The food water energy nexus in an urban context: Connecting theory and practice for nexus governance

Abstract

The growing body of literature on the Food-Water-Energy (FWE) nexus during the last decade covers a variety of disciplinary perspectives and spatial scales. However, to date the urban FWE nexus has received less attention. In this paper, we review the FWE nexus literature with the focus on urban scale and identify gaps in the scholarly knowledge base with regard to practical applications for the FWE nexus governance in cities. Our findings suggest that there is still a mismatch between theoretical nexus governance and community perceptions. Successful governance is an iterative process, necessitating stakeholder input, reflection and response. While research developing the body of urban FWE governance knowledge has increased rapidly, reflection on those results to unpack the nexus complexity and support different governance actors is still limited.

We discuss an approach for making the FWE nexus connections more visible and practical by focusing on the urban governance actors and illustrating the intersecting interests and concerns of different actors within the food, water, and energy systems. Mapping the urban governance actors to the sub-elements of the FWE systems highlights common connections and overlapping interests, paving the road toward more integrated governance and participatory solutions. Identifying the tangible and intangible connections among governance actors also helps to reduce the ambiguity of the FWE nexus, and facilitates multi-stakeholder knowledge, data or resources sharing. The resultant approach aims to disaggregate the complexity of the FWE nexus and make its governance more attainable in cities.