A methodological framework for assessing the coherence of Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem nexus policies: Illustration and application at the river basin level

The Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem (WEFE) nexus emerged as an approach for efficient management of natural resources. WEFE nexus governance aims to ensure exploiting synergies and managing trade-offs arising from the WEFE nexus interlinkages. In this context, policy coherence is not only a critical component, but also an indicator of successful WEFE Nexus governance. Despite its importance to the nexus, there are few policy coherence assessment methods and policy coherence investigations into the WEFE nexus. The existing policy coherence assessment approaches fail to offer an assessment of the coherence in both policy documents and practical implementation of policies. Moreover, to understand policy coherence in practice, insights of local stakeholders are needed, which is often missing in the existing approaches. We propose a comprehensive policy coherence assessment framework (PCAF) that assesses policy coherence in both its formulation and implementation. Specifically, we adapt and combine the methods of Nilsson et al. (2016) and Mooren et al. (2024) and demonstrate its usefulness by applying it to the Nestos river basin in Greece. Our results show that shifting the focus from analyzing the net influence of policies on one another to identifying Nexus hotspots helps to effectively manage policy trade-offs and synergies by: 1) enabling the identification of policies requiring revision or strengthening; 2) providing insights into whether these hotspots have positive or negative cascading effects throughout the nexus; and 3) via stakeholder feedback on the policy coherence analysis, offering insights on policy implementation in practice. Comprehensive Policy Coherence Assessment Framework for the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem Nexus • Policy coherence is a critical componentand an indicator of successful Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem (WEFE) Nexus governance. • Few policy coherence assessment methods and policy coherence investigations into the WEFE nexus. • Our policy coherence assessment framework assesses policy coherence in both its formulation and implementation. • The approach identifies Nexus hotspots helps identifying policies requiring revision or strengthening. • The approach shows whether these hotspots have positive or negative cascading effects throughout the nexus.