1 Introduction
The increasing human pressures on limited
resources available on planet earth is pushing
governments to look for sustainable natural
resource management approaches and to deal
with the interdependencies, synergies and tradeoffs in resource management. Therefore, “the
nexus is more relevant than ever” as stated in the
second chapter of this volume (Bouma 2021).
Giving proof of this statement is one of the major
aims of this book. We do so paying special
attention to a resources-oriented view of the
nexus concept and to practical applications both
in a rural and urban context.
Within the last decade, the nexus concept has
evolved as an integrative approach that bridges
the gaps between sectors and considers interrelated resources in an unbiased way to achieve
sustainable resources management. It builds
upon earlier integrative concepts, e.g. Integrated
Water Resources Management, IWRM (Global
Water Partnership (GWP) 2009), which still had
a single-resource perspective, and various
simultaneously evolving research initiatives and
management concepts, which eventually converged into the nexus approach/concept. Mentioned for the first time in relation to resources
management during the 1980s, the term nexus
gained prominence in this context particularly
since the year 2000 (Scott et al. 2015). Many
authors, building on the seminal papers of Hoff
(2011), World Economic Forum (2011) and
Bazilian et al. (2011) emphasized the waterenergy-food (WEF) nexus, which represents a
comprehensive concept and captures the interlinkages of water, energy and food at multiple
levels. Liu et al. (2018) explored the WEF nexus
to achieve various sustainable development goals
(SDGs) and they also explained the complex
couplings in the human-nature systems. Bleischwitz et al. (2018) discussed the interlinkages
between the resources (water, energy, food, land
and materials) and SDGs for developing a
resource nexus perspective (Bleischwitz et al.
2017). This resources perspective has also been
emphasized by the United Nations University
Institute for Integrated Management of Material
Fluxes and of Resources (UNU-FLORES), putting special emphasis on water, soil (basis for
food and biomass production) and waste, which
is interrelated with water, soil (e.g. composting),
but also to energy (Kurian and Ardakanian 2015;
Hettiarachchi and Ardakanian 2016a; Mannschatz et al. 2016).
Overall, “the nexus is fundamentally about
resource recovery, closing the loop and capturing
the true efficiency gains” (Scott et al. 2015) and it
is also about mitigating trade-offs and promoting
synergies. As such, the Nexus Approach thus
represents a path towards sustainability and
indeed its relevance for sustainable development
and a transition to green economy was a major
focus of the Bonn 2011 nexus conference (Hoff
2011), which marked an important milestone for
the Nexus Approach to become an internationally recognized concept. Since 2011, the Nexus
Approach has consolidated and diversified while
acknowledging that the basic concept is far from
new. The Nexus Approach to the sustainable
management of water, soil and waste as promoted by UNU-FLORES emphasizes the interrelatedness of these three environmental
resources along with the cycle of research to
implementation. This “Dresden Nexus” concept
promoted in particular in the Dresden Nexus
Conference (DNC) series, which so far had
issues in 2015 and 2017 (Dresden Nexus Conference 2017) and again in 2020, is strongly
related to the WEF Nexus (Hoff 2011) but
emphasizes on the resources perspective (Hettiarachchi and Ardakanian 2016b). Increasingly,
another dimension, namely the ecosystem perspective is added to the WEF nexus, making it a
WEFE nexus (e.g., Hülsmann et al. 2019).
2 The Nexus Approach as a Tool
to Cope with Global Challenges
Focusing on the challenges posed by different
aspects of global change (climate change,
urbanization, population growth) on environmental resources management, a series of papers
2
S. Hülsmann and M. Jampani
The increasing human pressures on limited
resources available on planet earth is pushing
governments to look for sustainable natural
resource management approaches and to deal
with the interdependencies, synergies and tradeoffs in resource management. Therefore, “the
nexus is more relevant than ever” as stated in the
second chapter of this volume (Bouma 2021).
Giving proof of this statement is one of the major
aims of this book. We do so paying special
attention to a resources-oriented view of the
nexus concept and to practical applications both
in a rural and urban context.
Within the last decade, the nexus concept has
evolved as an integrative approach that bridges
the gaps between sectors and considers interrelated resources in an unbiased way to achieve
sustainable resources management. It builds
upon earlier integrative concepts, e.g. Integrated
Water Resources Management, IWRM (Global
Water Partnership (GWP) 2009), which still had
a single-resource perspective, and various
simultaneously evolving research initiatives and
management concepts, which eventually converged into the nexus approach/concept. Mentioned for the first time in relation to resources
management during the 1980s, the term nexus
gained prominence in this context particularly
since the year 2000 (Scott et al. 2015). Many
authors, building on the seminal papers of Hoff
(2011), World Economic Forum (2011) and
Bazilian et al. (2011) emphasized the waterenergy-food (WEF) nexus, which represents a
comprehensive concept and captures the interlinkages of water, energy and food at multiple
levels. Liu et al. (2018) explored the WEF nexus
to achieve various sustainable development goals
(SDGs) and they also explained the complex
couplings in the human-nature systems. Bleischwitz et al. (2018) discussed the interlinkages
between the resources (water, energy, food, land
and materials) and SDGs for developing a
resource nexus perspective (Bleischwitz et al.
2017). This resources perspective has also been
emphasized by the United Nations University
Institute for Integrated Management of Material
Fluxes and of Resources (UNU-FLORES), putting special emphasis on water, soil (basis for
food and biomass production) and waste, which
is interrelated with water, soil (e.g. composting),
but also to energy (Kurian and Ardakanian 2015;
Hettiarachchi and Ardakanian 2016a; Mannschatz et al. 2016).
Overall, “the nexus is fundamentally about
resource recovery, closing the loop and capturing
the true efficiency gains” (Scott et al. 2015) and it
is also about mitigating trade-offs and promoting
synergies. As such, the Nexus Approach thus
represents a path towards sustainability and
indeed its relevance for sustainable development
and a transition to green economy was a major
focus of the Bonn 2011 nexus conference (Hoff
2011), which marked an important milestone for
the Nexus Approach to become an internationally recognized concept. Since 2011, the Nexus
Approach has consolidated and diversified while
acknowledging that the basic concept is far from
new. The Nexus Approach to the sustainable
management of water, soil and waste as promoted by UNU-FLORES emphasizes the interrelatedness of these three environmental
resources along with the cycle of research to
implementation. This “Dresden Nexus” concept
promoted in particular in the Dresden Nexus
Conference (DNC) series, which so far had
issues in 2015 and 2017 (Dresden Nexus Conference 2017) and again in 2020, is strongly
related to the WEF Nexus (Hoff 2011) but
emphasizes on the resources perspective (Hettiarachchi and Ardakanian 2016b). Increasingly,
another dimension, namely the ecosystem perspective is added to the WEF nexus, making it a
WEFE nexus (e.g., Hülsmann et al. 2019).
2 The Nexus Approach as a Tool
to Cope with Global Challenges
Focusing on the challenges posed by different
aspects of global change (climate change,
urbanization, population growth) on environmental resources management, a series of papers
2
S. Hülsmann and M. Jampani