Resources, Conservation & Recycling 151 (2019) 104481

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Resources, Conservation & Recycling

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/resconrec

Review

Urban food-energy-water nexus indicators: A review T

a a,b,⁎ a,b,⁎ a,b a,b
Mercy Arthur , Gengyuan Liu , Yan Hao , Lixiao Zhang , Sai Liang ,
Ernest Frimpong Asamoahc, Ginevra Virginia Lombardid
a
State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
b
Beijing Engineering Research Center for Watershed Environmental Restoration and Integrated Ecological Regulation, Beijing 100875, China
c
Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
d
Department of Economics and Management, University of Florence, Florence, Italy

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The unprecedented surge in urbanization and population growth rates is generating multiple impacts, affecting
Food-water-energy food, energy and water (FEW hereafter) demands. Moreover, the adverse effects are extending to climate, as well
Nexus indicators as to human and ecosystem health. Coordinated efforts are often deemed critical to minimize the trade-offs while
Resources security maximizing the synergies in the use and the effective analysis of the interlinkages among food, energy, and water
Policy coherence
within urban ecosystems. Data are collected and transformed into useful information through different in-
dicators, which are often applied to guide several policies in the urban domain. However, their different nature
now asks for a critical reanalysis to collate them into different groups, understanding their guiding principles and
identifying possible gaps for further policy- and design-oriented studies. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art
on existing urban FEW nexus indicators. Indicators were found to belong to four main distinct groups, measuring
resource fluxes (52%); quantifying environmental impacts (13%), and efficiency aspects (29%). Results highlight
a need to develop new indicators, considering the inclusion of all involved factors within new integrated metrics.
However, prior to developing an overall sustainability indicator system is presented, it would be vital to in-
corporate as many flows as possible to represent the entire urban systems.

1. Introduction This trend is not going to decrease in the future. The world’s population
is likely to increase to 67.2% by the year 2050 (United Nation, 2014a,
Urban systems are approached as ecosystems since they are complex 2016). Consequently, increased energy demand, food demand (FAO,
combinations of both artificial and natural systems, where life is sus- 2009a,b) and water withdrawal might occur, further impacting the
tained by natural environmental components (Guidotti, 2010). Urban resource availability and the sustainability of urban systems (Zhao
communities have served as a platform, where human being and nat- et al., 1999; Wu et al., 2014; Bruijn et al., 2017).
ural resources (like Food, Energy, and Water, indicated as FEW here- Scholars have already understood that FEW are connected into a
after) have actively interacted. These interactions, in terms of FEW complex interaction system (Fig. 1). This awareness led to the concept
production and consumption, can be included in the representation of of nexus (Hoff, 2011; Moreland and Tidewell, 2016). The introduction
urban metabolism, which also includes by-products, such as waste and of this term, however, also remarked the need of a holistic and in-
emissions (Kennedy et al., 2007; Restrepo and Morales-Pinzon, 2018; tegrated view to the whole system, instead of its separate components,
Liu et al., 2018a). to develop sustainable solutions for the future of humanity (Albrecht
The unprecedented increase in demand for FEW, owing to the et al., 2018; Helmstedt et al., 2018). As such, the ‘nexus’ concept in
growing socio-economic pressures, is outweighing the abilities of the FEW resources management has become widely discussed in con-
ecosystem to revive, generating dire consequences on sustainable de- ferences, workshops, scholarly literature, and policy-making forums,
velopment goals. This is why urban system sustainability is gaining since it is commonly believed that understanding the dynamics of lin-
growing global attention. Urbanisation, rapid population growth and a kages will help to address the challenges of their insecurity and un-
corresponding high FEW demand, generate a higher rate of resources desirable human activities. It is also believed that deep nexus under-
depletion, as well as of by-products (Hoff, 2011; Bizikova et al., 2013). standing will help to identify and analyse the trade-offs and the

