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Nexus Outlook: assessing resource use challenges in the water, energy and food nexus
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'Nexus Outlook’ is a collection of case studies which aims at providing a cross-regional picture of common nexus challenges across the world. A central theme in the report is the issue of assessing nexus interlinks and challenges in different contexts. The report allows for different authors to present nexus issues in different case studies using indicators of their choice. At the same time, it tries to synthesize the evolvement of the next issue in different regions and to propose nexus assessments ranging from rapid assessments to detailed analyses.
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... The analysis of multiple scenariosfor example, in the adoption of technologies, infrastructures, practices, or public policiesenables to estimate the outcomes on resources use and conservation, to qualify the valid solutions, and to identify the adequate conditions to improve security in several scales. Moreover, the Nexus framework proposes the use of a transdisciplinary approach and governance: scientific knowledge and participatory environment in decision making applied to the proposal and implementation of strategic solutions to society and economic sectors (Al-Saidi;Ribbe, 2017;Mannan et al., 2018). ...
... The analysis of multiple scenariosfor example, in the adoption of technologies, infrastructures, practices, or public policiesenables to estimate the outcomes on resources use and conservation, to qualify the valid solutions, and to identify the adequate conditions to improve security in several scales. Moreover, the Nexus framework proposes the use of a transdisciplinary approach and governance: scientific knowledge and participatory environment in decision making applied to the proposal and implementation of strategic solutions to society and economic sectors (Al-Saidi;Ribbe, 2017;Mannan et al., 2018). ...
Reservoirs of hydropower plants (HPP) can amend water, energy, and food security in semi-arid regions. However, during severe droughts, the priority of energy demand leads to critical conditions of water availability. To reduce water use for energy, one possible measure is the adoption of solar power, an abundant energy source in semi-arid regions. This study assessed the influence of adding floating photovoltaic power (PV) in the large-scale reservoir of Sobradinho HPP, located in the São Francisco River (SFR), in Brazil, from 2009 to 2018. The simulated scenarios varied the installed PV power capacity from 50 to 1000 MW. For each scenario, water allocation was modified based on the solar-hydro equivalence that restrained the historical outflow of Sobradinho to maintain water in the reservoir. Besides, a diverse operation rule for the reservoirs in cascade of SFR was adopted to avoid ecological impacts of low streamflow. The scenarios were assessed in water security, solar-hydro electricity output, capacity factor of the powerplant, water and energy losses by evaporation and spilled water. Results show that a PV system starting from 250 MW was necessary to improve water security during the severe drought, reserving 0.7–2.3 of the annual water demand. In addition, the capacity factor was optimized from 29% to 34–47%. However, as the HPPs installed at SFR work as one system, the constrain of the river flow reduced the hydroelectricity by 4.4% for 750 MW. We concluded that PV significantly influenced water security and ecological conditions of SFR, with benefits in the range of 250–750 MW. The research provides assessment on substituting hydro for solar power on the operation of reservoirs in cascade and identifies the correlated benefits in social and ecological aspects. This information can support decisions of water and energy supply system operators and public policies focused on integrated resources management in semi-arid regions.
... The second type is Resource Sustainability that explores the impact of using a certain resource (e.g. water or land) with regard to different issues including resources protection, equity of access, etc. (Al-Saidi & Ribbe, 2017). Assessing the environmental issues at a large scale is referred to as Environmental Sustainability which looks into issues like society's footprint or climate change impact on the environment. ...
