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Book (stand-alone)Groundwater governance and the water-energy-food nexus in action: a global review of policy and practice
SOLAW21 Technical background report
2023Also available in:
No results found.The dominance of insular, supply-side technocratic thinking has posed a major challenge to improving water governance in the face of mounting resource scarcity, which has itself been accentuated by climate change. During the 1990s, global discourse moved from supply-driven sectoral interventions to more holistic approaches to water governance as part of larger socioeconomic and environmental processes. Integrated water resources management (IWRM) emphasized demand-side water management and used prices, participation, entitlements, laws and regulations to strengthen water governance at hydrological rather than territorial units. More recently, there have been pleas for more integrative approaches that link land, water, energy, food, livelihoods, the environment and other spheres – each with its own, often insular, governance structure. The evolution in global thinking reflects the need to meet growing human needs by innovating approaches that enhance resilience and the sustainability of landscapes, the biosphere and the Earth as a whole. To this end, the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus advocates that society is better off seeking system-level balance rather than maximizing sectoral objectives. The nexus approach has produced prolific analytical literature over the past decade but integrating it into policy and governance faces many challenges. This review paper explores these challenges by focusing on the WEF nexus in action. We compare the nexus in several water-stressed areas of the world including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, China, Bangladesh and Gujarat (India), with additional evidence drawn from other places such as Morocco and Punjab-Haryana. We synthesize these case studies to examine the actual state of play in different locations and tease out practical lessons for mainstreaming nexus thinking in water policy and governance. The key conclusion is that specific contexts, contingencies and constituencies drive national and sub-national policies. Directing the outcomes towards the optimal nexus depends on the nature of the state, investment in institution building and, above all, ingenuity in policy design and implementation to overcome resistance to change and strengthen political capital for the leaders who back such policies. -
DocumentThe Water-Energy-Food Nexus: A new approach in support of food security and sustainable agriculture 2014
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No results found.If a decision is made at the national level to increase the share of bioenergy, what implications does this have for water, land and energy? How do electricity subsidies contribute to groundwater depletion and what can be done about it? How can we ensure that sectoral policies and strategies consider the potential trade-offs for other sectors? Finding answers to these questions is the main challenge of the Water-Energy-Food Nexus. By describing the complex and interrelated nature of our global r esource systems, the Nexus approach helps us to better understand and systematically analyze how we can use and manage our resources in light of different, often competing interests and goals. -
Book (stand-alone)Water–energy–food–health nexus in Lebanon
Case study
2023Also available in:
No results found.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 agriculture portfolios and practices; 3) evaluate stakeholder perceptions around regional resource challenges and their willingness to implement proposed interventions.
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