Abstract
Over the past decade, debates on the governance of food, water, and energy resources (FWE nexus) have increased, provoking new insights into social importance in ecological balance. Policymakers, management professionals, and scholars of the FWE nexus call for new approaches that address ranges of social and ecological impacts of uncoordinated sectoral planning. From a theoretical perspective, social-ecological systems (SES) science offers a balanced approach for improved FWE nexus through consolidating knowledge from a wide range of disciplines and providing the opportunity to adapt to the changing environment. However, although increasingly employed, it has been complicated to empirically monitor and evaluate the dynamic social-ecological nexus systems. A framework for translating SES theory into FWE nexus practice is needed. This paper develops an integrated assessment framework of the social-ecological nexus systems governance and presents results from its application to a Dutch smart-eco city. An integrative multi-level analysis scheme is used to analyze intra- and inter- relationships, quantify social and ecological impacts of uncoordinated FWE management, and visualize FWE supply-chain risks posed to cities by the dynamic humans and nature interactions. The evidence-based approach of this study proved advantages of the proposed framework in (i) revealing connections of natural resources and the cultural, regulating, and supporting services of nexus systems, and (ii) making practical recommendations for improved socio-ecologically-balanced nexus interventions. The results can support policymakers and management professionals of the FWE nexus to organize their analytical, diagnostic, and prescriptive capabilities to make development decisions on urban resilience and ecological balance.
Highlights
It is widely acknowledged that the integrated food, water, and en ergy sectors management (FWE nexus) arises at the intersection of complicated social and natural systems (Berkes et al, 2003)
Social-ecological systems (SES) science offers a balanced approach for improved FWE nexus through consolidating knowledge from a wide range of disciplines and providing the opportunity to adapt to the changing environment
Retaining the most meaningful principal components (PCs) representing the greatest variance of the data, we explored the contribution of different indicators of nexus social-ecological system framework (NexSESF) to changes in an FWE nexus setting over time
Summary
It is widely acknowledged that the integrated food, water, and en ergy sectors management (FWE nexus) arises at the intersection of complicated social and natural systems (Berkes et al, 2003). A comprehensive framework and empirical approaches are lacking in the literature to support such a nexus responsive concern This paper addresses this concern by balancing the two thoughts of materialistic flows of the FWE resources and social flows into a social-ecological analysis. To build this approach, we bring together different strands of the literature, including material flows analysis, environmental impacts, and the network society. The real-world exami nation sets the stage to support integrating thematic perspectives of FWE nexus, social-ecological balance, transdisciplinarity, and adaptive governance in a multi-level analysis presented in a tabular form (Section 5).
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