Water plays a critical role in sustaining agricultural production, energy generation, economic development, and ecosystem services worldwide. However, in an era of increasing water scarcity and climate change, new integrative approaches to water management and policy are required to successfully balance competing societal goals of environmental conservation, food, energy and water security. This session will provide a forum for novel and emerging research in the field of water-food-energy-environment systems that highlights: (i) improved understanding about the critical interconnections, feedbacks, and risks between system components, (ii) develops new methods or tools for evaluating and monitoring system trade-offs and performance , and (iii) evaluates integrated technical, policy, and/or governance nexus solutions to address critical water-food-energy-environment system challenges in different locations and at various scales (local, regional, and even global).

Invited speaker: Jennifer Burney (University of California San-Diego)