First steps into Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem Nexus Transition in semiarid depopulated regions: A case of study in the Spanish Duero basin.

Water scarcity and water stress have become a concern for many countries worldwide, especially to Mediterranean countries like Spain. Which, together with the increase in energy prices, have affected food production and degraded ecosystems. Over the last two decades in Spain, irrigated areas have expanded in the interest of modernizing irrigation systems to cope with increased food consumption and to promote economic development and the maintenance of the rural population. At the same time, managing – rising fertilizer and energy prices and water scarcity have become necessities, but also threatening the natural ecosystem. Until now Water, Energy, Food, and Ecosystems (WEFE) challenges have been traditionally managed independently, contrary to the international community recommendation of treating them together in a WEFE Nexus framework to address their interrelationships and achieve a balance. Considering this framework, two workshops took place in the Duero Basin in Spain with the stakeholders, from the different WEFE entities, aiming at promoting and co-defining WEFE-Nexus transition actions for addressing the WEFE-Nexus challenges and for improving the local WEFE-Nexus conditions. As a first step, the WEFE-Nexus transition requires active engagement and building trust among WEFE stakeholders and as a second step to involve them in a co-creation process with knowledge’s exchange and mutual learning. Thus, the Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) was applied through the RRI Roadmapãä for co-defining WEFE-Nexus transition actions or plan to improve local WEFE-Nexus conditions and identifying knowledge, technical and scientific gaps and how to bridge them to be successful. The first workshop used storytelling and the participatory method of the World Café to actively engage and motivate the stakeholders. The second workshop was performed from an expert point of view and a NEXUS NESS- Serious Game to foster discussion and create awareness on sustainable management practices; it focused on water-energy resource management, agricultural production, and the impact of climate change.

The methodology and the results from both workshops are presented in this paper.