Controversy in transboundary rivers usually arises due to a lack of inclusive agreement and cooperation between the basin countries. Originating from Ethiopia, the Blue Nile River contributes most of the Nile River water making it vital for water, energy, and food security at downstream Sudan and Egypt. In 2011, the Ethiopian government announced the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) along the Blue Nile 40 km away from the Sudanese borders. The dam will be the biggest in Africa and seventh-largest in the world producing 6,000 Megawatts of electricity with a reservoir volume of 74 billion cubic meters. Great concerns were raised on the impact of this megaproject for downstream countries due to the expected changes in water quantity and quality. Different studies were published regarding the potential impacts of this dam on the Eastern Nile countries. However, these studies have usually focused on one aspect of the impact (e.g. hydropower, agricultural projects, water use) despite the connection that exists between these sectors. This research aims to investigate the impact the GERD operation will have on Sudan in terms of WEF security and sustainability. The study uses the WEF security nexus framework that addresses the interconnectedness between these sectors instead of treating them in silos. A sustainability assessment is also carried out to analyze the impact of the dam operation on the environmental, social and economic areas in Sudan. The study first looked into the current state of Sudan’s WEF security nexus and highlighted the vulnerabilities that exist within these sectors. Then an analysis of the GERD operation was carried out and the results showed that water regulation and sediment reduction will reflect positively on Sudan as it will enable for expansion in agricultural projects, increase hydropower production, and provide flood control. Some negative impacts, however, are to be expected especially during the impounding phase from water level reduction and change in river characteristic which will greatly affect the environment and society downstream. The safety of the dam was found to be the biggest threat to Sudan’s security, as the case of dam failure will have catastrophic consequences for the country. The study concluded that an increase in cooperation between the Eastern Nile countries will decrease the downstream negative impacts of the GERD and increase its overall benefits ultimately leading to sustainability, peace, and welfare for these countries. Sudan also needs to take measures in accommodating the new flowing conditions including reoperation of the Sudanese dams and mitigation strategies for the potential negative impacts.
... A common goal of such assessments is to judge sustainability in a certain region or provide a global or a comparative overview. Nexus-specific assessments are highly useful as overall sustainability assessments of resource use in different basins (Al-Saidi and Ribbe, 2017). Specifically, they address emerging issues often related to resource and environmental sustainability at large ( Fig. 1.4). ...
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128127469000018
This case study delves into the potential for advancing Water, Energy, Food, and Ecosystem(WEFE) nexus governance within Nepal’s federal structure, with a specific focus on policy and
institutional dimensions. Centering on the water sector, the article explores the emerging opportunities for championing a nexus approach in the federal governance system despite prevailing policy and institutional hurdles. Leveraging insights from institutional mapping and analysis as part of a broader study on WEFE Nexus Governance in Federal Nepal, the article
offers empirical insights from interviews and discussions with key stakeholders spanning both state and non-state sectors engaged in WEFE governance.
Wastewater characteristics and flow vary greatly from urban to rural areas and even from small to big rural areas. This work investigates the raw wastewater characteristics and the performance of low cost wastewater treatment plants in rural areas. Field data collection on population census and activity, water supply, sewage system and water and wastewater samples from water bodies, sewage network outlet and septic tank is available from a field survey
This book is an output of the Forecasting and Integrated Water Resources Management (F & IWRM) component of the MDG-F Joint “Climate Change Risk Management Programme in Egypt” CCRMP. This program aims at achieving the Millennium Development Goals, eliminate poverty and support environmental sustainability in Egypt. This particular activity was supported by the UNESCO Cairo Office.
This book covers the involvement and technical activities of the Forecasting and Integrated Water Resources Management (F & IRWM) component in the Climate Change Risk Management program CCRMP. It also contains the impacts of climate change on the Nile Basin in terms of rainfall, temperature, evapotranspiration, and discharges and the estimation of the flooded areas due to the anticipated sea level rise using GIS and flow modeling techniques. The book elaborates the supporting adaptation efforts and plans and provides policy recommendations for adaptation.
This report covers Chalmers responsibilities for subtask 1.3 - land-use patterns as well as parts of subtask 3.4 – data for other environmental impacts, in the EU Biofuel Baseline project
The core Chinese foreign policy principle of non-interference has recently come under increasing and more visible strain in China's relations with Sudan. Noninterference has been central to Beijing's relations with different governments in Khartoum since 1959. From the mid-1990s, however, the Chinese role in Sudan has become more embedded and consequential. Today China faces the challenge of accommodating its established policy of non-interference with the more substantive and growing complexity of Chinese involvement developed over the past decade in Sudan, amidst ongoing conflict in western Darfur and changing politics after the North-South peace agreement of January 2005.
Motivated by the rapid rise and volatility of oil prices, many countries are promoting biofuels as alternative energy sources. The claimed advantage that biofuels reduce GHG emissions is also an additional driver behind the widespread adoption of biofuel in Ethiopia and other countries. However, there is a growing concern that expanded production of biofuels might crowd out agricultural production by vying for scarce land and water resources. This article uses a partial equilibrium model to examine the competition between food and biofuel production in Ethiopia. The partial equilibrium model replicates a baseline scenario of Ethiopia's Social Account Matrix for the year 2000. Several simulation exercises are implemented to examine the effects of reductions in biofuel processing costs and rise of oil prices on agricultural production and consumption. The results show that the expansion of biofuel production has limited scope to crowd out agricultural production. However, the results are preliminary and future research could give more insights by exploring long-run dynamics, such as changes in agricultural productivity, energy and food demand, and availability of arable land.
