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Food-energy-water (FEW) resources are fundamental to society's functioning and understanding them is crucial for sustainable development and supporting life on earth. This article presents a review of the current approaches being used in the development of FEW Nexus frameworks, with an emphasis on the methods for defining and conceptualizing these frameworks by different types of stakeholders. This framework provides scientists, consultants, and practitioners in the FEW domains the tools and knowledge needed to successfully implement the Nexus. The article also describes knowledge gaps in the FEW Nexus domains. The objectives of this article are to (a) synthesize existing knowledge to support stakeholders in defining and conceptualizing their FEW Nexus, (b) provide a framework to clarify the definitions and conceptualizations of FEW Nexus for a project or an application being developed for a specific stakeholder application, and (c) apply the experience and principles of the FEW Nexus to other Nexus that can be developed. Stakeholders in this study include the users of the Nexus, scientists, and a range of practitioners, including policymakers, the private sector, practitioners in the field, and resource managers, among others. The following questions assisted in addressing the objectives: What are some existing definitions and conceptualizations in the FEW Nexus? Which elements are currently included in the definitions and conceptualizations? How should FEW Nexus be defined and conceptualized for a project or application? How can existing definitions be adapted, or new ones created, for a project or study? What are the consequences of choosing a particular definition or conceptualization? Based on this experience, the steps needed for developing a FEW Nexus are reviewed and clarified. The study provides narrow and broad definitions and simple and complex conceptualization frameworks of FEW Nexus that stakeholders can use while being aware of the limitations and knowledge gaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kopaskie ([29]) discusses ways in which the private sector can assist water security in high- and middle-income economies, and presents various governance models for private-sector involvement and investment. While there is growing interest in increased private-sector involvement and investment, without public regulation that holds the private sector responsible for public services such as water there is a risk of reduced access to these services (Lloyd-Owen, [30], in this issue). To better engage with the private sector, society needs: To better understand the business model(s) of the private sector, their operation, clients, business goals and limitations. Global private-sector spending on agricultural research increased from US$5.1 billion to US$15.6 billion per year between 1990 and 2014 (Fuglie, [17]), and private-sector agricultural research spending in the United States increased by over 60% between 2008 and 2013 (King et al., [28]). [Extracted from the article]

This study strives to utilize WEF resources for the sustainable development of the city, with respect to future climate change. Two diffusion scenarios of Rcp8.5 and Rcp2.6 from the 5th Assessment Report by the IPCC, with the output of the HADGEM2 model were used and the city of Borujerd, Iran was chosen as the case study. The urban morphological dataset was calculated using ArcGIS. Furthermore, the water requirement of some crops (apples, grapes, lettuce and vegetables with leaves) is estimated with the NETWAT and CROPWAT models. This output indicates that in the next period, an approximate 2.25 °C change will take place in the temperature and the rainfall will change between 20–40%. Adopting a WEF Nexus, this study suggests that an urban centralized agriculture will provide 21.3% of the local demand for fruit and a significant amount of the local demand for vegetables. The water reused for urban agricultural irrigation purposes and 3.6% of the freshwater resource demand and sewage cycling can be supplied by harvesting rainwater. Water treatment and recycling can also provide 60.74% of the city's current water demand. Furthermore, the production of biogas from human sewage and urban wastewater can save 32.4% of the current electricity, on a monthly basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heads of households, farmers, and experts in wastewater and agriculture in the West Bank, Tunisia and Qatar were engaged in consultations to understand their farming/gardening practices, perceived benefits and risks of using treated wastewater, willingness to pay for various qualities of water, safe handling practices, and knowledge of local organizations and regulatory agencies. Most view wastewater as unsafe for reuse in agriculture, and users feel local monitoring and oversight are insufficient. Improving transparency of wastewater management and providing extension about the true risks and benefits of this practice will improve the success and safety of future reuse projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the World Water Congress on water-energy-food (WEF) nexus to achieve water, energy and food security to ensure access for basic human needs.

The evolution and current status of sustainable production education (SPE) in the United States is reviewed, both as a discrete entity and as an intersection of multiple disciplines. This paper (a) examines the current array of compatible and conflicting theories that guide the alternative approaches to SPE, (b) reviews the wide array of applications to which such theories and associated methodologies have been applied, and (c) presents a case study of the emerging interdisciplinary approach to SPE at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, USA, and its network of national and international collaborators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Trade-offs between socio-economic and environmental impacts are key factors for achieving SDGs. • We applied the nexus approach to classify industrial Water–Energy–Labor (I-WEL) zones. • We assessed the impacts of I-WEL zones on local economic growth and inequality. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the blueprints for achieving a sustainable future, and understanding the interlinkages among social, economic, and environmental fields is a key factor in accomplishing them. The goal of this study was to analyze a framework for sustainable economic growth considering the trade-offs among economic inequality, resource security, and labor requirement through an industrial water, energy, and labor (I-WEL) nexus approach. We analyzed the economic intensity of industrial water, energy, and labor in 47 prefectures in Japan; we found that the more industrialized prefectures showed lower water but higher energy intensities than relatively less industrialized prefectures. We then classified four I-WEL nexus zones—high efficiency, labor-intensive, water-intensive, and water- and energy-intensive zones—based on their economic intensities and by using the K-means clustering method. Finally, we applied economic growth scenarios, weighted by I-WEL nexus zones, and quantified water, energy, and labor requirements by scenario at the local, regional, and national scales. The results show that, by using weighted economic growth in the high-efficiency I-WEL nexus zones and relative to the baseline scenario (which assigns equal ratios of increased economic growth to all prefectures), a potential savings of 337 Mm³/year of freshwater and 184 PJ/year of energy can be realized. However, as the more industrially developed prefectures were included in the high-efficiency zone, this scenario increased the Gini coefficient, i.e., the economic inequality among prefectures. In summary, this study shows that the application of the I-WEL nexus can be used as a framework for sustainable economic growth considering the trade-offs between efficiency of resource use and economic inequality. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]