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Transdisciplinary Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem (WEFE) Nexus projects intend to engage stakeholders from a broad base. European Union funded projects must adhere to General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) that govern the way in which personal data of stakeholders is gathered, stored, and used. In the H2020 project NEXOGENESIS, WEFE nexus interlinkages are assessed in five river basins, four in Europe and one in Southern Africa. This work is carried out in a participatory manner and stakeholder engagement plays a central role. Stakeholders were asked to actively consent to the collection, storage, and use of their information through a privacy policy consent form. Active engagement with stakeholders occurred in the first half of the project (2021-2023) through stakeholder workshops via different modalities in each of the five case studies, and targeted stakeholder interviews and focus group discussions. We show that the stakeholders that actively consent to the use of their information are not evenly distributed across all sectors but are generally from the water sector and have high interest and rather low power. Our study provides evidence that the need to sign a consent form reveals biases in the stakeholder landscape. Results also show that consent rates increased with active engagement situations and were relatively high through face-to-face interactions but were the highest in absolute terms through hybrid events. Using consent forms not only helps increase the transparency of how personal data of stakeholders is used, but also helps show the biases that are present in the active stakeholder base.

Integrated approaches for managing natural resources are said to meet increasing demand for water, energy, and food, while maintaining the integrity of ecosystems, and ensuring equitable access to resources. The Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus has been proposed as a cross-sectoral approach to manage trade-offs and exploit synergies that arise among these sectors. Although not initially included as a component of the Nexus, the role of nature in sustaining the water, energy, and food sectors and in regulating their interrelationships is increasingly recognised by Nexus researchers and practitioners. To converge existing approaches that integrate nature into the WEF Nexus and suggest a common framework, we – an interdisciplinary group of natural resources management researchers and systems thinkers from the European research network NEXUSNET COST Action – followed a collaborative process of knowledge creation combining literature review, elicitation of expert opinion and collaborative writing. Our results reveal a multiplicity of concepts utilised in the literature to represent, partially or fully, “nature” in the Nexus, such as “environment”, “ecosystems”, “ecosystem services”, “social-ecological systems”, and “biodiversity”. Disparity was also found in the role attributed to nature, represented by three key paradigms: (1) ecosystems as the fourth component of an expanded Nexus, i.e., the WEF-Ecosystems (WEFE) Nexus; (2) ecosystems as a foundational layer to the Nexus; and (3) the WEF Nexus as a central component of social-ecological systems (SES). By creating a hybrid approach that brings together the benefits of the respective paradigms, we present a forward-looking WEFE Nexus conceptualisation. This paradigm expands the mutual interlinkages among water, energy and food to the entirety of SES, thus acknowledging the social-ecological processes that are affected by and affect the WEF Nexus. The results of this collaborative research effort intend to provide researchers and stakeholders with means to better understand and ultimately manage Nexus issues towards a transformative change.

The water-energy-food nexus is a relatively new field of research that has received much attention in research and policy. Applying a nexus lens can increase efficiency, reduce trade-offs, and build synergies that can help tackle future pressures caused by increasing demands and climate threats. However, the field is subject to many perspectives and interpretations. The nexus concept lacks a common definition or framework, and some scholars have made calls to include other components than water, energy, and food, such as ecosystems, land or climate. Advancing nexus research requires a clearer understanding of the definition, aims and approaches of the field. To better understand the broad landscape of nexus views and chart a path of where the community intends to go, we apply the Delphi approach, a tool through which consensus about concepts, views and perspectives can be gained through iterative questionnaires, and utilise the expertise of 70 international scholars specializing in nexus research. The survey reveals that the nexus approach seems to have moved away from being strictly about resources or sectoral securities, and towards governance and policy, especially in relation to ecosystems and ecosystem services. However, this is not reflected in methodology or in where to focus future research efforts. Though the aim of nexus research seems to have shifted, it is still somewhat cemented in mapping resource interlinkages, which could hinder addressing policy and governance concerns, and the ethical dimensions of the nexus. Based on the results of the Delphi survey, we provide recommendations for future research that could progress the field further.

