Workshop // Untangling the role of Ecosystems and their Services in the Water-Energy-Food Nexus: an interdisciplinary hybrid workshop
The University of Oulu and the Water Harvesting Lab of the University of Florence are organising an interdisciplinary hybrid workshop on the role of Ecosystems in the Water-Energy-Food Nexus. The workshop gathers researchers and practitioners from the fields of “Water-Energy-Food Nexus”, “Ecosystems Services” and “Ecosystems” to explore the definition of Ecosystems in the Nexus debate, to further define the key research and practical questions on the inclusion of Ecosystems in the Nexus, and to create a shared strategy for future research efforts.
September 5 2022 I 09:00 - 12:00 (GMT+2) I hybrid event
About the event
The University of Oulu is gathering researchers and practitioners from the fields of “Water-Energy-Food Nexus”, “Ecosystems / Ecology” and “Ecosystems Services” for a collaborative and interdisciplinary hybrid workshop. The workshop will be held in person at the University of Oulu (Linnanmaa Campus, Tellus Stage) and online via video conferencing on Monday 5th September, 2022, 09:00 – 12:00 (GMT+2).
The aim of the workshop is to leverage different perspectives on the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems Nexus to further define the key research and practical questions on the inclusion of Ecosystems in the Nexus, and to create a shared strategy for future research efforts.
Rationale of the event
Innovative solutions and approaches are needed to meet current and future demand for freshwater, energy and food while maintaining the integrity of ecosystems and ensuring equitable access to natural resources. The Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Security Nexus concept has been brought forward in the last decade as a cross-sectoral approach to understand, analyse, and manage complex trade-offs and synergies among the global resource systems (Hoff, 2011). Since its conceptualization, the Nexus thinking has evolved to embrace interactions among an increasing number of elements, i.e. climate, land, waste, health and ecosystems. The inclusion of ecosystems in the Nexus is of particular interest since it has received different, but complementary, interpretations and applications (Hoff, 2011; ICIMOD, 2012; UNECE, 2015). Despite the increasing research and implementation of the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem (WEFE) Nexus in international case studies, some aspects remain under debated and confined to disciplinary silos:
- Definition of Ecosystems and Ecosystems Services within the Nexus debate
- Role of Ecosystems and their Services in the Water-Energy-Food Nexus
- Approaches to integrate Ecosystems and Ecosystems Services in all Nexus layers: biophysical, socio-economic and governance.
Agenda (preliminary)
Expected outcomes
This 3-hour workshop shall promote a collaborative scientific dialogue among several research groups leading to the production of a collaborative synthesis paper1 on the role of Ecosystems in the Nexus and the organisation of a WEFE Nexus session in an upcoming international conference (i.e. Dresden Nexus Conference, EGU 2023). The results of the workshop will also feed into the joint work of the COST Action Nexus-Net , which is currently developing a survey to gather insights on Nexus definition and applications from real-world case studies.
Registration
Please use the online registration form.
Registration is open until August 19, 2022.
Further Information
For more information please download the Event Information Note or have a look at the Event Flyer.
Contact
Please contact the event organisers for any other questions:
- Mr. Enrico Lucca, Water Harvesting Lab, Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry, University of Florence
- Dr. Tamara Avellán, Water, Energy and Environmental Engineering Research Unit, University of Oulu
- Mr. Sahand Ghadimi, Water, Energy and Environmental Engineering Research Unit, University of Oulu