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S. H. Sadeghi and E. Sharifi Moghadam
1 Introduction
Three commodities of water, energy, and food (WEF) are defined as the principles
on which worldwide security, financial condition, and justice rest. There is now
increasing grounds that anxiety in these areas threatens communities’ security and
encourages social conflicts [1]. Water, energy, and food are important resources
for achieving economic improvements and social aspirations leading to sustainable
global economic development. These elements are completely interrelated and they
significantly depend on each other [95]. Any scheme that concentrates on a sector
of the WEF nexus without reckoning its interrelationships has important unintended
upshots. The interdependent relationships of these three critical resources are termed
as WEF nexus. The relationship between water, energy, and food suggests that water
handiness, energy generation/intake, and food security are highly correlated, and
that action in each region affects one or both [33]. As McCarl et al. [54] stated, the
target of focusing on the WEF nexus in totality is to recognize and capitalize on
the WEF synergies and advantages of coordinated actions related to uncoordinated
actions. Presently, the WEF nexus is completely prominent in the domain of environmental management. Dealing with resource issues related to WEF nexus require
a systems view to connect human and natural systems for recognizing feasible solutions [45, 51]. Miscellaneous investigations have been reported on WEF nexus in
different regions (e.g., [5, 18, 46, 71, 75, 77, 78]). On the other hand, since its
promotion, the WEF nexus has related to hundreds of scientific publications. Sharifi
Moghadam et al. [72] reviewed and analyzed the existing literatures on the WEF
nexus approach at different scales and suggested supplementary ideas for better
applicability of the WEF nexus framework for integrated management of the watershed. The review showed 10 articles had a close linkage with water–food, 49 with
water–energy, 119 with water–energy–food, six with water–food–energy–ecosystems, five with water–energy–land–food, three with food–energy–environment, three
with water–soil–waste, and eight with climate. However, a closer look at former
endeavors gave away that the issue of WEF relevance has only been raised in the
last decade. A systematic and comprehensive approach is therefore needed to protect
critical resources (i.e., water, energy, and food). In this vein, integrated watershed
management (IWM) is a consistent, incorporated, and multi-sectorial system scheme
to management that targets to improve the productiveness and wholeness of ecosystems in the field of water, soil, plants, and animals in one area. Thus, such approaches
protect ecosystem services to conserve and restore environmental and socioeconomic
benefits [82]. This chapter found that using an integrated perspective for managing
water, energy, and food resources in the watershed management is a new approach.
This chapter presents a brief overview of the importance of IWM on three types of
resources (i.e., water, energy, and food).
S. H. Sadeghi and E. Sharifi Moghadam
1 Introduction
Three commodities of water, energy, and food (WEF) are defined as the principles
on which worldwide security, financial condition, and justice rest. There is now
increasing grounds that anxiety in these areas threatens communities’ security and
encourages social conflicts [1]. Water, energy, and food are important resources
for achieving economic improvements and social aspirations leading to sustainable
global economic development. These elements are completely interrelated and they
significantly depend on each other [95]. Any scheme that concentrates on a sector
of the WEF nexus without reckoning its interrelationships has important unintended
upshots. The interdependent relationships of these three critical resources are termed
as WEF nexus. The relationship between water, energy, and food suggests that water
handiness, energy generation/intake, and food security are highly correlated, and
that action in each region affects one or both [33]. As McCarl et al. [54] stated, the
target of focusing on the WEF nexus in totality is to recognize and capitalize on
the WEF synergies and advantages of coordinated actions related to uncoordinated
actions. Presently, the WEF nexus is completely prominent in the domain of environmental management. Dealing with resource issues related to WEF nexus require
a systems view to connect human and natural systems for recognizing feasible solutions [45, 51]. Miscellaneous investigations have been reported on WEF nexus in
different regions (e.g., [5, 18, 46, 71, 75, 77, 78]). On the other hand, since its
promotion, the WEF nexus has related to hundreds of scientific publications. Sharifi
Moghadam et al. [72] reviewed and analyzed the existing literatures on the WEF
nexus approach at different scales and suggested supplementary ideas for better
applicability of the WEF nexus framework for integrated management of the watershed. The review showed 10 articles had a close linkage with water–food, 49 with
water–energy, 119 with water–energy–food, six with water–food–energy–ecosystems, five with water–energy–land–food, three with food–energy–environment, three
with water–soil–waste, and eight with climate. However, a closer look at former
endeavors gave away that the issue of WEF relevance has only been raised in the
last decade. A systematic and comprehensive approach is therefore needed to protect
critical resources (i.e., water, energy, and food). In this vein, integrated watershed
management (IWM) is a consistent, incorporated, and multi-sectorial system scheme
to management that targets to improve the productiveness and wholeness of ecosystems in the field of water, soil, plants, and animals in one area. Thus, such approaches
protect ecosystem services to conserve and restore environmental and socioeconomic
benefits [82]. This chapter found that using an integrated perspective for managing
water, energy, and food resources in the watershed management is a new approach.
This chapter presents a brief overview of the importance of IWM on three types of
resources (i.e., water, energy, and food).