⁎
Corresponding authors at: State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University,
Beijing 100875, China.
E-mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected] (G. Liu), [email protected] (Y. Hao).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2019.104481
Received 5 February 2019; Received in revised form 9 August 2019; Accepted 5 September 2019
Available online 27 September 2019
0921-3449/ © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
M. Arthur, et al. Resources, Conservation & Recycling 151 (2019) 104481

owing to the importance of integrative management of eminent global

resource scarcity and use. In recent reviews, Zhang et al. (2019) and
Garcia and You (2016) acknowledge the interplay of urbanization,
population growth, and climate change. Central to these works is the
issues of scales. Whereas Zhang et al. reverberate four thematic aspects,
including systematic characterization, cross-region teleconnection me-
chanisms, co-decision model development, and governance transition,
Garcia et al. (2016) accentuate on household and global decision-
making system. Finley and Seiber (2014) reveal how the nexus ap-
proach would ensure the security of limited resources (food, energy,
and water) while transitioning to a “greener” economy. According to
their review, several studies ascertain how scarce land to exploit, and
the supply of freshwater in some areas across the globe would limit the
use of land for food if they are not the management in an integrated
manner. Chang et al. (2016), summarize how methodological issues,
coupled with data collection procedures, limit the generalization of
nexus results. The link between food waste, energy and water has not
left out in these review series. Sustained food production requires sus-
tained disposal of food, energy and water wastes. However, Kibler et al.
(2018) reveal that researches have so far sidelined the impacts of en-
ergy and water waste. Their study further proposes the use of “food-
waste-systems” nexus in waste management would minimize the
amount of edible food that is wasted and foster efficient use of energy
and water in the food production process. This approach is required to
simultaneously reduce pollution externalities and create opportunities
from recycled energy and nutrients.
This study defines the present state-of-the-art for the indicators used
Fig. 1. Interactions among nexus domains. –Solid circles represent the three
in the FEW nexus research to quantify the interdependency relationship
resources (FEW) while the dashed circle represent the GHG (carbon) emission
among the FEW in the urban domain (urban, countries, and cities). The
released during the life cycle of these resources. The solid double arrows lines
review further analyses the trend of indicator used in the urban nexus
show food, energy, water resources nexus, whereas the dashed arrowed lines
show the resource use and emission nexus. system, which is mostly ignored by previous reviews. Specifically, it
extracts and analyses the state-of-the-art with respect to FEW nexus
indicators, as well as its relations with other interdependent factors,
synergies among these resources (Biggs et al., 2015; Mohtar and
such as climate. This study has the propensity to help readers to have an
Lawford, 2016; Pittock et al., 2015; Gao et al., 2018). extensive view of how these indicators function, how they are used, and
Generally, nexus indicators are effective method to quantify the
how they have helped in various decision-making processes. Whiles
interdependencies between FEW and their related impact at various other researches have been noticed to be using some of these indicators
scales (Bazilian et al., 2011; Leck et al., 2015; Lu and Chen, 2016; Liu
in their studies for evaluation; this paper seeks to bring them under one
et al., 2018b; Karnib, 2017; Zhao et al., 2018a). Currently, a compre- umbrella for the purpose mentioned above.
hensive and systematic review of methods of assessment of FEW has
been conducted (Albrecht et al., 2018). The study, however, did not 1.1. The nexus framework
focus on the used indicators. The different nature of FEW indicators
now demands a critical reanalysis to collate them in different groups, Fig. 1 illustrates the structure of the nexus. Food production pro-
understanding their guiding principles and identifying possible gaps for
cesses drive water withdrawal rates and energy use intensities. Simi-
further policy- and design-oriented studies. larly, water and food are also needed for energy, while energy and good
Indicators are parameters that give or provide information for
food production practices are needed for water security. Water is
evaluation or assessment and predict future conditions of a given needed to generate electricity (hydropower), extraction of fossil fuels,
phenomenon (Lundin, 2003). They also serve as pieces of information
refining, and processing of fossil fuels, and the cultivating of feedstock
parameters, which give a summary of significant properties, visualize used for biofuels production. According to Birol (2010), approximately
phenomena of interest, quantify trends, and communicate them to de-
15% of global water withdrawals are used for energy production pur-
cision-making groups to understand how a system is working (Hiremath poses. Energy is required for the withdrawal or pumping, transport and
et al., 2013). Their usage in nexus studies was a necessity to acquire
treatment of both unused and used water (wastewater) for human
relevant information for an in-depth understanding of the interlinkages consumption. Conversely, roughly 8% of energy are consumed during
between FEW resources (El-Gafy et al., 2017). As a result of this, several
water purposes globally (United Nations, 2014a, 2014b). While water is
researches used indicators in their nexus studies to collect relevant integral to food production and processing (irrigation of crops, filling of
findings to give detailed information about the nexus linkages within
ponds for aquaculture production, processing of this food and others), it
the environment (Lu and Chen, 2016; Mohtar and Daher, 2016; Lee also links food production system and river system through runoffs
et al., 2017; El-Gafy, 2017; Moioli et al., 2018). Nexus indicators help to
transporting agrochemicals, organic matter, sediments and saline
pinpoint unresolved cases of instability and uncertainty of a complex trading (Moss et al., 2008). It has been estimated that about 70% of
phenomenon (El-Gafy, 2017). They aid in monitoring, accounting for
global water withdrawals go into food production (Aquastat, 2011). An
trade-offs and building synergies in resource allocation (Mohtar and
example is the report of the decrease in water quality as a result of the
Daher, 2016). They empower the nexus assessment since they give a
increase in seafood production (aquaculture) and water pollution due to
better understanding and analyze the linkages between interdependent
nutrient accumulating through discharges of uneaten fish feed and fish
resources to set specific and coherent policy (Pupphachai and Zuidema,
wastes in water bodies (Troell et al., 2014; Peng et al., 2006; Cole et al.,
2017).
2011; FAO, 2017). Energy is also demanded during the food production
Nexus studies have taken centre stage in the scientific community
activities such that, food production and supply use nearly 30% of

