Governance of water-energy-food nexus: A social network analysis approach to understanding agency behaviour

Kurian, Mathew, Portney, Kent E., Rappold, Gerhard, Hannibal, Bryce and Gebrechorkos, Solomon (2018) Governance of water-energy-food nexus: A social network analysis approach to understanding agency behaviour. In, Hulsmann, S. and Ardakanian, R. (eds.) Managing Water, Soil and Waste Resources to Achieve Sustainable Development Goals. Cham. Springer, pp. 125-147. (doi:10.1007/978-3-319-75163-4_6).

Abstract

Research seeks to treat each resource embedded in the nexus as connected to the other resources. This approach is unique from other natural resource research agendas where the primary focus is on system efficiencies or examinations of a single resource. The nexus by emphasizing trade-offs places a premium on coordination. From a governance perspective coordination is not limited to decisions involving finances and allocation of trained human resources among different agencies organized both vertically and horizontally within a multi-level governance framework. Coordination could also be extended to include uses of data between public agencies, private sector and individuals. Due to nexus interconnectivity, we suggest here that social network analysis (SNA) is an appropriate tool that can divulge and highlight the relational complexities that exist within the nexus and among stakeholders that work with the singular elements of the nexus. We suggest that in the cases of organisations with a high institutional capacity by means of expertise, resources, and other assets, the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) network will be highly connected between resource areas in the overall network. Two network tie characteristics—density and centrality—are particularly important to understand a critical mass of interests within a multi-level governance framework. The paper concludes by arguing for the organisation of data covering different dimensions of the Water-Energy-Food nexus through the mechanism of an observatory that could potentially improve our understanding of thresholds of environmental resource use and the incentives required for public agencies to act in support of sustainable development.

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Contributors

Author: Solomon Gebrechorkos

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