Food-energy-water nexus: A life cycle analysis on virtual water and embodied energy in food consumption in the Tamar catchment, UK

This is the final version of the article. Available from Elsevier via the DOI in this record.Evaluations of food, energy and water (FEW) linkages are rapidly emerging in contemporary nexus studies. This paper demonstrates, from a food consumption perspective, the potential of life cycle thinking in understanding the complex and often "hidden" linkages between FEW systems. Our study evaluates the upstream virtual water and embodied energy in food consumption in the Tamar catchment, South West England, distinguishing between domestic production and imports origin. The study also evaluates key inputs, including virtual nutrients and animal feed, when tracking supply chain of food products. Based on current dietary patterns and food products selection, the catchment consumes annually 834 TJ, 17 hm 3 and 244 hm 3 of energy, blue water and green water, respectively. Tamar is not self-sufficient in terms of food and requires imports of food products, as well as imports of virtual nutrients and animal feed for local production. Consequently, 51% of the embodied energy and 88% blue and 45% green virtual water in food consumed within the catchment are imported. Most of the embodied energy (58%) and green virtual water (90%) are because of animal feed production, where nearly half of embodied energy (48%) and green virtual water (42%) come from imports. 92% of blue virtual water is used for irrigation and primarily happens elsewhere due to imports. Irrigation is the process that demands the largest amount of energy for the crop-based products, with 38% of their total energy demand, followed by fertilisers production (24%). Our study illustrates water and energy hotspots in the food life cycle and highlights potential FEW risks and trade-offs through trade. This is useful considering potential unexpected changes in trade under recent global socio-political trends. Currently available databases and software make LCA a key tool for integrated FEW nexus assessments.This research was funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) via the ‘Water Energy Food: WEFWEBs’ project (grant number EP/N005600/1)

Scaling the nexus: towards integrated frameworks for analysing water, energy and food

The emergence of the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus concept following the 2011 Bonn Nexus Conference has resulted in a change to the way we perceive our natural resources. Global pressures such as climate change, and population growth have highlighted the fragility of our WEF systems, necessitating integrated solutions across multiple scales and levels. Whilst a number of frameworks and analytical tools have been developed since 2011, a comprehensive WEF nexus tool remains elusive, hindered in part by our limited data and understanding of the interdependencies and connections across the WEF systems. To achieve this, the community of academics, practitioners and policy-makers invested in WEF nexus research are addressing several critical areas that currently remain as barriers. Firstly, the plurality of scales (e.g., spatial, temporal, institutional, jurisdictional) necessitates a more comprehensive effort to assess interdependencies between water, energy and food, from household to institutional and national levels. Secondly, and closely related to scale, a lack of available data often hinders our ability to quantify physical stocks and flows of resources. In this paper, we elucidate many of the challenges that have arisen across nexus research, including the impact of multiple scales in operation across the nexus, and concomitantly, what impact these scales have on data accessibility. We review some of the critical frameworks and tools that are applied by nexus researchers and discuss some of the steps required to develop from nexus thinking to an operationalizable concept, with a consistent focus on scale and data availability

Water-related challenges in nexus governance for sustainable development: Insights from the city of Arequipa, Peru

Peru has one of the fastest-growing economies in Latin America, but there are concerns regarding how long this can be sustained. Negative environmental impacts are increasing due to the pressures of a growing urban population and competition for natural resources. This study explores stakeholder perceptions linked to nexus governance in the context of integrated management of natural resources, particularly water, and the environmental, socio-economic and governance challenges constraining the achievement of UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our analysis focused on the urban and rural areas associated with the city of Arequipa, an economically dynamic region subject to extreme levels of water stress. Face-to-face interviews with key informants were conducted to identify mechanisms that have enhanced successful multi-sectoral collaboration, and to assess challenges in promoting sustainable economic development. A workshop prioritised the identified challenges and an online survey was then used to assess stakeholder interest in and influence over nexus governance of water with other natural resources. Stakeholder mapping revealed a complex network of actors involved in nexus governance, where successful collaboration could be promoted through formal and informal mechanisms, including exemplar policies and initiatives across sectors and actors. Shared visions between stakeholders were identified as well as contradictory priorities relating to the sustainable management of natural resources. A key finding that emerged was the need to promote adaptation in water and land management (SDG 6) due to perceived impacts of extreme climate events (SDG 13), urban population growth (SDG 11), and increased sectoral water demands. This situation in combination with poor governance and lack of planning has exposed the vulnerability of Arequipa water supply system to future shocks. Urgent action will be needed to raise stakeholder awareness, strengthen governance and enforcement, and agree on a collective vision for integrated land and water planning if the SDGs are to be achieve

