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Cited by 70Water-Energy-Food Nexus StudiesTransboundary Water Resource ManagementGlobal Energy Security and Policy

The water-energy-food nexus: A holistic approach for resource security in Iran, Iraq, and Turkey

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Zarei, Mohanna·2020·Water-Energy Nexus
DOI 10.1016/j.wen.2020.05.004
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Abstract

Climate change, population growth, and economic development pose critical challenges in providing water, energy, and food security at the national and global scale. The Middle East is of particular interest due to the rapid industrialization, fragile environment, non-stable political relations, and transboundary water conflicts. Transboundary water plays a crucial role in sustainable development of the Middle East countries. Among them, Iran, Iraq, and Turkey shared major transboundary river basins which induced huge potential risks and benefits associated with development. The research on Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus has seen a significant increase to productively assess water, energy, and food dependence at a higher resolution. According to these researches, drivers impacting the WEF security in the Middle East are water scarcity, migration, extreme events, economic growth, urbanization, population growth, poverty and political stability. Therefore, it is important to investigate the dynamics behind the WEF security concerns in this region. The results show that most countries in the Middle East are facing WEF resources insecurity owing to weak planning or wrong management strategies. Based on WEF Security Index reports, WEF Index for Iran, Iraq, and Turkey is 0.68, 0.65, and 0.75, respectively. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reports, water, energy, and food demands increased with population growth from 1997 to 2017, which could enhance potential of conflict over water especially on transboundary water resources. This review explores the WEF nexus as a holistic approach to seek regional solutions to common challenges in these countries. In this case, cooperation and collaboration between scientific communities, stakeholders, and decision-makers is vital to address the complexity of the resource management and development challenges regarding the WEF security.

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  • Higher water stress is associated with measurable declines in state capacity indicators, particularly where fiscal systems depend on climate-sensitive sectors and service systems lack redundancy.

    “First, higher levels of climate-induced water stress are associated with measurable declines in state capacity indicators, particularly where fiscal systems are dependent on climate-sensitive sectors and service systems lack redundancy (Zarei, 2020).”

    From Climate Security, Water Governance, and Resilience How Climate-Induced Water Stress and Migration Challenge State Capacity (2026) · cites this paper as Zarei, 2020

    The Introduction (page unavailable) links water scarcity to regional stability and economic development, and Section 4 (page unavailable) says resource inequities can weaken states’ effectiveness. The paper does not report measurable declines in state-capacity indicators or identify dependence on climate-sensitive fiscal sectors and a lack of service-system redundancy as conditions for such declines. (LLM, conf=0.82)

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Cited by

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Authors
Zarei, M.
Affiliations
University of Kurdistan (IR)
Corresponding author
Zarei, Mohanna
ORCID
Zarei, Mohanna
Venue
Water-Energy Nexus
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2020
Volume
3
Pages
81-94
ISSN
2588-9125 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.wen.2020.05.004
OpenAlex
W3033737729
Cited by
70
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 7 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 5
FWCI
2.47
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Water-Energy Nexus (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Water Science and Technology › Water-Energy-Food Nexus Studies
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Transboundary Water Resource Management
  • Physical Sciences › Energy › General Energy › Global Energy Security and Policy
Keywords
water-energy-food nexus, resource security, transboundary water resources, water scarcity, Middle East, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, transboundary river basins, water conflicts, population growth, food security, energy security, resource management, stakeholder collaboration

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