Grasping the Water Energy and Food Security Nexus in the Local Context

<p>The existence of water energy and food (WEF) is critical for people to fulfil their basic needs to achieve welfare and to support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The WEF security topic is becoming widely discussed in developing and developed countries. Major components of WEF security i.e. availability accessibility and quality should be achieved integratedly to avoid unexpected impacts. The interconnectedness among endogenous and exogenous variables such as environmental socio-economic and political factors makes this issue immensely complex. The nexus approach attempts to integrate management and governance across sectors and scales to improve WEF security. This study aims to grasp WEF security in a local context and evaluate the implications of planned local interventions by developing a conceptual and quantitative analysis with local stakeholders. Karawang Regency in Indonesia is chosen as the case study. Several strategies for WEF-related sectors are formulated using location quotient (LQ) and competitive position (CP) methods. In addition qualitative and quantitative system dynamics models are established by involving related stakeholders through group model building. Finally a nexus-based framework for WEF security is developed to assist local policymakers in doing the evaluation and planning of WEF resources in the region.</p>