Webinar: Operationalization of the Water-Energy-Food Nexus Model for the Amazon River Basin

This webinar is part of a project sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) entitled Innovation and Science for the Operationalization of the Water-Energy-Food Nexus within the Framework of the Amazon Regional Observatory. This project is focused on the development and application of modelling tools in an integrated multi-sectoral planning process based on the water-energy-food nexus approach. 

The objective of this project is to operationalize an integrated water-energy-food nexus modeling tool(s) that allows the exploration of different physical and socioeconomic scenarios in the entire Amazon basin. This project leverages the experience acquired and efforts made by the Bank and client countries in areas such as water, agriculture and land use, energy and climate change.

The knowledge and tools developed through this project will support an integrated, multi-sectoral (nexus) approach to policy development and investment in the Amazon Basin. This will promote coherent, collaborative environmental governance to understand tradeoffs and maximize synergies and co-benefits while minimizing vulnerabilities, risks, and unintended consequences. This capacity is needed to address priority regional transboundary problems in the Amazon Basin such as the lack of integrated water resources management, water pollution, biodiversity loss, effects of extreme hydroclimatic events, and land use change, among other issues. 

The expectation is that, by the end of the webinar, participants will have strengthened their skills and abilities, especially in:

• Understand the scope of the Water-Energy-Food Nexus modeling activities in the basin, specifically the implementation of the HydroBID-WHATIF ((nexus) model.
• Provide input to the process of improvement of the operational visualization dashboards of the nexus model.
• Promote the participation in the discussions and analyses that will be carried out in the tasks included in the Project's Work Plan.
• Gain experience in the use of the operationalized nexus model through a participatory and inclusive process of discussion and analysis.

The Technical Webinar will have a duration of 120 minutes, with the following sessions:

Webinar Opening and Introduction of Presenters (10 min)

●    Workshop Opening (IADB)
●    Introduction of Nexus Team Specialists

Nexus Readiness Exercise (Interactive) (5 min)

Nexus Model Operationalization Results and Discussion (45 min)

●    Introduction to the Nexus project background and objectives
●    Nexus model operationalization approach: introduction, basic principles, application(s) and limitations - considerations for its implementation in the Amazon River Basin
●    Nexus model operationalization results: dashboard design, software needed, navigation, analysis and interpretation of model results.

Hands-on exercises using the Nexus Model Dashboards (30 min)

This will be a hands-on session on the use and visualization of results of the operationalized version of the Nexus modeling dashboards. This session will include the use of the dashboard to generate the results of nexus physical and intervention scenarios. 

Moderated discussion on the use of the operationalized Nexus model (20 min)

Based on the experienced obtained using the operationalized Nexus modeling dashboards, participants will be encouraged to share their feedback, vision of other challenges and opportunities of the Nexus approach and modeling tools for the Amazon River Basin. This discussion will be live using prompted questions in interactive format, plus oral discussions.

Closure Discussion on the Project’s Work Plan and Next Steps (10 min)

This session will consist of a presentation of the next stages involved in the Nexus project and a preview of the next webinars in this series.