Understanding how water management, food production and consumption, and ecosystems management are linked together in the Mediterranean region and in the study sites.
As part of WP1, the project assesses how different sectors use natural resources, and how the socio-economic context is influencing the Water-Ecosystem-Food-Energy nexus in the study sites.
Main research activities focus in developing a Nexus approach that allows capturing the interrelations between sectors and the influence of the socio-economic context on its sustainability. This includes evaluating the economic performance within WEFE Nexus, and developing an evaluation methodology of the WEFE Nexus based on both ecological and socio-economic indicators. Based on previous outcomes, the research will result in an assessment of the cost-effectiveness of different adaptation strategies based on implications of climate change scenarios on water resource allocation.
The main research activities conducted as part of WP1 are:
- A socioeconomic analysis based on indicators to identify the primary economic activities and socio-environmental characteristics of each case study site.
- An assessment of the regional, national and local policy framework to determine to what extent the nexus-thinking is embedded in current instruments and how these latter are influencing the sustainable management of resources in the case study sites.
- An assessment of the impact of water-saving irrigation technologies on food security and ecosystems resilience. The economic and technical efficiency of current irrigation practices in all the case study sites will be evaluated (using economic and agronomy related data) to propose environmentally sustainable cropping patterns that yield the maximum profit return for the farmers.
- The identification of multi-sectoral potential beneficial actions based on efficient allocation of natural resources across agricultural commodity groups and regions in Egypt and Greece.
- An analysis of cost-effective adaptation strategies based on implications of current and future climate change scenarios on natural resource allocation.