Principles of food-energy-water nexus governance

The food-energy-water nexus is a relatively new emerging field that strives to work at the urban and rural level for integrated governance of resources. The field has received widespread interest over the past decade due to its ability to harness a triple-win situation by simultaneously meeting sustainable natural resource governance goals. Most attention has been directed at achieving cross-sectoral benefits that could be addressed with nexus components through an interdisciplinary approach. This research brings together these relatively isolated debates under the common heading of nexus governance. Three special focuses on assessment, awareness, and accessibility are developed. The assessment describes nexus governance that enhances integrated assessment in the cross-scale and cross-sectoral coherence. The awareness addresses nexus governance that seeks to co-design and co-deliver the solutions to stakeholders. The accessibility reveals nexus governance works as a cohesive system of principles. The framework of food-energy-water nexus governance is based on a cohesive set of nine principles, including: connectivity, innovation, equitability, participation, coordination, sharing, legitimacy, empowerment, and strategy. The nine principals are analyzed with respect to their usefulness in nexus governance, taking sample cases in Taiwan as examples. The results show that effective nexus governance requires a combination of integration options.