This paper presents knowledge gaps and critiques on the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus that have emerged since the concept of the WEF nexus was proposed by the World Economic Forum and the Bonn 2011 Conference. Furthermore, this study analyses current innovations on the WEF nexus concept, applications, and impacts during the period of 2012–2020. This begins by reviewing ten WEF nexus frameworks developed by international organizations and researchers. On this basis, several gaps and omissions in nexus frameworks are obvious in almost all developed frameworks. Studies that start to address some of these gaps are analysed, but they are relatively few and do not address all gaps. Several proposed improvements to nexus frameworks are identified to narrow the gaps and put the concept into practical implementation in WEF resources management and governance. Four principles and the perspective of “from local to global” for future WEF nexus framework development and analysis are suggested to ensure that the security of water, energy, and food resources can be achieved sustainably in local communities. This will improve the impact of national and global ambitions on WEF security.

Sediments cause serious problems in irrigation systems, adversely affecting canal performance, driving up maintenance costs and, in extreme cases, threatening system sustainability. Multiple studies were done on the deposition of non-cohesive sediment and implications for canal design, the use of canal operation in handling sedimentation problems is relatively under-studied, particularly for cohesive sediments. In this manuscript, several scenarios regarding weirs and gate operation were tested, using the Delft3D model, applied to a case study from the Gezira scheme in Sudan. Findings show that weirs play a modest role in sedimentation patterns, where their location influences their effectiveness. On the contrary, gate operation plays a significant role in sedimentation patterns. Reduced gate openings may cause canal blockage while intermittently fully opening and closing of gates can reduce sediment deposition in the canal by 54% even under conditions of heavy sediment load. Proper location of weirs and proper adjusting of the branch canal’s gate can substantially reduce sedimentation problems while ensuring sufficient water delivery to crops. The use of 2D/3D models provides useful insights into spatial and temporal patterns of deposition and erosion but has challenges related to running time imposing a rather coarse modelling resolution to keep running times acceptable.

A reservoir is one of the water resource utilizations that functions as storage and provider of water, both as raw material for clean water and irrigation. Gondang Reservoir in Lamongan Regency Indonesia is a reservoir that provides water supply to 7 field reservoirs for 10 months covering an area of 6,233 ha, especially during the dry season. The Corong watershed is a watershed that flows through the Gondang reservoir. If there is a water deficit due to drought in the Corong watershed, the impact will be large for the Gondang irrigation area. Therefore, it is necessary to monitor drought in the Corong watershed. This study aimed to model and forecast the meteorological drought, represented by the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) using Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA). Forecasting error was evaluated using Mean Square Error (MSE). The intensity, frequency, and trend of droughts were analyzed using SPEI with a time range of 1-,3-,6-, and 12 using Rstudio. The results of the worst drought index were analyzed using the SPEI method in the 1-month worst drought in August 2003, the 3-month deficit period in February 2007, the 6-month deficit period in March 2007, and the 12-month in March 2007. The SARIMA Model (3,0,0) (2,1,0) 48 was convenient to be used for forecasting Drought index SPEI-1 in the Corong river basin area because the estimation of each of the parameters was significantly different from zero, fulfilling the diagnostic test in which the residuals from the model were random and normally distributed, and had mean squared value of 1,052. The result showed that meteorological drought was related to hydrological drought and had the potential to be affected by drought. Thus, droughts need to be prioritized in disaster mitigation.

Despite efforts to develop and conserve water resources, almost every year during the dry season, some areas in Central Java province in Indonesia still experience a lack of water, especially in rural villages. These areas require water supply via water trucks and/or portable pumps to obtain water from rivers and groundwater. The Central Java government committed to implementing a program involving the construction of 1000 small reservoirs by 2020 to overcome water shortages. However, the technically ideal sites are mostly privately owned, which requires lengthy and costly land acquisition. To avoid the uncertainty of land acquisition, some small reservoirs were placed on state-owned land, which did not require land acquisition. The consideration of putting more emphasis on state-owned land rather than technically ideal sites for the construction of small reservoirs raise the issue on the location suitability of those reservoirs. In this study, we evaluated the suitability of the location of small reservoirs in the Bodri-Kuto river basin using the monthly standardized precipitation index (SPI). We used rainfall records of 25 stations in the river basin from 2000 to 2016 and analyzed yearly and monthly rainfall data. The yearly analysis shows that the dry conditions (SPI < −0.5) from 2005 to 2009 affected more than half of the rainfall stations (>50%), whereas the rainfall stations that experienced more dry years included Kedung Wungu, Babadan, Bojong, Ketapang, Sekopek, and Podowaras (more than 9 out of 17 years). The monthly SPI shows that during July, August, and September, all the rainfall stations experience moderately dry or worse conditions (SPI < −0.50). Using 25 rainfall stations, we determined the spatial spread of dry conditions using monthly SPI values from July, August, and September. Overlay of the spatial spread of dry conditions with the location of small reservoirs can be used to evaluate the suitability of small reservoir locations. We found that 1 (3%) location is very suitable, 7 (21%) locations are suitable, 24 (73%) locations are moderately suitable, and 1 (3%) location is less suitable. The findings indicate that the spatial distribution of SPI can be used as an additional criterion for evaluating the suitability of small reservoirs’ locations should technically ideal locations be unavailable.