TITLE:
The Water-Energy-Food Nexus: Concepts, Methods, Regional Applications, and Governance—A Review
AUTHORS:
Jingru Wang
KEYWORDS:
Water-Energy-Food Nexus, Coupling Coordination, Resource Security, Resilience, Governance, Review
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Applied Sciences,
Vol.16 No.10,
October
20,
2026
ABSTRACT: The water-energy-food (WEF) nexus has become an influential framework for analysing the interdependencies among three essential resources for sustainable development. Since the Bonn 2011 conference, WEF research has expanded from conceptual discussion to quantitative assessment, coupling coordination analysis, scenario simulation, optimisation, and governance analysis. This review synthesises conceptual definitions, methodological approaches, regional applications, and governance implications. It uses a narrative critical review with systematic elements based on a Web of Science Core Collection export. The review defines key constructs—coupling coordination, WEF efficiency, security, and resilience—and compares major methods according to decision purpose, system boundary, spatial and temporal suitability, data needs, and ability to represent physical flows versus composite indices. Regional evidence is synthesised comparatively rather than study by study. The literature shows growing attention to China, Africa, Central Asia, Europe, and the Middle East and North Africa. Despite progress, WEF research still faces challenges related to data scarcity, scale mismatches, institutional fragmentation, complex trade-offs, climate uncertainty, pollution, health, and social equity. Future research should strengthen interdisciplinary integration, multi-scale modelling, stakeholder engagement, policy coherence, and the incorporation of ecological, carbon, land, health, justice, and gender dimensions into the WEF framework.