An accounting framework recognising the complexity of the nexus

This chapter presents a structured approach to quantitative analysis of the water-energy-food resource nexus based on the multi-scale integrated analysis of societal and ecosystem metabolism (MuSIASEM) accounting framework. Concerning a social-ecological system of interest, the presented approach focuses on addressing: (i) system size and state; (ii) the environmental pressures associated with a particular size and state; (iii) the level of system openness, referring primarily to the role of externalization in the stabilization of both state and pressure; and (iv) the ecological impacts resulting from a localized contextualization of environmental pressures. An integrated toolkit consisting of four criteria of performance, four data matrices and four scopes/lenses is presented. The presented toolkit is proposed to be used by sustainability analysts. In illustrating the value-added of the toolkit, practical considerations and empirical results concerning agriculture in Europe are presented.The authors acknowledge financial support by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 689669 (MAGIC) and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN), through the 'María de Maeztu' programme for Units of Excellence (CEX2019-000940-M). In addition, Ansel Renner acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, through the 'Formación de profesorado universitario' scholarship programme (FPU15/03376). This work only reflects the view of the authors; the funding agencies are not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains