack of standard and conceptual frameworks for nexus assessment and, then, an essential need to provide a new holistic and standard approach that be applicable worldwide to increase connections between researchers and decision makers, as well as the applicability of nexus approaches. Future research must couple the development of a holistic standard approach with experimental tests in different areas, involving interdisciplinary research groups able to carry out all the experimental activities, the numerical simulations, and the statistical analyses of climatic time series (in a climate change perspective) indispensable to demonstrate the real benefits of using a WEF-derived nexus approach.

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Water-food-energy nexus for transboundary cooperation in Eastern Africa

Cited by 9 publications

References 44 publications

A water–energy–food nexus analysis of the impact of desalination and irrigated agriculture expansion in the Ain Temouchent region, Algeria

A water–energy–food nexus analysis of the impact of desalination and irrigated agriculture expansion in the Ain Temouchent region, Algeria

Water as a key enabler of nexus systems (water-energy-food)

Analysis of Pros and Cons in Using the Water–Energy–Food Nexus Approach to Assess Resource Security: A Review

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