ABSTRACT
Integrated recourses management have been developed to address some of the most complex, contentious and difficult environmental issues facing society today. In many cases, exploring the notion ‘integration’ indicates that resource management should be approached from a different (or boarder) perspective because long-standing issues and competition over resources has led to untenable situations and pressure to change. Yet, we are still to implement effective participatory and adaptive management approaches that can cope with increasing uncertainties arising from socioeconomic conditions and global climate change. This book focuses on the role of water-energy-food nexus (WEF nexus). It explores different theoretical frameworks to understand the concept and shows that the nexus has rapidly evolved from an emerging idea to a potential management tool in practice. It highlights the challenges to promoting integration across sectors, silos, scales and stakeholders and implications for policies on the ground. The rationale behind the idea of a nexus between water, energy and food is clear. These sectors are vital to human survival and the interlinkages between institutions at multiple jurisdictional scales, and with multiple perspectives can lead to adaptive, innovative and mutually agreed solutions. It is within this debate that the following chapters examine the role of capacity building and how it can help create the social and institutional conditions for change that is urgently needed to promote the WEF nexus.