The imminent exhaustion of fossil energy resources and the increasing demand for energy were the motives for those reasonable in Sudan to put into practice an energy policy based on rational use of energy; and on exploitation of new, and renewable energy sources. After 1980, as the supply of conventional energy has not been able to follow the tremendous increase of the production demand in rural areas of Sudan, a renewed interest for the application of wind energy has shown in many places. Therefore, the Sudanese government began to pay more attention to wind energy utilisation in rural areas. Because the wind energy resource in many rural areas is sufficient for attractive application of wind pumps, and as fuel is insufficient, the wind pumps will be spread on a rather large scale in the near future. Wind is a form of renewable energy, which is always in a non-steady state due to the wide temporal and spatial variations of wind velocity. A number of years worth of data concerning wind speed in Sudan have been compiled, evaluated and presented in this article. The need for the provision of new data stations in order to enable a complete and reliable assessment of the overall wind power potential of the country is identified and specific locations suggested. This paper presents the background and ideas of the development of the concept as well as the main results, and experience gained during ongoing project up to now. In Sudan, various designs of wind machines for water pumping have been developed and some designs are presently manufactured commercially. Results suggest that wind power would be more profitably used for local-and small-scale applications especially for remote rural areas. It is concluded that Sudan is blessed with abundant wind energy.
In the Ethiopian highlands, land degradation resulting from soil erosion and nutrient depletion is a serious environmental and socio-economic problem. Although soil and water conservation techniques have extensively been introduced over the past decades, sustained use of the measures was not as expected. Based on data obtained from 147 farming households, this paper examines the determinants of farmers' adoption and continued use of introduced stone terraces in an Ethiopian highland watershed. A sequential decision-making model using the bivariate probit approach was employed to analyze the data. The results show that the factors influencing adoption and continued use of the stone terraces are different. Adoption is influenced by farmers' age, farm size, perceptions on technology profitability, slope, livestock size and soil fertility, while the decision to continue using the practice is influenced by actual technology profitability, slope, soil fertility, family size, farm size and participation in off-farm work. Perceptions of erosion problem, land tenure security and extension contacts show no significant influence. Further, the results indicate the importance of household/farm and plot level factors in farmers' conservation decision. It is therefore concluded that 1) analysis of the determinants of adoption per se may not provide a full understanding of the range of factors influencing farmers' decision of sustained investments and 2) conservation interventions should focus not only on the biophysical performance of the measures but also on economic benefits that can be obtained at reasonable discount rates to the farmers in order to enhance sustained use of the measures.
Application of new and renewable sources of energy available in Sudan is now a major issue in the future energy strategic planning for the alternative to the fossil conventional energy to provide part of the local energy demand. Like many of the African leaders in renewable energy utilisation, Sudan has a well-defined commitment to continue research, development, and implementation of new technologies. Sustainable low-carbon energy scenarios for the new century emphasise the untapped potential of renewable resources are needed. Rural areas of Sudan can benefit from this transition. The increased availability of reliable and efficient energy services stimulates new development alternatives. It is concluded that renewable environmentally friendly energy must be encouraged, promoted, implemented, and demonstrated by full-scale plant especially for use in remote rural areas.
"Large-scale acquisitions of farmland in Africa, Latin America, Central Asia and Southeast Asia are making headlines in a flurry of media reports across the world. Lands that only a short time ago seemed of little outside interest are now being sought by international investors by the tune of hundreds of thousands of hectares. And while a failed attempt to lease 1.3 million hectares in Madagascar has attracted much media attention, deals reported in the international press constitute the tip of the iceberg. Despite the spate of media reports and rare published research, international land deals and their impacts still remain little understood. This report is a step towards filling this gap. The outcome of a collaboration between IIED, FAO and IFAD, the report discusses key trends and drivers in land acquisitions, the contractual arrangements underpinning them and the way these are negotiated, and the early impacts on land access for rural people in recipient countries. While international land deals are emerging as a global phenomenon, this report focuses on sub-Saharan Africa. The report draws on a literature review, on qualitative interviews with key informants internationally, on national inventories of ongoing and proposed land acquisitions since 2004 in five African countries (Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, Mali and Sudan) and qualitative studies in Mozambique and Tanzania, and on legal analysis of national law and of a small sample of investor-state contracts."