Water Energy Food Nexus in Central Asia Transboundary River Basin: Evolution, Trends and Applications

 

The water-energy-food nexus has emerged as a prominent area of study and application, highlighting the vital role these sectors play in human existence and the intricate and substantial challenges they encounter. Although the nexus concept is still evolving and has not been fully implemented in practice, it has inspired diverse approaches across various contexts. In the present study, Central Asia, a region where transboundary water issues are made extremely prominent and complex due to climate change, the historical evolution of basin characteristics, and the different interests of riparian countries, was selected as the research area.  This study aims to assess nexus research in transboundary water from previously published research focusing on Central Asia, with the objective of characterising the efforts that have gone into understanding the intellectual and social structures (such as identification of patterns, hot topics, and themes of focus by various authors) as well as the evolution of the WEF nexus research domain in Central Asia. Using a meta-analysis and bibliometric analysis, the authors examined literature from 2011 to 2024, sourced from the Web of Science, Scopus databases, and media. Analytical tools such as the Bibliometrix, an RStudio package, Microsoft Excel, and VOS viewer were applied to interpret the data. This study contributes to the growing body of literature and ongoing discussions regarding how the WEF Nexus approaches in a transboundary context can represent an opportunity for reinforced collaboration regarding resource management