v
Preface
Human societies require a constant supply of The Food-Energy-Water Nexus
(FEW). These are critical consumable commodities for human life. Each has been
the subject of extensive research and action aimed at providing secure access for the
7.7 billion people on the Earth at this time. Yet, billions of people today do not experience food, energy, and water security. As human population and demand for food,
energy, and water have grown, the challenge of meeting the demand has become
ever harder and resulted in ever more consequences on the natural world. The foodenergy-water nexus has become the embodiment of many of the most important
practical challenges of sustainability. Food, energy, and water systems are complex
coupled natural- human systems with many dependencies and interactions. It is,
therefore, unsurprising that efforts to look at the food, energy, and water as a “system of systems” have advanced over the past decade, including via the energy-water
and FEW-land-environment nexus conversations.
On January 19–21, 2016, the National Council for Science and the Environment
(NCSE) focused its 16th National Conference and Global Forum on Science, Policy,
and the Environment on the opportunities and challenges of advancing science on
the food-energy-water nexus. At the time, Peter Saundry was the Executive Director
of the NCSE and edited a special issue of the Journal of Environmental Studies and
Sciences (JESS) which included 22 papers on the subject.
1
In summer 2016, many
of the authors of the JESS papers agreed to create this book.
While a number of books and compilations of papers on the FEW nexus have
appeared over the past decade, we believe that this is the first attempt to publish a
textbook specifically for the FEW nexus. The scope of this book is broad and introductory, and it is intended to be accessible to advanced undergraduate students,
graduate students, practitioners, and also those researchers and scholars new to the
field and who seek a scholarly introduction to the nexus issues, tools and applications.
1 Saundry. P. (2016) The food-energy-water nexus. Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences,
Volume 6, Issue 1, March 2016, Springer. Online at: https://link.springer.com/journal/13412/6/1/
page/1.
Preface
Human societies require a constant supply of The Food-Energy-Water Nexus
(FEW). These are critical consumable commodities for human life. Each has been
the subject of extensive research and action aimed at providing secure access for the
7.7 billion people on the Earth at this time. Yet, billions of people today do not experience food, energy, and water security. As human population and demand for food,
energy, and water have grown, the challenge of meeting the demand has become
ever harder and resulted in ever more consequences on the natural world. The foodenergy-water nexus has become the embodiment of many of the most important
practical challenges of sustainability. Food, energy, and water systems are complex
coupled natural- human systems with many dependencies and interactions. It is,
therefore, unsurprising that efforts to look at the food, energy, and water as a “system of systems” have advanced over the past decade, including via the energy-water
and FEW-land-environment nexus conversations.
On January 19–21, 2016, the National Council for Science and the Environment
(NCSE) focused its 16th National Conference and Global Forum on Science, Policy,
and the Environment on the opportunities and challenges of advancing science on
the food-energy-water nexus. At the time, Peter Saundry was the Executive Director
of the NCSE and edited a special issue of the Journal of Environmental Studies and
Sciences (JESS) which included 22 papers on the subject.
1
In summer 2016, many
of the authors of the JESS papers agreed to create this book.
While a number of books and compilations of papers on the FEW nexus have
appeared over the past decade, we believe that this is the first attempt to publish a
textbook specifically for the FEW nexus. The scope of this book is broad and introductory, and it is intended to be accessible to advanced undergraduate students,
graduate students, practitioners, and also those researchers and scholars new to the
field and who seek a scholarly introduction to the nexus issues, tools and applications.
1 Saundry. P. (2016) The food-energy-water nexus. Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences,
Volume 6, Issue 1, March 2016, Springer. Online at: https://link.springer.com/journal/13412/6/1/
page/1.