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M. Arthur, et al. Resources, Conservation & Recycling 151 (2019) 104481

global energy produced (Ajanovic, 2011). Food can also be used to the scale of the study, objectives of the study, model use (if any), data
produce energy (biofuel) and literature report that, about 1% of food source, indicators used, the outcome of the study and other variables
produced is used for this purpose (Garcia and You, 2016). were compiled for further analysis.
These depict further the negative externalities of food, water and For our study, we defined indicator as any of a group of statistical
energy usage, including the release of greenhouse gases, and pollute values that taken together indicate the resource fluxes, of the efficiency
water bodies (Chhipi-Shrestha et al., 2017a,b). The feedback response of the entire system or subsystems, of the environmental impacts, and
from climate change (extreme weather events, rising temperatures, describes structural paths of the system. A total of 226 of these in-
changes in rainfall pattern and others) affects food, water and energy dicators were compiled. Their novelty was considered based on their
production. For example, according to the IPCC Climate Synthesis capacity to address the complexity of FEW nexus and flows as well as to
Report (2014), rising temperatures leading to warmer air will hold model the existing interactions and their efficiency. Context also in-
more moisture, which can intensify rainfall leading to flooding de- cluded indicators that sought to quantify the evolving impacts.
creasing food productivity. Changes in climate (hotter weather event)
results in high evaporation rate reducing surface and groundwater, 2.1. Description of the key classifiers
resulting in more droughts and water shortages. A direct threat to li-
vestock, the prevalence of parasites, and diseases accompanying the Indicators recorded in this study are classified further into resources
changes in weather conditions threaten further food production systems fluxes, efficiency, and environmental impact indicators based on the
(US EPA, 2017). Conversely, the declining water table owing to extreme commonalities of the underlying functionalities as follows;
climate events affect hydro energy production, and biomass used in
biofuel production (IPCC, 2014). 2.1.1. Flux indicators
The framework acknowledges further the connection between the Flux indicators, in other words, referred to as flow indicators,
country or global system and their embedded cities. It establishes that quantify or analyze the movement of the resources within a defined
FEW resources and environmental management within an urban system system. They mostly analyze the flows between two or more inter-
synergistically related to the global FEW nexus (Fig. 1; labels a, b, c, and dependent resources. They tend to analyze the intensity of resources
d). It idealizes the threats that population and urbanization trends pose entering and leaving each considered system. Specifically, these in-
to resources and climate goes beyond the urban system and creates a dicators quantify the total amount of either direct or indirect resources
global and synergistic impact (OECD-FAO, 2010; Hanson and Schrader, (food, water, energy, and others) usage during an activity, production
2014). This is because the urban system at their critical point of limited or processing within a defined system or in specific economic sectors.
resources depends on other localities for more food, energy and water For example, these indicators help to account the sum of all energy
to satisfy their populated people increasing the global demand (Bazilian types (coal, gasoline, diesel, natural gas, and electricity) or water
et al., 2011; Sorenson et al., 2011). Issues pertaining to FEW and en- (surface water, groundwater, desalinated water, reclaimed water and
vironmental quality pose multiple pressures, and their safekeeping re- others) use in food production activities (such as, cultivating crops,
quires comprehensive and integrated approaches, with coordination harvesting, transporting, processing, storage of food crops, production
between different sectors and at different scales (urban/country/global) of fertilizer for the cultivating of crops and others) (El-Gafy, 2017).
(Rasul, 2014). Moreover, total food crops used to produce biofuel, the water used to
generate hydropower, the fuel and electricity used during the treatment
2. Review method of water and others within a defined city, county or system are all
products of the flux indicators (Chen and Chen, 2016). In summary, flux
A general search on the “ScienceDirect” and “Web of Science” da- indicators analyze the individual input and output flows of resources
tabase for recent scientific literature was done to identify and to ana- within the urban systems or other given systems.
lyze the indicators that have been used to assess and quantify the nexus
in food, energy, water demand/resource in the urban system. Since the 2.1.2. Efficiency indicators
volume of scientific literature available on these databases is often Efficiency indicators give us an account of the resource use per unit
overwhelming, making it challenging for good overview of the litera- inflows in a system. They also analyze the proficient level of resources
ture to visualise the relevant ones for the study, we adopted the bib- used for production in the system (Shi et al., 2010). They assess and
liometric techniques to identify the available publications on ‘food- compare the resources (either food, water or energy) input and out-
energy-water’ nexus. During the search, we first compiled a compre- come generated at the end of a production or processing of goods by
hensive database of articles published in English that included the economic sector within a defined system to evaluate its profitability
following keywords: ‘urban’ ‘food’, ‘energy’, ‘water’, ‘nexus’, in either (Saladini et al., 2018). The increase in the ratio index of comparing the
articles title, abstract or keywords. The search was limited to the output of these goods produced by the economic sector per the re-
document type “research articles” excluding other document types such sources input shows good efficiency of the production or processing and
as review articles, encyclopaedia, both book chapters and reviews, the vice versa shows inefficiency. In all, these parameters help to
conference abstract, editorials and other. Besides, we considered the evaluate the performance and competent level of a system under study
period of 2011–2018 since the nexus became more important in in- (El-Gafy et al., 2017).
ternational academia globally after the Bonn 2011 conference (Hoff,
2011). With the current search criteria, a total of 236 articles was re- 2.1.3. Environmental impact indicators
trieved. These kinds of indicators analyze the environment and health im-
These articles (236) were further screened based on the following pacts associated with the production and the consumption of resources
criteria; (1) the study used the nexus concept, (2) the study carried out within the urban system. They serve as parameters to quantify the
its nexus studies in either a specific city or urban cities within a country, adversarial effects (negative externalities) of the production or pro-
and (3) the research used indicators to analyse and quantify the nexus cessing system (development, industrial activities) and use of the en-
between two or more sectors of the nexus domain. Articles that did not vironmental resources. Thus, these indicators investigate the con-
meet the following criteria were excluded from this study. Example, sequences of human activities on the environment and human health.
articles that only qualitatively described the nexus concept without For example, these parameters assess the emissions (GHGs, solid and
quantifiable nexus linkages were excluded. At the end of the screening liquid waste) associated with resources (food, water, and energy) pro-
process, a total of 42 articles were analysed in detailed and coded. duction or consumption within a defined system (Kumar and Saroj,
Variables such as journal type, title of paper, nexus type or structure, 2014; Xiao et al., 2015; Bellezoni et al., 2018; Zhao et al., 2018a,b).

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M. Arthur, et al. Resources, Conservation & Recycling 151 (2019) 104481

