Making the Water–Soil–Waste Nexus Work: Framing the Boundaries of Resource Flows

Tamara Avellán, Mario Roidt, Adam Emmer, Janis Von Koerber, Petra Schneider and Wolf Raber
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Tamara Avellán: Water Resource Management Unit, Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resources (UNU-FLORES), United Nations University, 01067 Dresden, Germany
Mario Roidt: Water Resource Management Unit, Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resources (UNU-FLORES), United Nations University, 01067 Dresden, Germany
Adam Emmer: Department of Human Dimensions of Global Change, Global Change Research Institute (CzechGlobe), Czech Academy of Sciences, 603 00 Brno, Czech Republic
Janis Von Koerber: Department Water, Environment, Civil Engineering and Safety, University of Applied Sciences Magdeburg-Stendal, Breitscheidstr. 2, D-39011 Magdeburg, Germany
Petra Schneider: Department Water, Environment, Civil Engineering and Safety, University of Applied Sciences Magdeburg-Stendal, Breitscheidstr. 2, D-39011 Magdeburg, Germany
Wolf Raber: inter 3 GmbH Institute for Resource Management, 10585 Berlin, Germany

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 10, 1-17

Abstract: The Sustainable Development Goals have placed integrated resources management, such as integrated water resource management, at the heart of their targets. The upcoming “International Decade for Action—Water for Sustainable Development”, 2018–2028 has highlighted the importance of promoting efficient water usage at all levels, taking into account the water, food, energy, and environmental nexus. While integrated resource management approaches have been defined and applied for decades, nexus approaches are more recent. For these latter approaches to be implemented on the ground, their system boundaries need to be clarified. While the Water–Energy–Food Nexus focuses on sectors, the Water–Soil–Waste Nexus addresses linkages between environmental resources—namely water, soil and waste—to tackle sustainable management. In this paper, we analyzed integrated management systems and how their system boundaries are defined. From this we determined that in order for system boundaries to be applicable, they should be clear, wide and flexible. Based on this, we propose the boundary of the Water–Soil–Waste Nexus system. We use two case studies to exemplify the usefulness of these system boundaries.

Keywords: integrated water resources management; integrated natural resources management; integrated solid waste management; Water–Energy–Food Nexus; boundary (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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