The Water-Energy-Food Nexus: Trade-offs, Thresholds and Transdisciplinary Approaches to Sustainable Development

This paper reviews the results of recent research to offer tentative answers to the following questions: (1) Why is the governance dimension important to undertake an integrated analysis of water-energy-food challenges? (2) What does the nexus approach connote in normative and institutional terms? (3) What does implementation mean in nexus terms? (4) How can we establish if the nexus approach is an improvement over business as usual? and (5) What tools are available that would enable translation of results of scientific research to create an evidence base that would enable decision makers to act in support of sustainable development?