Resilient water governance under climate change within the WEFE Nexus (RETOUCH Nexus project)

With increased water scarcity due to anthropocentric and natural causes, the trade-offs and synergies intrinsic to efficiently allocating water resources to various competing uses have become more polarized. Realizing the importance of an integrated approach in water governance, the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems (WEFE) Nexus can be used as a multi-level and cross-sectoral approach that advocates the EU water economy and, in addition, relies on ecological and social considerations. The goal of this work is to propose, design and foster the adoption of integrated, innovative and inclusive Nexus-smart water governance schemes and institutional settings to promote a secure water future in the EU, resilient to climate change. This work follows an evidence-based approach to propose, assess and optimize a set of WEFE Nexus smart methods in six different case studies reflecting various cross-sectoral, multi-level and multi-stakeholder water governance contexts. To achieve this goal and monitor water governance in the EU we provide a set of Nexus-smart socio-economic and environmental indicators that reflect the cross-sectoral and multi-level nature of water use.  We also propose and develop economic instruments and business models that support robust water management under cross-sectoral competition.