ABSTRACT

Human activity, at all stages and levels, relies on the use of natural resources as feedstock for technology and development. This gives rise to a highly symbiotic phenomenon involving the use of these common goods, which is often described as the three-point water–food–energy nexus (Garcia and You, 2016). However, a more integrative definition for this phenomenon is suggested, i.e., the five-node water–energy–food–land–minerals resource nexus, which is discussed in Chapter 1. For simplicity, herein it is referred to as the resource nexus (RN). Although this concept is crucial for maintaining the demands and lifestyle of our society, the existing RN is unsustainable due to several interlinked global problems: increasing population, limited availability of food, natural resource depletion, increasing pollution and adverse climate change, social inequality, etc. Global population is expected to increase 40% by 2050, yet today, around 1 billion people struggle to have their daily sustenance and more than 1.2 billion still have no access to clean drinking water (Garcia and You, 2016). Ironically, 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted every year (FAO, 2011a). With an increasing population, global food production will have to increase by at least 60% (OECD, 2013) while natural resources will become even more scarce. These facts illustrate the urgency in developing a well-distributed and sustainable RN management which allows the next generation to access water, energy and food accordingly to specific local needs.