Exploring the food, energy, and water governance in South‐West Iran

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to analyze the social network governing the Nexus of food, energy, and water. Khuzestan province was selected because it has 2.2 million hectares of potential agricultural lands, 190,000 farmers, and produces 11.2 million tons of agricultural production per year. This study used a mixed‐method and data was collected using field surveys. In the first step, using the notion of problem‐shed and issue network, the composition of the Food–Energy–Water (FEW) nexus and its boundaries are determined. In the second step, ‘the social network analysis’ method was used to analyze the structural configuration of the FEW nexus networks. Network surveys were conducted among different actors from different departments and different administrative levels. Also, some key informants such as the university faculty members participated in the network survey. The network data was analyzed using the UCINET software. The results showed that actors tend to communicate with actors within the group. Meanwhile, the actors of the industrial sector as well as the Khuzestan Water and Power Association, tend to establish extra‐group communication at a very high level. Finally, we proffer recommendations based upon lessons learned from this investigation to use in other study areas.