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Opportunities at the Nexus

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The Food-Energy-Water Nexus

Abstract

In this chapter, we shift from “what is” to “what might be.” We begin by exploring some criteria for identifying real-world challenges that provide greater impetus and opportunity for applying integrated FEW science to real-world practice. There is the greatest opportunity for FEW Nexus applications to improve outcomes where there is a specific combination of scarcity, competition, externalities, and shared benefits. This often involves the invention of mechanisms for cooperation, reallocation of resources, sharing of private data, transactions across system boundaries, and the limited but proper role of government and law and, more broadly, the community of science and practice in the FEW nexus. We conclude with a number of case studies of Nexus work and practice that epitomize the opportunities that exist.

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Correspondence to Peter Saundry .

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Kinne, B. et al. (2020). Opportunities at the Nexus. In: Saundry, P., Ruddell, B. (eds) The Food-Energy-Water Nexus. AESS Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies and Sciences Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29914-9_21

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