This title appears in the Scientific Report : 2022 
Developing an integrated value-based institutional framework for analyzing nexus governance challenges – the case study of Germany
Märker, Carolin (Corresponding author)
Systemforschung und Technologische Entwicklung; IEK-STE
Jülich Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH Zentralbibliothek, Verlag 2022
290
Dissertation, Univ. Bonn, 2021
978-3-95806-617-5
Book
Dissertation / PhD Thesis
Societally Feasible Transformation Pathways
Schriften des Forschungszentrums Jülich Reihe Energie & Umwelt / Energy & Environment 572
OpenAccess
Please use the identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/2128/31084 in citations.


Global megatrends, such as the impacts of climate change and global population growth,require an integrated and comprehensive management of natural resources that accountsfor the various interrelations that exist between them. The food-energy-water nexusfocuses on these interrelations. The main contribution of this thesis, firstly, is tooperationalize the nexus concept for political analyses in order to adequately analyze policyintegration between agricultural, water and energy policy. Secondly, the new developedanalytical framework is applied to the case study of Germany.The Institutional Analysis and Development Framework serves as the basic methodologicalframework. It focuses on central institutions, involved actors as well as further determiningfactors. The basic framework is extended in two ways. Firstly, a value dimension is added,which allows to identify underlying values and associated value conflicts in the respectivepolicy fields. Secondly, the value-based framework is extended by the concept ofEnvironmental Policy Integration. This allows for the development of two novel analyticalframeworks that capture the different levels of vertical and horizontal policy integrationrelated to the food-energy-water nexus.In the second part of the thesis, the newly developed methodological framework is appliedto the case study of Germany. The analysis identifies seven different key challenges relatedto nexus governance, each affecting different linkages between policy fields. Overarchingchallenges that include all policy fields simultaneously are establishing sustainabledevelopment as a guiding policy principle, climate protection and biodiversity conservation.Challenges that affect linkages between selected policy fields are: water pollution fromagriculture, sustainable production of bioenergy, energy consumption in agriculture, andenergy consumption from wastewater treatment plants. The analysis also shows that thechallenges are strongly interrelated and that they need to be addressed at different policylevels. Eventually, eight key policy recommendations are derived from these findings.