The Sustainable Water Management and Food Production Nexus for Global Development in the Past, Present and Future

Dear Colleagues,

The creation, maintenance and development of sustainable water management as well as food security systems have been fundamental and vital challenges for human development throughout history and remain so today. Worldwide prospects of climate change and variability, droughts, rising sea levels and lack of freshwater call for the development of new strategies. Multiple aspects of the interface between water management, technology and food production are well studied, but evidently, it remains a challenge to build efficient strategies for now and the future and to fully appreciate the achievements of the past. Moreover, the potential of (re)discovering past modes of water management strategies to counter the same problems (on a smaller scale, of course) has received less attention from the scholarly community.

This volume invites papers discussing how past, present and future modes of water management, technologies, understanding of hydrological complexities and food production strategies have either advanced or limited development of human societies. Thus, this Special Issue welcomes studies of how societies throughout the Anthropocene—and beyond—have either succeeded or failed to build successful sustainable strategies and principles for sustainable water management systems, which form the precondition for sustainable food systems. In addition, discussions of past, present and future food systems and food security designs would fit nicely into this context.

What is more, the creation of sustainable food systems depends on the so-called “drivers”, which are factors such as environmental, technical, social and cultural features either advancing or limiting the proficiency of individual food systems in time and space (e.g., Ericsson 2008). Hence, the aim of this Special Issue is to advance scholarly attention to the interface of sustainability, water management, technology and food production.

This Special Issue invites discussions and reviews on examples from all over the world, past, present and future, of the interface between water management, technology and food production. This potentially includes the following themes, but may also include other subjects and angles covered by the overall theme of the Special Issue:

1. Discussions of the notion of “sustainability” in the context of water management. How do we understand the notion of “sustainable water management”—in the past, present and future?
2. Discussions of the technical and/or cultural drivers of past, present and future food systems—and the roles of water management in this context.
3. Studies and reviews of the development of technical aspects of sustainable and unsustainable water management and food production systems in the Anthropocene.
4. Discussion of the future roles of meat production in food systems and for food security. Is there room for meat production in the future? And how would this comply with current and future designs of sustainable water management?
5. Discussions of how to identify and design features/elements of water management strategies that can support sustainable food production in the future.
6. Discussions of how, when and where sustainable water management has supported sanitation, household requirements and/or food production.
7. Discussions of how future designs of sustainable water management may be able to counter the adverse impacts on soil resources (e.g., loss of organic carbon from soils leading to degraded soil quality and health, such as low-fertility soils and soils with high desertification potential, as is experienced, for example, in Southern Europe, Africa and the American continents), environment and climate.
8. How the growing human population, and the subsequent increasing needs for water and food, challenges water management and food production systems.
9. A better understanding of the water–soil–plant–atmosphere matrix in the context of developing water management practices and water use practices compatible with the protection of human health and natural resources, sustainable crop production and mitigation and adaptation to climate change and/or variability.
10. Links between water management and the development of a circular bioeconomy in the context of valorizing reclaimed waters, protecting environmental quality and supporting economic growth.
11. Evolution of food production in the Anthropocene.
12. Evolution of agricultural irrigation throughout the millennia and the current trends, issues and challenges around the efficient use of water in agriculture.
13. History of connection between water management and hygiene with emphasis on quality of food production.

Dr. Jens Krasilnikoff
Dr. Vasileios Tzanakakis
Dr. Andreas Angelakis
Dr. Andrea G. Capodaglio
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• water management
• food production
• food system and security
• sustainability
• water–plant–soil–atmosphere
• circular bioeconomy
• agricultural irrigation
• water management and hygiene