Scaling the nexus: Towards integrated frameworks for analyzing water, energy and food

The emergence of the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus has resulted in changes to the way we perceive our natural resources. Stressors such as climate change and population growth have highlighted the fragility of our WEF systems, necessitating integrated solutions across multiple scales. Whilst a number of frameworks and analytical tools have been developed since 2011, a comprehensive WEF nexus tool remains elusive, hindered in part by our limited data and understanding of the interdependencies and connections across the WEF systems. To achieve this, the community of academics, practitioners and policy-makers invested in WEF nexus research are addressing several critical areas that currently remain as barriers. Firstly, the plurality of scales (e.g., spatial, temporal, institutional, jurisdictional) necessitates a more comprehensive effort to assess interdependencies between water, energy and food, from household to institutional and national levels. Secondly, and closely related to scale, a lack of available data often hinders our ability to quantify physical stocks and flows of resources. Overcoming these barriers necessitates engaging multiple stakeholders, and using experiences and local insights to better understand nexus dynamics in particular locations or scenarios, and we exemplify this with the inclusion of a UK-based case-study on exploring the nexus in a particular geographical area. We elucidate many challenges that have arisen across nexus research, including the impact of multiple scales in operation, and concomitantly, what impact these scales have on data accessibility. We assess some of the critical frameworks and tools that are applied by nexus researchers and articulate some of the steps required to develop from nexus thinking to an operationalizable concept, with a consistent focus on scale and data availability

Building consensus on water use assessment of livestock production systems and supply chains: outcome and recommendations from the FAO LEAP partnership.

The FAO Livestock Environmental Assessment and Performance (LEAP) Partnership organised a Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to develop reference guidelines on water footprinting for livestock production systems and supply chains. The mandate of the TAG was to i) provide recommendations to monitor the environmental performance of feed and livestock supply chains over time so that progress towards improvement targets can be measured, ii) be applicable for feed and water demand of small ruminants, poultry, large ruminants and pig supply chains, iii) build on, and go beyond, the existing FAO LEAP guidelines and iv) pursue alignment with relevant international standards, specifically ISO 14040 (2006)/ISO 14044 (2006), and ISO 14046 (2014). The recommended guidelines on livestock water use address both impact assessment (water scarcity footprint as defined by ISO 14046, 2014) and water productivity (water use efficiency). While most aspects of livestock water use assessment have been proposed or discussed independently elsewhere, the TAG reviewed and connected these concepts and information in relation with each other and made recommendations towards comprehensive assessment of water use in livestock production systems and supply chains. The approaches to assess the quantity of water used for livestock systems are addressed and the specific assessment methods for water productivity and water scarcity are recommended. Water productivity assessment is further advanced by its quantification and reporting with fractions of green and blue water consumed. This allows the assessment of the environmental performance related to water use of a livestock-related system by assessing potential environmental impacts of anthropogenic water consumption (only ?blue water?); as well as the assessment of overall water productivity of the system (including ?green? and ?blue water? consumption). A consistent combination of water productivity and water scarcity footprint metrics provides a complete picture both in terms of potential productivity improvements of the water consumption as well as minimizing potential environmental impacts related to water scarcity. This process resulted for the first time in an international consensus on water use assessment, including both the life-cycle assessment community with the water scarcity footprint and the water management community with water productivity metrics. Despite the main focus on feed and livestock production systems, the outcomes of this LEAP TAG are also applicable to many other agriculture sectors

A collaboratively derived environmental research agenda for Galapagos

Galápagos is one of the most pristine archipelagos in the world and its conservation relies upon research and sensible management. In recent decades both the interest in, and the needs of, the islands have increased, yet the funds and capacity for necessary research have remained limited. It has become, therefore, increasingly important to identify areas of priority research to assist decision-making in Galápagos conservation. This study identified 50 questions considered priorities for future research and management. The exercise involved the collaboration of policy makers, practitioners and researchers from more than 30 different organisations. Initially, 360 people were consulted to generate 781 questions. An established process of preworkshop voting and three rounds to reduce and reword the questions, followed by a two-day workshop, was used to produce the final 50 questions. The most common issues raised by this list of questions were human population growth, climate change and the impact of invasive alien species. These results have already been used by a range of organisations and politicians and are expected to provide the basis for future research on the islands so that its sustainability may be enhanced. </jats:p