Indicators that fall under this category have the capabilities of pre- (Kumar and Saroj, 2014; Lu and Chen, 2016; Bellezoni et al., 2018;
dicting an occurrence and consequence of an effect. Saladini et al., 2018; Yang et al., 2018; Zhao et al., 2018a,b), waste
generation intensity (Venkatesh et al., 2014; Xiao et al., 2015), baseline
3. Result and discussions temperature (Berardy and Chester, 2017), and the associated health
impacts (Villarroel Walker et al., 2012; Liu et al., 2017b) among others
Generally, there is an increasing trend of published studies on urban were also used. The category ‘others’ comprises the indicators that
FEW “nexus” from 2011 to 2018. Additionally, approximately 47% of captured population characteristics, the dependency ratio, number and
the studies were carried out in Asia, followed by Europe, America, and type of resources used in production, and so forth. Studies have so far
Africa, accounting approximately 28%, 20% and 5% respectively. The been focused on the quantity of resources exploited or imported, on
increasing use of nexus indicators in the urban system is a result of the quantity produced, consumed or exported (the flux indicators) within a
high expectations of urban policymakers to solve the issue of resources system. Fig. 2 also reveals that, during these years, limited attention
insecurity and environmental degradation. They seek relevant in- was focused on the environmental impact (emission and climate
formation using the nexus indicators to analyze and address the gaps in change) of the production and consumption on energy, food and water
resources production and consumption mainly food, energy and water as well as the efficient utilization of environmental resources within an
in order to promote sustainable urban systems (Kennedy et al., 2007). urban system. Given the limited number of indicators used, much at-
The extensive published studies were done in Asia, and particularly in tention is required to quantify the environmental impacts of water,
Chinese cities, may be attributable to the growing concerns towards the energy and food production and consumption.
environmental problems (environmental awareness) related to the
Country increasing demand for food, water and energy due to the rapid 3.2. Structure of nexus studies
population growth and urbanization process (Li et al., 2017). The
current change in Chinese urbanization has increased energy con- Here we examine the nexus in totality by identifying the nodes of
sumption, which has increased the pollution level in the country (Zhang each resource flow. The different combinations of resource domains and
et al., 2013). In order to stabilize the economy, more research con- environmental impacts categories for articles in this review are sum-
cerning environmental sustainability is being carried out to protect the marized in Table 1. The majority (52.4%) of the articles studies food,
environment and future generation resources. energy and water [F(L)EW] interrelatedness, while Food, Energy and
Emissions (FEW) and Food, Energy, Water, and Emissions (FEWE) are
the least studied nexus structures, accounting for about 2.4% each. The
3.1. Categories of indicators used limited attention given to the interactions within the three main re-
source domains and their association with environmental impact do-
After a thorough synthesis of the selected papers, about 226 in- main may be attributable to model limitations and data.
dicators were retrieved. Among the total indicators collected from the
42 papers, about 52% considered resource fluxes, whereas approxi- 3.3. FEW nexus indicators applications
mately 29%, 13%, and 5% of the remaining indicators measured effi-
ciency, environmental impacts and other factors respectively (Fig. 2). To collect specific information or carry out assessment in specific
For example, considering the flow indicator, the direct FEW inflow sectors within the nexus domain, researchers use several indicators.
(Chen and Chen, 2016; Ericsdotter et al., 2017; Liu et al., 2017a), water Examples of these indicators are;
and energy, water and food consumption (Cottee et al., 2016; Lu and
Chen, 2016; Ren et al., 2018), embodied water and energy consumption a) energy sector indicators such as direct and indirect energy con-
(Mohammadi et al., 2014; Kenway et al., 2015; Wang and Chen, 2016; sumption (Chen and Chen, 2016), energy intensity (Liu et al.,
Yang et al., 2018) among others which fall under this category were 2017a), energy footprint, energy consumption in water-related ac-
used. Considering the efficiency indicator; crop water footprint (De Vito tivities (Karnib, 2017), and others.
et al., 2017; Miller-Robbie et al., 2017; Saladini et al., 2018), energy b) water sector indicators such as direct water consumption (Chen and
and water mass productivity (El-Gafy, 2017) among others were used. Chen, 2016), water intensity (Villarroel Walker et al., 2014), in-
Considering the environmental impact; greenhouse gas emission direct water consumption, water footprint (Lu and Chen, 2016),
water consumption in energy-related activities (Karnib, 2017) and
others,
c) food sector indicators such as annual crop yield (Zhao et al.,
2018a,b), food consumption (Karabulut et al., 2018), direct water
and energy usage in food production (Ren et al., 2018) and con-
sumption, food consumption in energy production and others.
d) some other indicators evaluate, measure and account for the re-
source available, use or depleted against the value (economic, so-
cial, environmental) added as a result of production (Lu and Chen,
2016; El-Gafy, 2017; Vanham et al., 2017; Zhao et al., 2017). For

Table 1
The frequency of the studied nexus structures.
Nexus structure % (n = 42)

Food (Land) ↔ Energy ↔ Water (F(L)EW) 52.4

Water ↔ Food (WF) 7.1
Energy ↔ Water (EW) 23.8
Energy ↔ Emission (EE) 7.1
Energy ↔ Food ↔ Emission (EFE) 2.4
Water ↔ Energy ↔ Emission (WEE) 4.8
Food ↔ Energy ↔ Water ↔ Emission (FEWE) 2.4
Fig. 2. The frequency of indicators used in the 42 urban nexus studies.

