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How to Integrate and Balance Water, Soil and Waste Expertise When Realizing the Corresponding Nexus Approach

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A Nexus Approach for Sustainable Development

Abstract

The water-soil-waste nexus is more relevant than ever. UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) covering food, water, climate and biodiversity can all significantly be served by applying wastewater and compost to soils, thereby potentially increasing food production, combating water scarcity while higher contents of soil organic matter are effective for climate mitigation and preserving biodiversity. The hydrology and soil science disciplines produce enormous amounts of methods and data, but the interaction between both disciplines is, unfortunately, rather limited. Interdisciplinarity, let alone transdisciplinarity, tends to suffer. UNU-FLORES initiated reports on 17 case studies from all over the world dealing with wastewater application to agricultural soils. These highly informative studies showed that the water-soil-waste nexus is still quite skewed with major emphasis on waste composition and quality focused on agricultural production, including health and safety, but hardly any information on hydrology and soils. The cases also indicated that policy studies focusing on rules and regulations are still in an infant stage, the more so since waste application to soils not only involves health risks but also faces unique emotional and psychological barriers. Successful waste application systems to the soil can only be developed with true and genuine engagement of stakeholders to the research process as part of transdisciplinary case studies. Presenting successful results of such case studies to the policy arena, based on a thorough analysis of both technical and socio-economic aspects, are potentially quite effective and can also be the source of innovative research ideas.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Formerly Soils Dept., Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Johan Bouma

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  1. Johan Bouma
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Correspondence to Johan Bouma .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resources, United Nations University, Dresden, Sachsen, Germany

    Stephan Hülsmann

  2. Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resources, United Nations University, Dresden, Sachsen, Germany

    Mahesh Jampani

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Bouma, J. (2021). How to Integrate and Balance Water, Soil and Waste Expertise When Realizing the Corresponding Nexus Approach. In: Hülsmann, S., Jampani, M. (eds) A Nexus Approach for Sustainable Development . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57530-4_2

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