Exploratory Work for future Decision Support System using the Water Energy Food Nexus in the Aral Basin

Abstract

This document aims at providing the necessary data, which are in this case Sustainable Land Management (SLM) practices, as preparation for a still to-be-determined Decision Support System (DSS) regarding water-energy-food-ecosystem in Central Asia through the NEXUS gains initiative of CGIAR. There are five main chapters to this document: 1. The goals and impacts of the CGIAR nexus initiative are briefly summarized. During this, the relations to DSS are described. 2. A brief study on DSS literature to find insights on what options there are, what data is required, and which users are benefitted. This offers support for the decision on a DSS, that is ought to be made in the future. Additionally, it provides a section on agri-DSSs. 3. A brief study on the nexus to understand which characteristics of a SLM are relevant to the nexus hence relevant for a DSS. A separate section is dedicated to each aspect of the nexus. 4. A synthesis of the nexus and DSS results in the rationale of a template that is useful for a potential future DSS specified on the nexus. In other words, this chapter explains why and how certain information of SLMs should be captured. 5. The template