{"title":"Catalyzing sustainable development goals through the water-energy-food nexus","authors":"Luxon Nhamo , Sylvester Mpandeli , Stanley Liphadzi , Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi","doi":"10.1016/j.isci.2025.111902","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Water, energy, and food (WEF) are central to sustainable development as they are vital for socio-ecological and socio-economic sustainability and human and environmental wellbeing. How the three are used and managed is central to either the aggravation of climate change or the enhancement of resilience and adaptation strategies. This mixed transdisciplinary study developed a WEF nexus-based framework to guide strategic policy decisions to catalyze progress toward achieving sustainable development goals. The aim is to guide the cross-sectoral management of resources for sustainable development under climate change, increasing demand, depletion, degradation, and uncertainty. Past and present data on resource management was assessed to comprehend future availability toward achieving sustainable development outcomes for people and the planet. The fundamentals of holistic WEF resources management were assessed, highlighting the significance of transformative, cross-sectoral, and circular approaches in enhancing resource use efficiency and sustainability. This is critical for informing sustainable natural resources management decisions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":342,"journal":{"name":"iScience","volume":"28 2","pages":"Article 111902"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6000,"publicationDate":"2025-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"iScience","FirstCategoryId":"103","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004225001622","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"综合性期刊","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Water, energy, and food (WEF) are central to sustainable development as they are vital for socio-ecological and socio-economic sustainability and human and environmental wellbeing. How the three are used and managed is central to either the aggravation of climate change or the enhancement of resilience and adaptation strategies. This mixed transdisciplinary study developed a WEF nexus-based framework to guide strategic policy decisions to catalyze progress toward achieving sustainable development goals. The aim is to guide the cross-sectoral management of resources for sustainable development under climate change, increasing demand, depletion, degradation, and uncertainty. Past and present data on resource management was assessed to comprehend future availability toward achieving sustainable development outcomes for people and the planet. The fundamentals of holistic WEF resources management were assessed, highlighting the significance of transformative, cross-sectoral, and circular approaches in enhancing resource use efficiency and sustainability. This is critical for informing sustainable natural resources management decisions.
期刊介绍:
Science has many big remaining questions. To address them, we will need to work collaboratively and across disciplines. The goal of iScience is to help fuel that type of interdisciplinary thinking. iScience is a new open-access journal from Cell Press that provides a platform for original research in the life, physical, and earth sciences. The primary criterion for publication in iScience is a significant contribution to a relevant field combined with robust results and underlying methodology. The advances appearing in iScience include both fundamental and applied investigations across this interdisciplinary range of topic areas. To support transparency in scientific investigation, we are happy to consider replication studies and papers that describe negative results.
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