TY - JOUR A1 - Hamidov, Ahmad A1 - Daedlow, Katrin A1 - Webber, Heidi A1 - Hussein, Hussam A1 - Abdurahmanov, Ilhom A1 - Dolidudko, Aleksandr A1 - Seerat, Ali Yawar A1 - Solieva, Umida A1 - Woldeyohanes, Tesfaye A1 - Helming, Katharina T1 - Operationalizing water-energy-food nexus research for sustainable development in social-ecological systems: an interdisciplinary learning case in Central Asia JF - Ecology & Society N2 - In social-ecological systems, natural resource management can be characterized by trade-offs across sectors and sustainability targets. The water-energy-food (WEF) nexus concept makes explicit various trade-offs in order to maximize synergies of interventions. However, there are few successful examples of its operationalization in research settings. Here, we explore in a learning setting if sustainability impact assessment (SIA) protocols can be a useful process to be used to adopt a systemic, interdisciplinary perspective to operationalize WEF nexus in research for sustainable development. The process and method adopted of SIA protocol, evaluated for five exemplary WEF nexus cases in Central Asia during a week-long international workshop, adequately addressed the complexity of WEF interrelationships and associated sustainability issues, and facilitated a comparative case study analysis across scales. Results within this process highlight that water governance was critical for large-scale transboundary WEF nexus management, while land and soil management were decisive for minimizing trade-offs at local levels. Issues of interdisciplinarity, complexity, uncertainty, and reflection on impacts were adequately addressed, but challenges remain in the consideration of ethics and the design of transparent, multi-actor cooperation. Most importantly, this exercise showed that employment of the process of SIA protocol supported disciplinary experts to work across disciplines and take a systemic approach for analyzing WEF nexus. KW - fghanistan; Central Asia; impact assessment; interdisciplinarity; socially responsible research; systemic approach Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:eb1-opus-6890 SN - 1708-3087 VL - 27 IS - 1 PB - Resilience Alliance ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mayar, Mohammad Assem A1 - Hamidov, Ahmad A1 - Akramkhanov, Akmal A1 - Helming, Katharina ED - Disse, Markus ED - Huang, Jingshui T1 - Consideration of the Environment in Water-Energy-Food Nexus Research in the Aral Sea Basin JF - Water N2 -
The water-energy-food (WEF) nexus is a holistic concept used to understand the synergies and trade-offs of interdependent water, energy, and food resources. Despite its widespread use, this concept often overlooks environmental concerns. In addition, the lack of a systemic approach in the Aral Sea Basin (ASB) has resulted in serious environmental degradation. For instance, the Aral Sea, situated at the terminus of the basin, is steadily shrinking, yet researchers studying the WEF nexus tend to overlook the upstream tributaries of the basin. This study aims to determine the extent to which research on the WEF nexus in the ASB in Central Asia has considered the environment through a systematic review of the literature published between 2012 and 2022. The results indicate that the number of WEF publications regarding the ASB has seen an upward trend, with a primary focus on the transboundary level and less research available on the local and national levels. This confirms the strong reliance of Central Asian states on one another for food, energy, and water resources. Furthermore, the results show that the majority of published studies either do not consider environmental concerns in their analyses at all or do so with little precision. Therefore, to achieve precise and sustainable outcomes, this study recommends the inclusion of environmental concerns along with basin-wide coverage in future WEF analyses. Finally, the WEF concept should be downscaled to the national and local levels in order to facilitate its implementation.
KW - - KW - systematic review KW - transboundary KW - sustainability KW - Central Asia KW - trends Y1 - 2024 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:eb1-opus-9426 SN - 2073-4441 VL - 16 IS - 5 PB - MDPI ER -