Sustainability of Social-Ecological Systems: the Nexus between Water, Energy and Food

Go to Course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/sustainability-social-ecological-systems

Introduction

**Course Review: Sustainability of Social-Ecological Systems: the Nexus between Water, Energy, and Food** In today's rapidly evolving world, understanding the interconnections between our natural and social systems is more crucial than ever. The online course titled **"Sustainability of Social-Ecological Systems: the Nexus between Water, Energy, and Food"** on Coursera provides a comprehensive exploration into this interconnectedness, focusing on the intricate water-energy-food nexus. If you are passionate about sustainability, environmental science, or policy-making, this course is a valuable opportunity to deepen your understanding. ### Overview and Objectives The course offers learners the chance to engage with the complex idea of social-ecological systems. Through an interdisciplinary approach, you will learn how to analyze and describe your community or country as a living system that encompasses the vital elements of water, energy, and food. The goal is to provide you with the tools necessary to measure and assess these elements in a coherent manner across varying scales and dimensions. ### Syllabus Breakdown The course is structured into eight modules, each building on the last to develop a nuanced understanding of the nexus: 1. **Introducing the Basic Concepts**: This foundational module sets the stage by elucidating the concept of the nexus, its complexity, and its relevance in today's sustainability discourse. You’ll confront mainstream narratives and question popular assumptions. 2. **Poor Quality of Existing Quantitative Analyses**: Focusing on narratives and framing, this module challenges traditional quantitative assessments and introduces alternative sustainability analysis methods. 3. **The Challenge of Food Accounting**: Here, you'll explore the complexities of food within the nexus. Through practical examples, you will learn what constitutes food accounting and why traditional agricultural systems pose sustainability challenges. 4. **The Challenge of Energy Accounting**: As you transition to energy, this module examines accountability issues within the energy sector, highlighting the problematic nature of energy assessments. 5. **The Challenge of Water Accounting**: Water, a critical component of the nexus, is analyzed in depth with a focus on creating a grammatical framework for water accounting. 6. **Metabolic Patterns Across Scales and Dimensions**: This module delves deeper into understanding human activity within the nexus, integrating Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to bolster your analyses. 7. **Applications of MuSIASEM 2.0**: Transitioning from theory to practice, you’ll apply your newfound knowledge in real-world case studies, including vegetable production in Almeria and a wind-powered desalination plant. 8. **From the Cartesian Dream to Quantitative Story-Telling**: The course concludes with an innovative approach to analysis. This module challenges conventional quantitative assessments and introduces post-normal science and quantitative storytelling, providing new perspectives on framing analyses. ### Strengths of the Course 1. **Interdisciplinary Approach**: This course's emphasis on transdisciplinary thinking enables students to appreciate the interconnected nature of environmental systems and societal structures. 2. **Practical Applications**: With case studies and real-world applications, learners gain insights that can be directly applied to their communities or professional sectors. 3. **Expert Faculty**: The guidance from knowledgeable instructors ensures that participants are not only learning but also engaging critically with complex themes. 4. **Flexibility and Accessibility**: As a Coursera course, it allows participants to learn at their own pace, accommodating varying schedules and commitments. ### Recommended For - **Students and Professionals** in environmental science, sustainability, urban planning, policy-making, and related fields. - **Activists and Advocates** interested in understanding the structural challenges of sustainability. - **Researchers** seeking new methodologies for complex system analysis. ### Conclusion Overall, **"Sustainability of Social-Ecological Systems: the Nexus between Water, Energy, and Food"** is a rich educational experience that not only equips students with theoretical knowledge but also empowers them to apply their learning in practical contexts. I highly recommend this course to anyone looking to dive deeply into sustainability issues and emerge with a clearer understanding of how to navigate the intricate relationships between water, energy, and food in our social-ecological systems. Whether you aim to influence policy, contribute to community strategies, or enhance your academic pursuits, this course will serve as a cornerstone in your understanding of sustainability. Don't miss the chance to participate in these crucial conversations and analyses that shape our future!

Syllabus

Introduction

Welcome to our course on the sustainability of social-ecological systems! Before getting started, we suggest you take a couple of minutes to read the information about the course and about the platform as given below.

In this first week we will look at the nexus from a different perspective: What is the nexus? Why is it getting all this attention right now? Is it just a buzzword, or something more? We will start by explaining what the nexus means in terms of complexity and propose the basic concepts needed for a metabolic analysis of the nexus. It might take a while to get your head around these concepts, but they are essential to understand what comes next. Finally, we will give examples of “elephants in the room” in the sustainability discourse – to show you that mainstream narratives are not always right.

This week is all about narratives, framing and complexity. You will see how different narratives affect quantitative assessments, and why numbers aren’t always right. We will delve deeper into the theoretical basis of complex systems, and propose alternative ways of doing sustainability analysis, through the use of grammars.

Having introduced the basis of metabolic analysis and complex systems, we will now focus on the different elements of the nexus, starting with food. We will start by answering some seemingly basic questions: what do we mean by food, and how can it be accounted? Which qualities of food can and cannot be accounted for in terms of numbers? Practical examples will guide you along the way, and by the end of the week you will see why the current agricultural system is unsustainable to its core.

This week we will look at energy. As we did for food, we will start by looking at the problems of energy accounting, and setting a framework to allow us to carry out energy analyses across levels and scales. You will see why energy accounting is one of the most problematic aspects of sustainability, and through the example of the Energiewende we will explore how this affects policy.

This week is all about water. By now you should be familiar with the concept of grammar, and we will see how building one for water can help in dealing with its many dimensions. Through the example of an analysis of the Mauritius Islands, you will become familiar with the many aspects of water accounting, and by the end of the week you will understand the importance of water in nexus analysis, especially when it comes to policymaking.

We talked about scales and dimensions a lot, and this week we will explore and understand these concepts better. You will learn to account for human activity, an essential fund that is often left out from quantitative analysis, and how GIS tools can be incorporated with the methods you have learnt so far. This week is heavy on theory, to prepare you for week 7 which is all about applications.

How can the theoretical concepts explained so far be applied to practical examples? After introducing the basic building blocks of relational analysis needed for our applications, we will look at two real case examples: a nexus analysis of vegetable production in Almeria, and of a wind-powered desalination plant in the Canary Islands. By the end of this week you should be able to build processors and set up nexus analyses.

We are ending the course with something a bit different (thanks to our guest lecturer Andrea Saltelli). This week we leave quantitative assessments behind, and take some time to reflect upon why it is important to do analyses in a different way. We will introduce the concepts of post-normal science and quantitative story-telling – this will allow you to think deeply about how you frame your analyses in the future.