Adaptive governance in the water-energy-food-ecosystem nexus for sustainable community sanitation

• Adaptive governance as key to managing interconnected environmental systems for better community sanitation. • It identifies crucial adaptive capacity that support effective governance in sanitation. • Using binary probit and logit approach to understand community engagement in sanitation. • Results offer insights into what drives community participation in sanitation efforts. • The connected systems can improve resilience and adaptability in sanitation practices. As the intensity of global environmental challenges increases, so does the need to understand and strengthen the resilience of interconnected systems. This research underscores the crucial role of adaptive governance in navigating the complexities of the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem nexus, particularly under the pressures of changing climatic conditions. The study conducts an in-depth analysis of adaptive capacities by identifying critical components such as assets, flexibility, organization, learning, and agency as fundamental elements of adaptive governance in sanitation practices. Data were collected through structured questionnaires and analyzed using binary probit and logit models to examine how these attributes influence community engagement in sanitation. Descriptive analysis was also used to summarize respondent characteristics and attribute distributions.