How to Integrate and Balance Water,
Soil and Waste Expertise When
Realizing the Corresponding Nexus
Approach
Johan Bouma
Abstract
The water-soil-waste nexus is more relevant
than ever. UN Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) covering food, water, climate
and biodiversity can all significantly be served
by applying wastewater and compost to soils,
thereby potentially increasing food production, combating water scarcity while higher
contents of soil organic matter are effective for
climate mitigation and preserving biodiversity. The hydrology and soil science disciplines produce enormous amounts of methods
and data, but the interaction between both
disciplines is, unfortunately, rather limited.
Interdisciplinarity, let alone transdisciplinarity, tends to suffer. UNU-FLORES initiated
reports on 17 case studies from all over the
world dealing with wastewater application to
agricultural soils. These highly informative
studies showed that the water-soil-waste
nexus is still quite skewed with major emphasis on waste composition and quality focused
on agricultural production, including health
and safety, but hardly any information on
hydrology and soils. The cases also indicated
that policy studies focusing on rules and
regulations are still in an infant stage, the more
so since waste application to soils not only
involves health risks but also faces unique
emotional and psychological barriers. Successful waste application systems to the soil
can only be developed with true and genuine
engagement of stakeholders to the research
process as part of transdisciplinary case studies. Presenting successful results of such case
studies to the policy arena, based on a
thorough analysis of both technical and
socio-economic aspects, are potentially quite
effective and can also be the source of
innovative research ideas.
Keywords
Hydrology Á Soil sciences Á Case studies Á
Compost Á Organic waste
1 Introduction
The Water-Soil-Waste nexus requires effective
interaction between hydrologists, soil scientists
and sanitary engineers, while implementation of
system designs will only be feasible when
stakeholders and policy makers are seriously
involved in an interactive design process (e.g.
UNU-FLORES 2015; Hettiarachchi and
Ardakanian 2016a). The disciplines involved
produce large volumes of data and the
J. Bouma (&)
Formerly Soils Dept., Wageningen University,
Wageningen, The Netherlands
e-mail: johan.bouma@planet.nl
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
S. Hülsmann and M. Jampani (eds.), A Nexus Approach for Sustainable Development,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57530-4_2
15
Soil and Waste Expertise When
Realizing the Corresponding Nexus
Approach
Johan Bouma
Abstract
The water-soil-waste nexus is more relevant
than ever. UN Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) covering food, water, climate
and biodiversity can all significantly be served
by applying wastewater and compost to soils,
thereby potentially increasing food production, combating water scarcity while higher
contents of soil organic matter are effective for
climate mitigation and preserving biodiversity. The hydrology and soil science disciplines produce enormous amounts of methods
and data, but the interaction between both
disciplines is, unfortunately, rather limited.
Interdisciplinarity, let alone transdisciplinarity, tends to suffer. UNU-FLORES initiated
reports on 17 case studies from all over the
world dealing with wastewater application to
agricultural soils. These highly informative
studies showed that the water-soil-waste
nexus is still quite skewed with major emphasis on waste composition and quality focused
on agricultural production, including health
and safety, but hardly any information on
hydrology and soils. The cases also indicated
that policy studies focusing on rules and
regulations are still in an infant stage, the more
so since waste application to soils not only
involves health risks but also faces unique
emotional and psychological barriers. Successful waste application systems to the soil
can only be developed with true and genuine
engagement of stakeholders to the research
process as part of transdisciplinary case studies. Presenting successful results of such case
studies to the policy arena, based on a
thorough analysis of both technical and
socio-economic aspects, are potentially quite
effective and can also be the source of
innovative research ideas.
Keywords
Hydrology Á Soil sciences Á Case studies Á
Compost Á Organic waste
1 Introduction
The Water-Soil-Waste nexus requires effective
interaction between hydrologists, soil scientists
and sanitary engineers, while implementation of
system designs will only be feasible when
stakeholders and policy makers are seriously
involved in an interactive design process (e.g.
UNU-FLORES 2015; Hettiarachchi and
Ardakanian 2016a). The disciplines involved
produce large volumes of data and the
J. Bouma (&)
Formerly Soils Dept., Wageningen University,
Wageningen, The Netherlands
e-mail: johan.bouma@planet.nl
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
S. Hülsmann and M. Jampani (eds.), A Nexus Approach for Sustainable Development,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57530-4_2
15