A methodology to assess the water energy food ecosystems nexus in transboundary river basins

Lucia De Strasser, Annukka Lipponen, Mark Howells, Stephen Stec, Christian Bréthaut

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract (may include machine translation)

The "nexus" is a potentially very appropriate approach to enhance resource efficiency and good governance in transboundary basins. Until now, however, evidence has been confined to isolated case studies and the nexus approach remains largely undefined. The methodology presented in this paper, developed for preparing a series of nexus assessments of selected river basins under the Water Convention of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), is a timely contribution to this ongoing debate. The nexus assessment of a transboundary basin has the objective of identifying trade-offs and impacts across sectors and countries and to propose possible policy measures and technical actions at national and transboundary levels to reduce intersectoral tensions. This is done jointly with policy makers and local experts. Compared to an Integrated Water Resource Management approach, the water energy food ecosystems nexus approach concurrently considers multiple sectors and their evolution. This offers the opportunity to better involve key economic sectors-energy and agriculture in particular-in the dialogue over transboundary water resource uses, protection and management.

Original languageEnglish
Article number59
JournalWater (Switzerland)
Volume8
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 2016

Keywords

  • Ecosystems
  • Energy
  • Food
  • Land
  • Methodology
  • Nexus
  • Participatory
  • Transboundary
  • Water

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'A methodology to assess the water energy food ecosystems nexus in transboundary river basins'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this