Mid-term projections towards the water, energy and agriculture nexus in Jordan

Our world is experiencing unprecedented changes in the way of living. From a system analysis point of view, such changes need to be identified and the alternatives should be explored. Water, energy and agriculture are among the main sectors that play a pivotal role for the prosperity of people within a particular geographical context. Global drivers such as population growth, urbanization and climate change create critical pressures to the natural resources, such as water, energy and land, to a point that these resources cannot serve the demand anymore as they used to do. For this reason the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus approach has a growing significance. In the case of Jordan, the water resources are overexploited while the water demand is increasing. The energy sector is heavily dependent on fossil imports, while Jordan is one of the most favourable countries of the world for the deployment of solar technologies. At the same time, agriculture constitutes around half of the total water withdrawals but contributes only 5% to the GDP.This thesis aims to address the potential interdependencies, trade-offs as well as synergies between the water, energy and agriculture until 2050 from a nexus point of view.