Editorial: Understanding Water – Energy – Food – Ecosystem Nexus: from modelling to action

The “Nexus” concept has gained increasing interest as a framework to support the analysis of interconnected challenges of resource security and environmental sustainability. It emphasizes the relevance of understanding and describing the interdependencies among various sectors, such as water, energy, food, and ecosystems, but not necessarily limited to those, recognizing that actions in one domain can propagate effects across others, often resulting in trade-offs or synergies that traditional siloed policies overlook. Although Nexus research has been characterized by considerable progress on conceptual aspects, translating theoretical insights into actionable solutions for policy and management remains challenging. In this framework, the present Research Topic aimed to contribute to Nexus research with a two fold objective: (i) proposing tools, methods, and approaches capable of guiding the description of the main Nexus dimensions and implications, thus supporting its operationalization, and (ii) discussing how those can contribute to finding and formulating solutions for Nexus management and optimization, ultimately supporting actionable decision-making across scales and contexts.