A Water-Energy-Food Nexus based Conceptual Approach for Developing Smart Urban-Rural Linkages in Nagpur Metropolitan Area, India

Abstract

Urban and rural areas are dynamic systems, functionally interlinked through their social, economic, and environmental settings. While urban population heavily depends on the natural resources sourced from surrounding rural areas, the rural population is increasingly reliant on urban areas for employment, healthcare etc. In the recent years, the notion of urban-rural linkage has gained high prominence in the global policy outcomes, including the Sustainable Development Goals and The New Urban Agenda, particularly in response to the rapid urbanization trends and climate change. However, it’s application at local level development planning is still not apparent. In case of Nagpur Metropolitan Area ‘NMA’ in India, Smart City and Smart Rural ‘Rurban’ Cluster are being developed adjacently under two different missions of Government of India which are totally disconnected. While urban-rural systems in NMA are already stressed with the situations of resource conflict (like water supply), their relationships are expected to get further constrained under changing climate scenarios. Addressing this need, we present a knowledge-based conceptual framework that presents an overall picture of the water resource flow (specifically from Water-Energy-Food nexus perspective) between urban and rural areas within NMA. Based on the developed framework, the study suggests feasible directions for smartly linking the upcoming developments in Nagpur Smart city and adjacent Rurban cluster.