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M. Arthur, et al. Resources, Conservation & Recycling 151 (2019) 104481

instance, water mass productivity (help to evaluate the efficiency of consumption trends. Studies have shown that these resources are at the
crop yield (ha) against it related water use for production (per ha) at edge of reduction (Hoff, 2011). Therefore, there is a need to address
a particular time (t) (El-Gafy, 2017). Energy mass productivity more efficient use of those resources, despite the growing consumption.
(evaluate the efficiency of crop yield (ha) against energy used for An integrated view of FEW resources is deemed as crucial because of
production (per ha) at a particular time (t) (El-Gafy, 2017). Eco- their interconnected nature (Hanson and Schrader, 2014). However,
nomic mass productivity (evaluate the return of producing a quan- despite the huge amount of studies, a complex model of FEW nexus is
tity of particular resources against the costs involved production at still poorly understood, due to its non-linear multi-parametric and
time (t) (El-Gafy et al., 2017) and other in Table A2. multi-scale nature. A further understanding of FEW nexus is crucial
e) Specific information is collated using environmental impact in- from a security perspective, considering the increasing demands of a
dicators to assess the impact of human’s activities (Venkatesh et al., growing population in a globalized economy. Hence, much attention
2014; Berardy and Chester, 2017; Chen and Chen, 2017; Sherwood should be paid to the nexus system to check and monitor these resource
et al., 2007). Examples include, but not limited to carbon intensity, availability, accessibility and sustainability.
which accounts for the quantity of carbon emitted per the unit of To achieve this ultimate goal, some researchers used this kind of
energy used during an activity (Venkatesh et al., 2014; Sherwood quantitative approach (indicators) in their nexus studies to critically
et al., 2007). Carbon footprint assesses the total amount of GHGs analyse and quantify the production and the consumption impact on
that are released into the environment by human activity in a given these three resources. For example, Chen and Chen (2016) and Lu and
period (Silalertruksa and Gheewala, 2018). Crop-temperature sen- Chen (2016) used indicators such as direct energy consumption, water
sitivity indicators evaluate the influence that weather variation inflow and energy-induced carbon emission when analyzing the energy
(changes in temperature) has on crop yield (Berardy and Chester, consumption and water use by cities and their related emission dis-
2017). charge. The use of these indicators enabled them to account for the
energy and water utilized directly by each economic sector and the
These indicators enable specific assessment in individual manage- emission released by the energy used in each of the considered eco-
ment domains. They assist in the calculation of the sum of all energy nomic sectors. Others have used them to provide information for
types (coal, gasoline, diesel, natural gas, and electricity) or water types measuring the goal achievement of the nexus and inform decision
(surface water, groundwater, desalinated water, reclaimed water, etc.) makers in framing policies concerning these three resources (food, en-
utilized by each economic sector or economic activities (Agriculture, ergy and water) management and environmental sustainability
Manufacturing, Electricity production sector, Water production, (Kennedy et al., 2007). El-Gafy (2017) analyses the total water and
Transporting sector, mining sector, services and others) within the energy consumed by crops, quantifying the amount of water and energy
urban system (Wang et al., 2017). They also help to analyse the in- consumption per hectare of different crops allowing to account for the
dividual flows of resources and their usage within the urban system to production cost, in terms of energy and water inputs used for each
assess their security and sustainability (Chen and Chen, 2016; El-Gafy, hectare of a particular farm crop at a particular time in Egypt. The use
