Sustainability of Social-Ecological Systems: the Nexus between Water, Energy and Food

This course will introduce you to the concepts of water-energy–food nexus as well as transdisciplinary thinking. This course will teach you how to view your country or community as a social-ecological complex system. You'll also learn how to create a pattern to represent the water, energy, and food metabolism of the area.

You will be able to use our tools to determine the nexus and then to analyse them coherently across all scales and dimensions. Your quantitative analysis can be used to inform decision making. This will allow you to quantify your dependence on nonrenewable resources, and the externalization of ecological problems to other society and ecosystems. It is a common solution in western countries. You will be able to assess the current state of play in a country or community and evaluate potential solutions using case studies from developed and developing nations. You will also learn how to look at pressing socio-ecological problems, like energy poverty, water scarcity, inequity and other injustices, with a completely new perspective and question all that you have been taught.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Part of these case studies and results were developed in two different projects, MAGIC or PARTICIPIA. The course is not intended to reflect the opinions of funding institutions, or the partners in the overall project. Instead, case studies are presented for educational purposes only.