Topic Guide: Managing the water, energy, food and land nexus in the context of climate change and food security
This topic guide provides a set of learning resources, including an annotated bibliography and a list of references
Abstract
The purpose of this Topic Guide is to assemble a set of learning resources that will contribute to the development of the professional competence of DFID advisers on the issue of managing water, energy, food and land linkages in the context of climate change and urban resilience.
The specific objectives are to provide:
- The background to the emergence of the nexus approach to water, energy, food and land in the context of sustainable development planning
- A summary of the underlying issues surrounding water, energy, food and land linkages
- An overview of how nexus linkages impact on infrastructure projects, climate change and vulnerability
- A summary of opportunities for effectively considering water, energy, food and land linkages in DFID infrastructure programmes.
Section 1 describes how an approach focusing on the linkages between the use of resources can inform the development of analytical approaches and tools, which in turn can inform policy development and support implementation leading to changes in behaviour and construction of appropriate infrastructure.
Section 2 differentiates this nexus approach from more established integrated resource management approaches to understand how it can be used to enhance existing methods to move more rapidly to secure and sustainable societies. This section sets out how analysing governance and administrative processes through a nexus lens can help to identify where to build and support linkages and communication between parts of government responsible for the management of each resource.
Section 3 reviews some of the available tools and the requirements for the development of new tools. A range of analytical tools can be used to appraise options, consider the potential costs and benefits, and make the case for change.
Section 4 presents examples which tackle two or more interrelationships within the nexus concept.
Section 5 sets out the nexus issues in the context of programme design for DFID advisers with recommendations on how to put the findings into practice.
This is followed by an annotated bibliography and list of references.
This Topic Guide has been produced by Evidence on Demand in association with Atkins Limited with the assistance of the UK Department for International Development (DFID) contracted through the Climate, Environment, Infrastructure and Livelihoods Professional Evidence and Applied Knowledge Services (CEIL PEAKS) programme, jointly managed by DAI (which incorporates HTSPE Limited) and IMC Worldwide Limited.
Citation
Savage, R.; Spooner, S.; Kravva, V.; McMahon, A.; Parker, J.; Ross, P. Topic Guide: Managing the water, energy, food and land nexus in the context of climate change and food security. Evidence on Demand, UK (2016) xii + 59 pp. [DOI: 10.12774/eod_tg.october2015.savageretal]
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