The Delphi method was used to gather assessments from 93 experts about drivers of future angling participation by locals and tourist anglers in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. The main drivers of future angling participation related to habitat and fish populations, and access to and information about fishing. For Norway and Finland, the predicted future decline in local angler numbers was consistent with a life-cycle model of recreational fisheries, while the anticipated increase for the three other countries contradicted the model. For tourist anglers, growth was expected for both domestic and foreign tourists. Long-term and societal drivers, such as urbanization, sociocultural changes, and climate change were not seen as strong drivers, and may be considered out of reach by managers, but should be included with information and conservation drivers in angler recruitment and retention strategies.

Attaining resource security in the water, energy, food, and ecosystem (WEFE) sectors, the WEFE nexus, is paramount. This necessitates the use of quantitative modelling, which presents many challenges, as this is a complex system acting at the intersection of the physical- and social sciences. However, as WEFE data is becoming more widely available, data-driven methods of modelling this system are becoming increasingly viable. Here, we discuss two main problems in WEFE nexus modelling: system identification and control. System identification uses Machine Learning algorithms to obtain dynamical models from data and have shown promise in many disciplines with similar characteristics as the nexus. Meanwhile, control algorithms manipulate a system to achieve objectives and are becoming instrumental in shaping nexus policy. Despite the promise of these algorithms, data-driven modelling is a vast and daunting field, and so here we provide an introductory overview of this field, with emphasis on nexus applications.

In a changing climate, drought risk and vulnerability assessments are becoming increasingly important. Following the global call for proactive drought risk management, drought vulnerability assessments are progressively taking their stage in the drought research community. As the manifestation of drought vulnerability is dependent on the social, ecological, and hydroclimatic context in which it occurs, identifying vulnerability factors relevant for specific climatological and ecological regions may improve the quality of vulnerability assessments. Meanwhile, a holistic overview of factors affecting vulnerability in polar and cold climates is currently lacking. These regions are home to large socio-hydrological systems including urban areas, energy systems, agricultural practices, and the boreal forest. By conducting an interdisciplinary systematic literature review, the manifestation and conceptualization of drought vulnerability were identified for forested ecoregions in the Köppen–Geiger D and E climates. Vulnerability factors, as described by several scientific disciplines, were identified and combined into a conceptual framework for drought vulnerability in the study region. The results demonstrate the wide range of conceptualizations that exist for assessing drought vulnerability, and the thematic differences between sectors such as forestry, water supply, and agriculture. The conceptual framework presented herein adopts a novel approach, categorizing vulnerability factors by their location in a socio-hydrological system, and their relation to blue or green water sources. This allowed for identification of systemic vulnerability patterns, providing new insights into regional differences in drought vulnerability and a base for stakeholders performing proactive drought risk assessments in the study region.

Despite changing paradigms in nature conservation, protected areas, such as national parks, remain key tools for nature conservation. Today, protected areas are perceived as socio-ecological systems, therefore using an ecosystem services approach may help in their designation. Here, we focus on the planned Turnicki National Park located in the far eastern part of the Polish Carpathian Mountains and conflict between proponents of the park establishment and local stakeholders. We used an ecosystem services-driven questionnaire survey among local communities to analyze interactions between the perception of ecosystem services and opinions about national parks, and the role of social and economic status in shaping these opinions. We found links between opinions towards national parks and other factors: age, life span in a municipality, level of education, and an average net income. Respondents who perceived benefits from nature were more positive towards national parks in general and the Turnicki National Park specifically; however, those who prioritized provisioning services were more skeptical. Also, we distinguished four Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis models which describe factors shaping opinions on national parks, respectively. The study has shown that the ecosystem services lens perspective can help in exploring the factors crucial while establishing the protected areas in specific social and economic context. The main implication for the study is careful consideration of the role of national park to protect the local environment in harmony with social needs and economic development.

