Optimizing the allocation of resources for the security of the water-energy-food nexus

Increasing demands and climate change are critical challenges to ensure water, energy, and food security. The water-energy-food nexus requires integrating tools to guide the allocation of resources and promote sustainability. This work presents a mathematical formulation for the optimal design and management of resources to enhance the water-energy-food nexus security. Resource security is measured through indicators related to the availability, access, and sustainability of the water, energy, and food sectors. Furthermore, the problem was analyzed under different allocation schemes (social welfare, Rawlsian, Nash, and Rawlsian-Nash) to maximize resource security and obtain the optimal design of the system. To show the applicability of the model, a Mexican state evaluated by regions was selected as a case study. Results show that through this approach, it is possible to increase 14%, 44%, and 15% the security of the water, energy, and food sectors, respectively, and 25% security of the water-energy-food nexus in the addressed case study. The proposed framework can be applied to any region with the corresponding data.