Complex-Systems Approaches to Food-Water-Energy Resilience

Authors

  • Owen Patterson Author

Keywords:

food-water-energy nexus, complex systems, resilience, sustainability, governance

Abstract

This review examines complex-systems analysis of food-water-energy resilience. The organizing question is how feedback, substitution, thresholds, and unequal access can be represented without losing sector-specific constraints. Ten related scholarly sources are synthesized through a decision-centered framework spanning problem definition, mechanism, measurement, evaluation, implementation, and governance. The review does not invent experiments, pooled estimates, or unreported quantitative results. It instead evaluates the strength and transferability of the available evidence, with particular attention to optimizing one resource sector while displacing risk to another population or time horizon. The resulting framework links technical or empirical performance to explicit use conditions and identifies tests that should precede wider adoption in regional sustainability and resource-security planning.

References

  1. Albrecht, T. R., Crootof, A., & Scott, C. A. (2018). The Water-Energy-Food Nexus: A systematic review of methods for nexus assessment. Environmental Research Letters, 13(4), 043002. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aaa9c6
  2. Endo, A., Tsurita, I., Burnett, K., & Orencio, P. M. (2015). A review of the current state of research on the water, energy, and food nexus. Journal of Hydrology Regional Studies, 11, 20-30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrh.2015.11.010
  3. Keairns, D. L., Darton, R. C., & Irabien, A. (2016). The Energy-Water-Food Nexus. Annual Review of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, 7(1), 239-262. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-chembioeng-080615-033539
  4. Leck, H., Conway, D., Bradshaw, M., & Rees, J. (2015). Tracing the Water–Energy–Food Nexus: Description, Theory and Practice. Geography Compass, 9(8), 445-460. https://doi.org/10.1111/gec3.12222
  5. Melo, F. P. L., Parry, L., Brancalion, P. H. S., Pinto, S. R. R., Freitas, J., Manhães, A. P., Meli, P., Ganade, G., & Chazdon, R. L. (2020). Adding forests to the water–energy–food nexus. Nature Sustainability, 4(2), 85-92. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-020-00608-z
  6. Mpandeli, S., Naidoo, D., Mabhaudhi, T., Nhemachena, C., Nhamo, L., Liphadzi, S., Hlahla, S., & Modi, A. T. (2018). Climate Change Adaptation through the Water-Energy-Food Nexus in Southern Africa. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 15(10), 2306. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15102306
  7. Schmidt, J. J., & Matthews, N. (2018). From state to system: Financialization and the water-energy-food-climate nexus. Geoforum, 91, 151-159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2018.03.001
  8. Simpson, G. B., & Jewitt, G. P. W. (2019). The Development of the Water-Energy-Food Nexus as a Framework for Achieving Resource Security: A Review. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 7. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2019.00008
  9. Weitz, N., Strambo, C., Kemp-Benedict, E., & Nilsson, M. (2017). Closing the governance gaps in the water-energy-food nexus: Insights from integrative governance. Global Environmental Change, 45, 165-173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2017.06.006
  10. Zhang, X., & Vesselinov, V. V. (2016). Integrated modeling approach for optimal management of water, energy and food security nexus. Advances in Water Resources, 101, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2016.12.017

Downloads

Published

2026-08-08

Issue

Section

Review