Nature-based solutions (NBS) are increasingly suggested to address biodiversity decline and climate change. However, many ecosystems are hardly used as NBS, including ponds and pondscapes. We therefore examine how policies and practices affect their implementation as NBS. Using a content analysis of policy documents and stakeholder inputs, we assess the policy context in eight countries but also zoom in on policies and practices in seventeen pondscapes. We derive three key insights: first, a protective status for a pond or pondscape interlinks with other enabling factors for NBS implementation, and protection and conservation should therefore be considered more often as NBS. Second, there is a shortage of, especially long-term, financing. Third, local leadership should be nurtured to overcome a lack of institutional cooperation and stakeholder awareness as well as fragmented land ownership. Beyond that, we show that implementation barriers interlink and interventions should therefore address several barriers simultaneously.

The European continent has experienced several large-scale drought events in recent years, and climate projections suggest an increasing drought risk in many parts of the world. As droughts can have large impacts on socio-hydrological systems, analyzing drought risk is an important part for proactive drought risk management and disaster risk reduction. Drought risk can be expressed as a product of hazard, exposure and vulnerability, where vulnerability is highly contextual and complex. As droughts can affect all parts of the hydrological system, from precipitation and soil moisture to groundwater and surface water reservoirs, drought vulnerability differs depending on what part of the system is studied. Building on previous results from a survey analyzing drought vulnerability across seven water-dependent sectors, this paper explores how vulnerability factors vary based on sectors’ dependency on blue water (surface and subsurface freshwater) or green water (soil moisture) in mid and high latitude regions. The findings reveal that drought vulnerability differs based on water type dependency, especially concerning water supply and species characteristics. Perceptions of vulnerability factors vary in number, category, and overall ranking, highlighting the importance of considering water dependency when choosing vulnerability factors for drought risk assessments and to clearly define the drought hazard types involved. 

Unlocking the full potential of ponds (small water bodies) and pondscapes (network of ponds) as Nature-based Solutions (NbS) is critical pursuit for enhancing ecosystems and societal resilience to climate change and other societal challenges. Despite scattered initiatives for pond/pondscape creation, restoration and management—each considered here a distinct NbS—there is a significant knowledge gap in utilising ponds/pondscapes as effective NbS. We aimed to assess these NbS in terms of their objectives, outcomes, effectiveness, multifunctionality, delivery of potentially conflicting effects, and the implementation process while considering their Nature's Contributions to People (NCPs, i.e., benefits to society). We compiled data on 183 NbS actions implemented across 93 ponds/pondscapes from 24 countries, predominantly from Europe, via a questionnaire distributed to experienced stakeholders implementing NbS in ponds/pondscapes. One single pond/pondscape may imply more than one NbS action. Two-thirds were in rural areas, and one-third in urban settings. Our analysis revealed that Creation of habitat for biodiversity was a primary delivery objective (targeted NCP) in the implementation of most NbS in ponds/pondscapes, often also combined with other NCPs such as Learning and inspiration, Regulation of water quantity, and Physical and psychological experiences, showcasing their intended multifunctionality. Implemented NbS primarily focused on climate change adaptation (especially Regulation of hazards and extreme events, and water quantity) rather than mitigation, with less emphasis on measures like direct greenhouse gas emissions reduction or enhancing carbon sinks. The costs associated with pond's NbS varied significantly depending on factors such as project scope, objectives, location, socio-economic-cultural system, and specific implementation requirements. The creation of ponds/pondscapes often entailed the highest financial investment, much more than their restoration or their management. In conclusion, our study underscores the multifunctionality of ponds/pondscapes and provides insights about their significant potential as cost-effective NbS for enhancing ecosystem and societal resilience to climate change and biodiversity. It underscores the importance of further research to fully understand and measure the diverse range of NbS they offer, particularly in the context of climate change mitigation. Standardised measurements of the NCP provided by these NbS in ponds/pondscapes are essential for validating managers' claims and exploring their role in addressing climate change.