Integrated assessment of water–energy–food nexus: conceptual framework and application to the Ping River basin, Thailand

ABSTRACTWater, energy and food are the three foremost vital resources that need to be protected for human existence and sustainable development. The study develops an indicator-based framework for integrated assessment of the water–energy–food nexus at the river basin scale. The framework is designed to have three successive levels for the assessment. The proposed three-tiered assessment framework can aid concerned resources management authorities to evaluate the water–energy–food nexus and also to identify the action required to enhance resource productivities. The suitability of the framework is demonstrated through its application to the Ping River basin in Thailand.KEYWORDS: Water–energy–food nexusintegrated frameworkindicatorswater–energy–food nexus indexPing River basin Author contributionsKaushal Chapagain: conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, data collection, writing – original draft, review and editing. Mukand S. Babel: conceptualization, methodology, validation, writing – review and editing. Daniel Karthe: conceptualization, methodology, validation, writing – review and editing. Jürgen Stamm: methodology, validation, writing – review and editing.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.Data availabilityThe data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.Supplementary materialSupplemental data for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/07900627.2023.2252529Additional informationFundingThe authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the DAAD-funded ‘Global Water and Climate Adaptation Centre – Aachen, Bangkok, Chennai, Dresden (ABCD-Centre)’ for the conduct of this research study.