Behavioral Assessment of Water-Food-Energy-Ecosystem Nexus of Mahi Basin in India

The widespread uncertainty regarding future changes in climate, socioeconomic conditions, and population growth has increased interest in water-energy-food-ecosystem nexus-based frameworks for analysis of water resources due to the imbalance in supply and demand. To address this imbalance, one should consider sectors in which there is direct or indirect utilization of water. There still exists unclearness in understanding how the ecosystem sector should be coordinated with the water-energy-food nexus (WEF Nexus). Here, we propose an analytical framework to integrate services provided by the ecosystem into WEF Nexus and analyzed their behavior. The proposed framework was applied to Mahi Basin, India, from 1995-2010 which has experienced significant blue water scarcity and agriculture water scarcity issues in past years. The framework is constituted by 28 indicators from all water, food, energy and ecosystem sectors and their behavior was analyzed based on a set of equations which determine the inter-connection between each of them. The coefficients of behavioral equations define synergy and a trade-off between sectors and inter-connections. The results explain the complex relationship and heterogeneity among the different regions in the basin and sectors, indicating a gradual improvement in synergy between water consumption and food production, while declining with soil retention especially in northern regions of the basin. Water subsystem sustainability has a significant positive impact on other ecosystem services except for food production. The study provides relationship-based, location-based management measures such as ecological protection and restoration, and strict water resources management in the basin.