The Food-Energy-Water Nexus: Governing Key Resources for Sustainable Development

Dear Colleagues,

Our capacity to systematically understand and mitigate risks to our food and resource system is still only fragmentary at best. The nexus approach allows for a reconciliation of the water, food, and energy system with the integrity of the resource base. It helps decision makers avoid adverse or suboptimal outcomes through a sound understanding of consumption, production, and resource systems. Through nexus, we can incorporate the drivers of change such as demographics, socioeconomic development, technology, and climate change.

Currently, systemic dimension of W–E–F is not well understood in terms of biophysical and hydrological impact and, particularly, in understanding the socioeconomic consequences of such interactions at different levels. Further, interlinkages, in particular feedbacks connecting the production and consumption domains, are underaddressed. The interconnected nature of the sectoral needs among themselves and the heavy reliance of production on the state, trends in land, water, soil, and genetic resources, and biodiversity are necessitating methodologies that can accommodate this complexity, consistently providing sound, scientific input into the governance of these resources.

For this Special Issue, we welcome submissions from multiple perspectives and disciplines that showcase research findings on resource governance strategies towards sustainability in food, water, and energy systems, with feedbacks and interconnections drawing on diverse methodologies ranging from dynamic system modeling, life cycle assessments, supply chain analysis, statistical modeling, and scenario analysis to qualitative approaches.

Dr. Olcay Ünver
Dr. Anik Bhaduri
Dr. Rimjhim Aggarwal
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• water management
• water–energy–food nexus
• sustainable energy
• food security and nutrition
• sustainable consumption and production
• scenario analysis