A review of interconnected challenges in the water-energy-food nexus: Urban pollution perspective towards sustainable development

Kazem Javan; Ali Altaee; Saeed BaniHashemi; Mariam Darestani; John Zhou; Gloria Pignatta

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.169319

A review of interconnected challenges in the water-energy-food nexus: Urban pollution perspective towards sustainable development

Sci Total Environ. 2024 Feb 20:912:169319. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.169319. Epub 2023 Dec 16.

Authors

Kazem Javan¹, Ali Altaee², Saeed BaniHashemi³, Mariam Darestani⁴, John Zhou², Gloria Pignatta⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Sydney, Australia. Electronic address: Kazem.Javan@student.uts.edu.au.
² School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Sydney, Australia.
³ School of Design and Built Environment, University of Canberra, Canberra, Australia.
⁴ School of Civil and Environmental Environment, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia.
⁵ School of Built Environment, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia.

PMID: 38110094
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.169319

Abstract

The swift growth of cities worldwide poses significant challenges in ensuring a sufficient water, energy, and food supply. The Nexus has innovated valuable systems to address these challenges. However, a crucial issue is the potential for pollution resulting from these systems, which directly and indirectly impacts public health and the overall quality of urban living. This study comprehensively reviews the interconnected challenges of the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus and various forms of pollution in cities. The primary focus of this review article is to showcase the findings of WEF nexus studies regarding various pollutions across different geographical regions and spatial scales. It aims to examine the problems resulting from these pollutions, specifically their effects on human health and urban life. It also delves into the sources of pollution as identified in these studies. Furthermore, the article will highlight the proposed solutions from the research aimed at effectively mitigating pollution in each sector studied. This article is a systematic review which analyses research sources from the Scopus database. It extensively reviewed 2463 peer-reviewed published articles and focused explicitly on articles related to the WEF nexus that discussed pollution. Our study emphasizes, firstly, raising awareness about the crucial link between the WEF nexus, pollution, urban environments, and human health among policymakers and key stakeholders, including urban planners, industry partners and municipalities. This is to promote the development of policies that encourage sustainable practices and key stakeholders. Secondly, it evaluates WEF nexus and pollution research methods and findings, aiding in identifying research gaps technological innovation and potential, as well as enhancing decision-making. Lastly, it outlines future research challenges, providing a roadmap for researchers and policymakers to advance understanding in this domain and identify opportunities for resource efficiency and collaboration between different sectors.

Keywords: Environmental impact; Health; Pollution; Sustainability; Urbanization; Water-energy-food (WEF) nexus.

Publication types

Review