Abstract
Desalination is increasingly put forward as a sustainable local solution to water scarcity in combination with the exploitation of renewable energy sources. However, the complexity of the resource nexus entails the unavoidable existence of pros and cons across its various dimensions that can only be assessed at different scales of analysis. In turn, these pros and cons entail different winners and losers among the different social actors linked through the nexus. To address these challenges, a novel approach to resource nexus assessment is put forward, based on multi-scale integrated analysis of societal and ecosystem metabolism (MuSIASEM) and recognizing the resource nexus as a wicked problem. The integrated representation identifies the existence of biophysical constraints determined by processes both under human control (in the technosphere) and beyond human control (in the biosphere). The approach is illustrated with a local case study of desalination in the Canary Islands, Spain. The material presented has been generated in the context of the project “Moving towards adaptive governance in complexity: Informing nexus security” (MAGIC) for use in participatory processes of co-production of knowledge claims about desalination, a prerequisite for informed policy deliberation.
Highlights
While desalination can certainly be an essential option for resource security purposes in isolated and islands areas, an effective assessment of the performance of desalination in relation to nexus security requires a comprehensive understanding of the nature of the entanglement over water, energy, and food flows
The first step is to identify the functional elements required to stabilize the flows of water, energy and food metabolized by the WEF system and define the relations among these elements starting from the big picture of the whole system
Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus security becomes extremely important in isolated areas and islands when one or more of the natural resources are scarce
Summary
Literature on the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus shows a general consensus on the urgent need to improve both: (i) the effectiveness of scientific analysis in integrating quantitative analyses across different dimensions and scales; and (ii) the process of governance across the existing ‘institutional silos’ dealing with water, energy and food separately (Al-Saidi and Elagib, 2017; Bazilian et al, 2011; Biggs et al, 2015; Cairns and Krzywoszynska, 2016; Endo et al, 2017; Garcia and You, 2016; Gulati et al, 2013; Hák et al, 2016; Hoff, 2011; Howarth and Monasterolo, 2016; Howells et al, 2013; Khan et al, 2017; Leese and Meisch, 2015; Mohtar and Lawford, 2016; Pittock et al, 2015; Rasul, 2016; Ringler et al, 2013; Verhoeven, 2015). Anticipatory Systems: Philosophical, Mathematical, and Methodological Foundations, IFSR International Series on Systems Science and Engineering. v
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