Academic Awards 2023 booklet

75 A Transdisciplinary Decision-Making Approach to Food-Water- Energy Nexus: A Guide towards Sustainable Development Without significant policy changes, the rapid economic and population growth could undermine progress in reducing global pressure on natural resources. Projections indicate that a four-fold increase in the world economy by 2050 will require 60% more food, 55% more water, and 80% more energy, exacerbating ongoing environmental degradation. This increases the risk of irreversible changes that could jeopardize the remarkable two-century trend of rising living standards. In this context, the Nexus approach offers a promising framework for managing the complex trade-offs and synergies that maintain the integrity and sustainability of interconnected food, water, and energy systems across various drivers, scales, levels, and stakeholders. Despite its potential, implementing the Nexus approach has been challenging in real-world settings. To support this implementation, this research has developed an innovative tool, the Spatial Nexus Optimization Game (S.N.O.G.). This tool leverages a combination of the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II), enhanced by geometric operators, and game theory to optimize multiple socio-economic and environmental objectives. S.N.O.G. provides an engaging platform for nexus stakeholders to experiment with their decisions and understand their consequences in the real world. Moreover, its methodological and conceptual potentials make it transferable across scales and levels, offering a promising tool for integrated decision-making. Decision variables Solution Optimization Non-dominatedsorting Crowdingdistancesorting Rejected NSGA-IIevolutionarysearchcycle Policy selection Spatial (re) allocation Any conflict error? No FWE demand met? Yes Conflict type Yes Spatial Functional No Strategic assessment User satisfied? No Endgame| Scoring More scenarios? Yes No Yes Socio-economicmetabolism Ecologicalstocks-flows-services Technologicalmechanisms Systems interactions Externaldrivers Economicdevelopment Demographic trend Effects&outcomes Deliberationprocesses Social&ecologicalmeasures Integrated assessment framework Nexus-compliant Social-Ecological Systems Unit unification Exergy analysis System Ex inputs Exoutputs Irreversibilities NEXUS Data Transformation Structuringdataofheterogeneous sources intoaunifyingquantity thatcanbeholisticallyanalyzed Integrated Impact Assessment Identifying,predicting,andevaluating thesystemiceffectsofproposalsprior toadecisionbeing taken Multi-objective Decisions Finding theoptimalsolution valuesofmore thanone desiredgoal Multi-disciplinary Governance Thecombinationor involvementof multipledisciplines inaneffort to resolveor tackleone issueholistically Spatial Prediction Evaluatingspatial compatibilityofvariables for integrationscenarios Feedback Assessment Highlightingknowledgediversity, understandingsourcesofconflict,and maximizingsystemicunderstanding Figure 1: Operational fundaments of the Nexus. Figure 2: The Spatial Nexus Optimization Game, system architecture.