2017). The outcome of this assessment help to pint out the specific of all these indicators contributes to analyse the efficiency of the water
economic sector stressing the energy or water availability or what is and energy consumption in crop production, which outcome render
stressing food security. It also helps to monitor the efficient use of FEW useful information in policy-making in the urban cities.
within the cities. This information will help policymakers to give more Furthermore, though the nexus was adopted in the urban govern-
attention to economic stressors and set a coherent policy to achieve ance to shape and enable the resources flows, to shape their production
FEW securities. It will also help in developing and implementing po- and consumption patterns and their related impact on the environment
licies and governance model at a specific sector level, reducing negative (Bulkeley et al., 2014; Hodson and Marvin, 2011), the majority of the
impacts of policies on each nexus domain, saving resources, lessening published studies focused on the resources flows. The outcome of the
trade-offs and enhancing synergies. review shows that, among the few studies that used indicators in their
studies, most of the indicators only quantified the flows (input and
3.4. Nexus indicators main data sources output) of FEW resources, focusing less on the production and con-
sumption pattern and on their related environmental impact. This
Scholars refer to different websites to retrieve basic research data, in means that information concerning these resources production and
order to analyze or quantify the nexus both for studies and subsequent consumption pattern and their environmental impact will be limited
policymaking applications. Table 2 summarizes the main existing data and might hinder the effectiveness of the resources security and the
sources, based on the domain of the nexus sectors. Three major sources need of coherent policy action within the urban system. Therefore, in
of data were considered: national statistical books, multinational sta- order to help improve FEW security and the design coherent policy-
tistical databases, and survey data. Example of national databases in- making in the urban system, nexus studies should consider the related
clude the Chinese Government Yearbooks, Ministry of Economic Affairs impact of the FEW resources production and consumption model. Fre-
of Egypt, National Bureau of Statistics of China, US Energy Information quent use of indicators should be encouraged in the nexus analysis.
Administration etc. Whereas multinational database sites are managed
by the World Bank, FAO, WMRI, AQUASTAT, USDA, EUROSTAT etc., 5. Conclusions
survey datasets mainly derived from the field of investigations, fol-
lowing specific designs given by different research projects. FEW nexus offers an approach to the analyses of resource domains
(Food, water and energy) and the environmental impacts associated
4. Key findings with their use. Nexus approach is indispensable in the management of
resources to attain sustainable development goals (SDGs). Indicators
FEW are basic resource for human life, supporting the sustenance of summarise a system’s dynamics and guide policymakers’ informed de-
human existence (Giampietro et al., 2013). Presently, more than one cisions. Here we extracted and synthesised the indicators used in
billion people lack access to them (Bizikova et al., 2013; FAO, 2014). scholarly articles that quantifies the interlinkages between food, en-
Rapid population growth is accounted among the main causes of this ergy, water and its associated impact on the urban system. While there
scarcity, leading to an ever-growing demand for them, considering that is a surge in the number of articles being published on urban nexus and
global population growth is estimated to be 80 million every year urban system’s sustainability from 2011 to 2018 owing to sustainability
(Moumouni et al., 2014). This growing pressure, in the long run, might driven objectives, (2) the regional disparities in nexus analysis varied
arise issues of vulnerability and sustainability, because of massive markedly. Information synthesised in this study holds much

