ΔΠΠ524: Water-Food-Energy Nexus

Module Purpose and Objectives

Global policies (e.g., EU Green deal) urge for sustainable resources management and GHG emissions mitigation. Water and energy resources, as well as food production systems management should be redesigned. Therefore, the course aims to introduce the students to the fundamental concepts of the nexus approach and present an analysis for food production and distribution, water, and energy management, focusing on arid and semi-arid areas. The course will contribute to decision making towards sustainable spatial planning (and land use related conflicts mitigation) by highlighting the tradeoffs among energy, water, and land use. The course will also introduce an ecosystem services “point of view” to sustainable resources management.   Teaching in this module will combine weekly online group consultations with a series of lab exercises using free software (CLIMEX, PEWI, Cool Farm Tool) accompanied by audiovisual educational material (weekly video-lectures and video-recorded practical exercises).

Module Content

• Introduction: the need about a NEXUS approach
• The “grammar” of the NEXUS
• The FAO approach for WEF assessments
• Food as an ecosystem service
• Assessing food system sustainability
• Climate change and food security – Modelling with Climex
• WEF nexus assessment – Modelling using the Cool Farm Tool
•  Agricultural water, food security and the nexus approach
• Tools for agricultural water management
• Using Ecosystem Services approaches in water management
• Nexus assessment Case study
• Energy intensity in food production systems
• Low CO2 emissions energy production