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The study objective was to develop and use the Water-Energy-Food Nexus Phosphate (WEF-P) Tool to evaluate the impact of Morocco's phosphate industry on water, energy, and food sectors of Khouribga, which is the representative phosphate mining region of Morocco. The developed WEF-P Tool enabled a trade-off analysis based on integrating supply-chain processes, transportation, and water–energy footprints of the region. Field data from the mining to transportation processes were collected and applied to possible supply-chain scenarios in accordance with the type of product (phosphate rock and slurry). The potential impacts of the scenarios were considered in terms of the water supply in the agricultural areas. The analysis of the positive impacts of dynamic management suggests that seasonal management of phosphate production (less during the irrigated season, more during wetter or rainier seasons) is more effective. Additionally, while the transport of raw phosphate slurry through a pipeline increased the total water required to 34.6×106 m 3 , which is an increase of 76 % over the "business as usual" (BAU) scenario, it also resulted in an energy savings of nearly 80 % over BAU: slurry transport requires only 40.5×106 L of fossil fuel instead of the 204×106 L required to transport rocks. During the dry or "water-scarce" irrigation season (May to July), total groundwater use decreased from 5.8×106 to 5.2×106 m 3. Dynamic management of the phosphate industry can also save 143 MWh (megawatt-hour) of electricity annually and can bring a reduction of 117 t of CO2 emissions. Making water available at the correct season and location requires analysis of complex scientific, technical, socioeconomic, regulatory, and political issues. The WEF-P Tool can assist by assessing user-created scenarios; thus, it is an effective management-decision aid for ensuring more sustainable use of limited resources and increased reliability of water resources for both agricultural and industrial use. This study on the applications of WEF Nexus to the phosphate industry offers a roadmap for other industrial application for which trade-offs between the primary resources must be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the study is to apply the Nexus approach for conducting trade-off analysis between industrial and agricultural area, thus we developed Water-Energy-Food Nexus-Phosphate (WEF-P) Tool based on integrating the supply chain processes, transportation, and water-energy footprints. This study evaluated the impact of phosphate industry on regional water, energy, and food in Khouribga, the representative phosphate mining area of Morocco using the developed WEF-P Tool. To address the potential impacts on the water supply in agricultural areas, the field data of processes (from mining to transportation) were collected and applied to possible supply chain scenarios according to type of product (phosphate rock, slurry). Analysis of positive impacts of dynamic management suggest seasonal management of phosphate production to allow less phosphate production during the irrigation season (increasing available water for agriculture) and greater phosphate production during wetter seasons (when water demand for agricultural production is less). Additionally, the transport of raw phosphate as slurry through a pipeline increases the total water required to 34.6 million m³. This is a 76 % increase over the "business as usual scenario" (BAU)). The shift to slurry also produces an energy savings of nearly 80 % over BAU, which requires 204.0 million litre of fossil fuel, as compared to only 40.5 million litre needed for slurry transport. During May to July, the dry or "water scarce" season when irrigation is needed, total ground water use decreased from 5.8 to 5.2 million m³. Dynamic management of the phosphate industry can also save 143 MWh of electricity annually, accompanied with a reduction of 117 tons of CO2 emissions. In a changing climate, making water available at the right time and place requires analysis of complex scientific, technical, socio-economical, regulatory, and political issues. The WEF-P Tool can be used to assess user- created scenarios, offering a management-decision aid to effectively ensure more sustainable management of limited resources and increased reliability of water resources for both agricultural and industrial use. This study on the application of WEF Nexus to the Phosphate industry can be a roadmap for other industrial application where trade-offs between the primary resources exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world's largest hydrocarbon disturbance occurred in the deserts and offshore waters of Kuwait during the Second Gulf War in 1990–1991. In this research, remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS) techniques were utilized to explore how native desert vegetation has recovered from hydrocarbon contamination after the Second Gulf War. By using RS techniques, change detection analysis was conducted to understand the changes about the coverage and extent of the total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) contamination and vegetation recovery. These changes were traced from 1991 until the hydrocarbon was no longer visible on the ground surface in 1998. GIS spatial analysis was conducted to determine the major ecosystem factors that influenced the vegetation recovery along with the removal of hydrocarbon disturbance. According to the results, autogenic recovery occurred at both sites within a few years and that desert native vegetation was found to have the ability to adapt and recover from hydrocarbon pollution. Native vegetation recovered across 31% of the TPH‐contaminated areas at Umm Gudair and 34% at Wadi Al Batin. The changes in TPH contamination were significantly correlated with the soil type, vegetation type, geological substrates, geomorphological features, and annual precipitation. The vegetation recovery of dominant desert communities in the study area was influenced by soil type, geomorphological feature, and TPH‐contaminated areas. Interestingly, the results showed that these desert communities can recover in areas contaminated by TPH at a higher rate than noncontaminated sites in the study area. Such a study can provide important inputs to the restoration and revegetation programs in arid landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil plays a pivotal role in enhancing global water and food security. Irrigation water constitutes more than 70% of the global water demand. The anticipated demographic increase and changing climate will impose more pressures on the global water and food systems. Therefore, and to achieve the target of "more crop per drop per area", water management plans must be based on more accurate quantitative and dynamic approaches. It is increasingly obvious that the unique aggregates structure of the soil medium regulates water and nutrient circulations, and consequently defines soil and water health, productivity, and water use efficiency. However, the soil aggregates structure is not currently well considered in the quantification of soil–water holding properties. The authors applied a thermodynamic and soil structure-based approach to quantify soil–water holding properties. Specifically, the paper aims at providing a methodology, based on the pedostructure concept, to quantify field capacity (FC), permanent wilting point (PWP), and plant available water (AW). Pedostructure is a representative aggregates unit of a soil horizon that describes the structural organization of the soil medium. Four types of soil were analyzed considering various soil texture and aggregates structure: loamy fine sand, silt loam, clay loam, and silty clay loam. The calculated values for FC and PWP, based on the proposed pedostructure method, were compared with the recommended values by the standard FAO method and soil suction method. Results showed good agreement between the calculated values of the two methods. The proposed pedostructure method introduces a shift in quantifying the plant available water from a texture-based estimation to a soil aggregates structure-based calculation. Such a shift will enable capturing the changes in soil aggregates structure due to agro-environmental practices and the associated impact of these changes on soil–water holding properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]