The Nexus Approach to Managing Water, Soil and Waste under Changing Climate and Growing Demands on Natural Resources - Governing the Nexus: Water, Soil and Waste Resources Considering Global Change - page 40

water-soil-waste (WSW) nexus for food security is important to achieving the
sustainable use of natural resources, enhancing human wellbeing, improving the
environment and sustaining ecosystem functions and services.

1.2 The Nexus Approach

Nature does not recognize waste, from every death emerges a new life through a
meticulous recycling of essential elements contained in the so-called . There

are strong inter-linkages and inter-dependencies among factors and processes
impacting food security and resource use (Fig. 2 ). Rather than perceiving it as a
great risk (World Economic Forum 2011 ), the WSW nexus provides an opportunity
to enhance the use-ef

“ waste ”

ciency of natural resources, recycle the waste (co-products),
and close the cycles of carbon (C), plant nutrients (N, P, S, K) and water.
Therefore, the objective of this chapter is to deliberate opportunities and chal-
lenges of the nexus (linkages) approach to sustainable intensi cation of the natural

resource so that the resource use ef ciency is enhanced, losses (water, nutrient,

energy) are minimized and the flow of environmental/ecosystem services is

increased. Also discussed is the relevance of the nexus approach to urban agri-
culture, skyfarming (or vertical farming) and to explore the significance of soil-less
agriculture using aeroponics and hydroponics to enhance food production for urban
populations (Lal 2013 ).

2 Materials and Methods

This chapter is based on collation, assessment and synthesis of some relevant
literature on the nexus approach. The literature is collated with a focus on integrated
and holistic approach to sustainable intensi

cation of some managed ecosystems.
The literature review presented herein is speci cally focused on application of the

nexus approach to: WSW, energy-water, poverty-environment, soil-waste, water-
soil, soil-climate and food security nexuses. Speci c focus is on the WSW nexus.

The review also explores applications of the nexus approach to skyfarming for
addressing issues of food security and environment in urban ecosystems.

3 Results

Results of the literature-based review of the nexus approach are presented below on
the basis of thematic issues listed in Sect. 3.1 with a focus on the WSW nexus.