| Titre : | Mapping the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem (WEFE) nexus: Insights and limitations from a systematic literature review on interconnected resource management (2026) |
| Auteurs : | D.D. Tosiliani ; M. Vasileiou ; L.S. Kyrgiakos ; F. Abdelradi ; C. Kleisiari ; K. Kechri ; G. Kleftodimos ; G. Vlontzos |
| Type de document : | Article |
| Dans : | Agricultural Water Management (vol. 333, August 2026) |
| Article en page(s) : | p. 110650 |
| Note générale : | DIONYSUS project (PRIMA program and European Union’s H2020: ID 2341) |
| Langues : | Anglais |
| Langues du résumé : | Anglais |
| Catégories : |
Catégories principales 07 - ENVIRONNEMENT ; 7.4 - Ressources Naturelles : Paysage, Biodiversité, Patrimoine naturelThésaurus IAMM CARTOGRAPHIE ; GESTION DES RESSOURCES NATURELLES ; GESTION DES RESSOURCES ; GESTION INTEGREE ; RESSOURCE EN EAU ; EFFICIENCE D'UTILISATION DE L'EAU ; SERVICE ECOSYSTEMIQUE ; DISPONIBILITE ALIMENTAIRE ; INDICATEUR ; LITTERATURE |
| Mots-clés: | WEFE Nexus |
| Résumé : | The importance of Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem (WEFE) resources is strongly based on their interdependence, since the efficient management of each pillar contributes to ecological integrity, economic viability, and social stability. In the face of exacerbating resource challenges, including water scarcity, food insecurity, energy source exploitation, and ecosystem deterioration, the WEFE Nexus framework has emerged as a response to these threats. Understanding the intricate interconnection among WEFE pillars can contribute to sustainability enhancement and resource conservation, to a degree that depends on how far the management objectives of the individual pillars are jointly optimized rather than pursued in isolation. Despite the holistic WEFE Nexus performance, several studies fail to incorporate the ecosystem pillar, understood here as ecosystem services and ecological integrity rather than a spatial scale, adequately, thereby overlooking the central role of ecosystem preservation in resource management. In the same line, the concurrent assessment of societal, economic, and governance dimensions is frequently neglected in Nexus assessments, leading to an inadequate analysis that overlooks key drivers of sustainability and resilience. In light of this, the present study aims to address these gaps by incorporating the governmental, economic, and societal dimensions into the WEFE Nexus context and comprehensively assessing the interdependencies of the WEFE pillars. The methodology follows the Systematic Literature Review (SLR) incorporated in the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. From 406 articles identified, 120 were selected and reviewed, following the sequential removal of ineligible document types, inaccessible and non-English records, duplicates, and full texts that were not relevant to the study scope. Subsequently, the assessment of the selected articles led to 7 thematic categories and 26 criteria, which were derived from established WEFE Nexus indicator frameworks and refined through full-text coding of the study. The findings of this study highlight the growing recognition of the WEFE Nexus framework as a theoretical and empirical approach for managing sustainability issues and advancing efficacy resource strategies. Publication activity peaks in 2024-2025, and the study concentrates on a few near-universal indicators (energy production 92%, food availability 89%, agricultural water withdrawal 88%, and ecosystem services 88%), whereas ecosystem-integrity and equity indicators such as clean air (15%), the prevalence of undernourishment (16%), and employment (18%) remain markedly under-represented. A phi-coefficient co-occurrence analysis further shows that indicator associations cluster within pillars while cross-pillar links, including the frequently invoked water-energy interface, remain weak or statistically absent. Ultimately, this review implements the concurrent incorporation of societal, economic, and governmental dimensions alongside the four main WEFE pillars for the integrated evaluation of the Nexus approach, extending it. |
| Cote : | Online |
| URL / DOI : | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2026.110650 |
Documents numériques (1)
 PRO54961.pdf Adobe Acrobat PDF |