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Table 2
Information sources based on sectors.
Category Data source Domain Frequency

Food Energy Water

Multinational Statistics database Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) 2010. https://edirc.repec.org/data/ √ 1
capgveg.html
AQUASTAT – (http://www.fao.org/nr/water/aquastat/water_use_agr/index.stm) √ √ 1
FAO- (www.fao.org/faostat/) √ √ 6
World Bank database (http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/) √ 1
Eurostat (https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat) √ √ 1
Multinational statistical databases (https://www.gtap.agecon.purdue.edu/databases/v9/), Municipal √ 1
livestock statistics
Water Footprint Network – (www.waterfootprint.org/) √ √ 1
World Bank database (http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/AG.CON.FERT.ZS). √ 2
Water Management Research Institute (WMRI). https://www.acronymfinder.com/Water- √ 3
Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) 2010. https://edirc.repec.org/data/ √ 1
capgveg.html
Multinational statistical databases (http://www.tongji.cnki.net/kns55/Navi/YearBook) √ 3
USDA database - (https://www.agcensus.usda.gov/) √ √ √ 2
Multinational statistical databases. (www.stats.gov.cn/english/statisticaldata/annualdata/) √ 1
US Geological Survey data- (https://data.usgs.gov/datacatalog) √ 2
International life cycle inventory databases- Eco invent- (https://www.ecoinvent.org/) √ 8
Water Management Research Institute (WMRI) - (https://edirc.repec.org/data/capgveg.html) √ 3

National National Bureau of Statistics of China (http://www.stats.gov.cn/english/) √

