A multi-case institutional analysis of water-energy-food nexus governance

Water-energy-food (WEF) nexus governance provides a framework for integrating across resource systems. However, there has been limited examination of WEF nexus governance in practice and a need for comparison of different WEF nexus governance systems. Thus, this study seeks to understand the institutional structure of WEF nexus governance in practice to create cross-cutting themes of the structures that lend themselves towards integrated WEF nexus governance. We conducted an institutional analysis of a multi-case study using interviews and document analysis for three cities: Phoenix, Cape Town, and Singapore. Institutional analysis allows us to examine the multiple levels of governance between water, energy, and food actors in the cities. The results of our study show that WEF nexus governance is limited in practice, but still present. However, the specific structure of this WEF nexus governance is different for each individual city. We identify three cross-cutting themes for WEF nexus governance that may be helpful for nexus governance in practice: horizontal coordination within institutional levels, overcoming challenges of scalar fit for coordination across WEF nexus sectors, and the contribution of bottom-up participation for fully integrated WEF nexus governance.