Lebanon’s economic crisis has disrupted the country’s energy and water sectors, highlighting their interdependence. The methodologyinvolves surveying 150 municipalities across all Lebanese governorates, ensuring a comprehensive coverage of public and private waterresources. Data on water and energy were collected before and during the crisis to explore this nexus during periods of economic turmoil.The findings reveal a decline in water provision during the crisis, with the average weekly water supply plummeting from 49 h in 2019 to 22 hin 2023. Concurrently, the use of water tankers has surged from 26 to 44%, indicating a concerning shift in water acquisition methods.Despite the crisis, conventional water sources remain predominant, while unconventional sources account for less than 1% of the totalsupply. In response to the energy shortage, renewable energy sources have gained traction in residential, commercial, and industrial sectors.The scarcity and rising cost of electricity have driven the adoption of solar photovoltaics in the water sector, reaching 4.8% for extraction fromunderground reservoirs and 2.8% for distribution. Similarly, the use of solar water heaters has increased from 7.9 to 15.4% in 2023. Thesefindings underscore the interplay between energy and water security during periods of economic instability.
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Urban communities are particularly vulnerable to the future demand for food, energy and water, and this vulnerability is further exacerbated by the onset of climate change at local. Solutions need to be found in urban spaces. This article based around urban design practice sees urban agriculture as a key facilitator of nexus thinking, needing water and energy to be productive. Working directly with Urban Living Labs, the project team will co-design new food futures through the moveable nexus, a participatory design support platform to mobilize natural and social resources by integrating multi-disciplinary knowledge and technology. The moveable nexus is co-developed incrementally through a series of design workshops moving around living labs with the engagement of stakeholders. The methodology and the platform will be shared outside the teams so that the knowledge can be mobilized locally and globally.
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This essay is a contribution to the research project ‘From Prevention to Resilience’ funded by ZonMw. Motivated by the Covid-19 pandemic, this research project explored how public space and forms of civic engagement can contribute to working towards more resilient urban neighborhoods. The project engaged a community of practice (CoP) to inform the research and to disseminate and critically discuss research outcomes. This essay, and the bundle it is part of, is the outcome of one of these engagements. The authors of this specific essay were asked to offer their disciplinary perspective on a first version of the Human / Non-Human Public Spaces design perspective, at that time still titled Nexus Framework on Neighborhood Resilience (click here and a PDF of this version will be downloaded). The authors were asked to do so based on their field of expertise, being climate-resilient cities. The authors have written this essay in coordination with the research team. To grasp the content of this essay and to take lessons from it, we encourage readers to first get familiar with the first version of the design perspective.
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The importance of water and energy accessibility and use has become more important as new insight into their role for sustainable development goals has become mainstream. The inclusion of water and energy in strategic decision-making is thus key. Supply chain network design (SCND) in the food industry is an interesting case study for the incorporation of water and energy utilization during the design process of global production systems. In the current green SCND research, frequently, single indicators are used such as carbon emissions to measure environmental impact. This paper presents a case study applied to an orange juice supply chain, formulated as a multi-objective optimization model. A single environmental impact indicator optimization approach is paired against one that includes water and energy use explicitly in the objective function set. Mixed conclusions are shown from the results pairing the two strategies side by side.
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Dit rapport, geschreven door de Nederlandse IPBES-auteurs die direct betrokken waren bij beide rapporten, bespreekt de kerninzichten uit de twee recent verschenen IPBES-rapporten: de Transformative Change Assessment en de Nexus Assessment, en past deze toe op de Nederlandse praktijk. Beide IPBES-rapporten benadrukken dat biodiversiteit onmisbaar is voor menselijke bestaanszekerheid, maar dat deze wereldwijd snel achteruitgaat. Het Transformative Change-rapport wijst drie diepere oorzaken van biodiversiteitsverlies aan: het dominante mens-natuur wereldbeeld, groeiende ongelijkheid, en kortetermijnbelangen. Werkelijke verandering vraagt daarom om verschuivingen in waarden, instituties en praktijken, inclusief alternatieve economische modellen en rechtvaardige bestuursvormen. Het Nexus-rapport laat zien dat biodiversiteit, klimaat, water, voedsel en gezondheid nauw verweven zijn. Sectoraal beleid leidt vaak tot ongewenste neveneffecten, terwijl geïntegreerde oplossingen juist brede synergieën opleveren. Het rapport presenteert 71 concrete opties, variërend van natuurherstel en duurzame voedseltransitie tot stedelijke vergroening, duurzame gezondheidszorg en versterking van landrechten. Voor Nederland zijn deze bevindingen urgent. Voorbeelden zoals de Marker Wadden, het Midden-Delfland model en Markemodel en stedelijke vergroening tonen dat systeemtransities haalbaar zijn. Het artikel benadrukt dat gedeelde waarden (zoals rechtvaardigheid, verbondenheid en zorg voor natuur) een fundament vormen om polarisatie te overstijgen en samen te werken aan brede welvaart. Conclusie: Nederland moet de IPBES-aanbevelingen versneld omzetten in integraal beleid om de noodzakelijke systeemtransities te versnellen, waarin natuur, klimaat, landbouw, energie, economie, gezondheid en sociale rechtvaardigheid onlosmakelijk met elkaar verbonden zijn.
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We summarize what we assess as the past year's most important findings within climate change research: limits to adaptation, vulnerability hotspots, new threats coming from the climate–health nexus, climate (im)mobility and security, sustainable practices for land use and finance, losses and damages, inclusive societal climate decisions and ways to overcome structural barriers to accelerate mitigation and limit global warming to below 2°C.
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The design of cities has long ignored the flows that shape the city. Water has been the most visible one, but energy and materials were invisible and/or taken for granted. A little over 50 years ago, Abel Wolman was the first to illuminate the role of water flows in the urban fabric. It has long been a search for quantitative data while the flows were mostly seen as separated entities. The fact they invisibly formed the way the city appears has been neglected for many years. In this thematic issue the “city of flows” is seen as a design task. It aims to bring to the fore the role flows can play to be consciously used to make spatial decisions in how and where certain uses and infrastructure is located. Efficient and sustainable
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Het Nieuwe Telen (HNT) heeft in haar theoretisch kader de teeltprocessen ingedeeld in zes balansen. De energiebalans, de waterbalans en de assimilatenbalans van de plant en de CO2 balans, de vochtbalans en de energiebalans van de kas. In dit project is onderzocht of de mineralenbalans, de ecologische balans en de hormoonbalans nuttige aanvullingen zijn op de bestaande balansen van HNT. Aanbevelingen: faciliteer onderzoek naar metingen die het mogelijk maken de status van de plant te volgen m.b.t. de mineralenbalans en ecologische balans.
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Het lectoraat Juridische en Economische Vraagstukken binnen de Energietransitie draagt bij aan de overgang naar een duurzame samenleving gebaseerd op het gebruik van schone energiebronnen. Dat vraagt niet alleen om nieuwe technologieën, maar ook om juridische kaders en nieuwe verdienmodellen voor duurzame investeringen in de energiemarkt. Het lectoraat maakt deel uit van ENTRANCE – Centre of Expertise Energy van de Hanze. ENTRANCE – Centre of Expertise Energy draagt als lerende, praktijkgerichte kennisgemeenschap bij aan een robuuste, veerkrachtige en duurzame energievoorziening. Door middel van hoogstaand toegepast onderzoek en onderwijs stimuleren we duurzame innovaties in samenwerking met burgers, bedrijven, studenten, maatschappelijke organisaties en overheden
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