National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS)- (https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/) √ 1
Agricultural Ministry of Iran. (https://theiranproject.com/blog/tag/irans-minister-of-agriculture/) √ 1
Council of Agriculture (COA) (https://eng.coa.gov.tw/) √ 1
Ministry of Economic Affairs of Egypt √ 1
Chinese Government Yearbooks (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6080495/) √ √ √ 8
National Bureau of Statistics of China (http://www.stats.gov.cn/english/) √ 5
US Energy Information Administration (www.eia.gov) √ 1
National Electrical System Operator – ONS √ 2
Department of Environmental Protection – (www.nyc.gov/html/dep/pdf/hwqs2012.pdf) √ 1
Statistical reports from local Government (https://www.statista.com) √ 3
Statistics Bureau (http://data.cma.cn/) √ 7
The Department of Environmental Protection, (www.nyc.gov/html/dep/pdf/hwqs2012.pdf) √ 1
Central Weather Bureau- https://www.cwb.gov.tw/V7e/ √ 1
National Environmental Sanitation Secretariat database (SNSA) (www.sanitationandwaterforall.org/) √ 1
National Department for Mineral Production √ 1

Survey Source Goiás’ Input-Output table (https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/handle/10453/125670) √ √ √ 1

Survey data (from local investigations) √ √ 18
Report of Water Supply Department (https://www.wsd.gov.hk/filemanager/common/) √ 1

significance in terms of the assessment and improve on the indicator- Our review uncovered the limited usage of indicators in urban nexus
based analytical framework to attain the goal of the nexus. studies. The few ones used mainly concentrate on the input and outflow
Specifically, Nexus indicator outcome can assist policymakers in: of FEW in the system paying less attention to other scales such as ef-
ficient use of resources, flow pattern of the resources and the en-
• Setting targets and coherent policy to monitor, manage, protect and vironmental impact associated with the production and consumption of
secure the environment, the resources and the human well-being, as resources. This may limit the development of the FEW resources se-
stipulated in SDG3 – Good Health and Well-being. In particular, this curity and sustainability actions. Therefore, analyzing the nexus across
can guide policymakers through a clear focus on the FEW and cli- all levels using the nexus indicators should be further encouraged in
mate policy goals connections, in order to enhance cross-sectoral order to fully encapsulate FEW securities in research aim at achieving
alliance and policy coherence. This is of paramount importance, in the sustainable developments goals. Also, to check variation in climate
order to stimulate resource efficiency and the evolution toward a by enhancing resource use efficiency and emission released in the en-
low carbon economy. This has the proclivity to propel the world vironment. Given the importance of nexus and indicators for their as-
towards achieving the Sustainable Cities and Communities and ob- sessment and quantification, progress in this area requires the co-
jectives. ordinated efforts from researchers globally.
• Improving policies development and attaining environment and
resources security and sustainability by identifying and eliminating Declaration of Competing Interest
contradictory policies and strategies, that tend to focus on one part
of the FEW nexus, without considering its interconnections. Authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
• Establishing policies that will consider and promote the use of va-
luation mechanisms, technologies and strategies that can be used as
Acknowledgements
drivers for more efficient, cost-effective and sustainable use of re-
sources, while minimizing trade-off and maximizing synergies. This
This work is supported by the Projects of International Cooperation
will also encourage and enforce policies, that endorse the basic and
of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51661125010),
universal rights to food, water and energy access and an equitable
National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2016YFC0502800), Beijing
share of the benefit.
Science and Technology Planning Project (No. Z181100009618030),
National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71673029) and the

6
M. Arthur, et al. Resources, Conservation & Recycling 151 (2019) 104481

111 Project (No. B17005). FAO, I. F. A. D, UNICEF, 2017. The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World
2017. Building Resilience for Peace and Food Security. FAO, Rome. http://www.fao.
org/3/a-i7695e.pdf. (Accessed 16 May 2018).
Appendix A. Supplementary data Finley, J.W., Seiber, J.N., 2014. The nexus of food, energy, and water. J. Agric. Food
Chem. 62 (27), 6255–6262.
Supplementary material related to this article can be found, in the Gao, Y., Liu, G.Y., Casazza, M., Hao, Y., Zhang, Y., Giannetti, B.F., 2018. Economy-pol-
lution nexus model of cities at river basin scale based on multi-agent simulation: a
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