Conference on Cross-Border Governance and Protection of Food-Energy-Water Systems Supported by International Watersheds

粮食、能源和水系统对于社会和经济发展的相互依存性质带来了一系列挑战，特别是在水资源丰富或稀缺程度不一的情况下。虽然缺水会给农业和能源生产带来巨大压力，但水资源丰富的条件也会带来一系列不同但同样重要的挑战。在水资源丰富的情况下，缺乏保护水资源的激励措施会迅速导致水资源的退化或因争夺使用而发生冲突。大多数研究往往集中在缺水地区。这导致了对水资源丰富地区可能发生的事情的无意监督，在这些地区，水资源可能没有被估价，定价或管理，以确保长期可用性。 当流域共享多个国家边界和不同的治理体系时，丰富的挑战变得更加困难。每个国家都可能有独特的政策，这些政策以国家为基础，由当地的看法驱动，往往与生态系统的结构和功能的逻辑脱节。这些跨界挑战还与粮食-能源-水的关系有关，在这一关系中，粮食和能源生产可能同时威胁到水的可持续性，并受到水资源退化的威胁。 理解和应对这些挑战需要综合、跨国家和跨学科的方法以及综合科学方法。密歇根州立大学将举办一次会议，汇集了在水资源丰富的地区所面临的需要跨国协议和信息共享的水-粮食-能源关系挑战方面具有专业知识的学者。这次会议将汇集来自世界三个地区的科学家、研究人员和决策者，这三个地区的特点是，直到最近，丰富而相对未受污染的水资源受到了压力：北美的五大湖（地球上最大的淡水系统，面临着来自农业径流和入侵物种以及美国和加拿大干旱地区需求的日益增加的压力）;东非的五大湖地区（非洲最大的湖泊，面临快速富营养化和内陆渔业生产力下降）;和南美洲的亚马逊河（地球上最大的河流系统，面临水电开发和渔业崩溃带来的越来越大的压力）。与会者将探讨这些地区的粮食-能源-水系统的压力，并确定这些系统的跨界治理知识的差距。本次会议将专门研究水资源和能源生产之间的联系，食品，鱼类和能源生产对水的污染，以及与食品（如灌溉）和能源生产（如水力发电）有关的人类-环境相互作用导致的淡水资源枯竭。

The interdependent nature of food, energy, and water systems for social and economic development pose an array of challenges, particularly under conditions of varying abundance or scarcity of water. While water scarcity can place tremendous stress on agricultural and energy production, conditions of water abundance pose a different, but equally important, set of challenges. When water resources are abundant, the lack of incentive for conservation can rapidly lead to the degradation of the water or conflicts over competing uses. Most research tends to focus on water scarce areas. This has resulted in an unintended oversight of what may be happening in water abundant regions, where water resources may not be valued, priced, or managed to ensure long-term availability. The challenges of abundance become more even more difficult when watersheds share multiple national borders and different systems of governance. Each country may have unique policies that are country-based, driven by local perceptions, and often disconnected from the logic of the ecosystem's structure and function. These cross-border challenges are also linked to the food-energy-water nexus, where food and energy production can simultaneously threaten water sustainability and be threatened by degrading water resources. Understanding and addressing these challenges requires synthesis, cross-national and cross-disciplinary approaches, and integrative scientific approaches. Michigan State University will host a conference that brings together scholars with expertise in the water-food-energy nexus challenges faced by water abundant regions requiring cross-national agreements and information sharing. This conference will bring together scientists, researchers and policy-makers from three regions of the world characterized by recent pressures on what have been, until recently, abundant and relatively unpolluted water resources: North America's Great Lakes (the largest freshwater system on Earth, facing increasing pressure from agricultural runoff and invasive species and by demands from drier regions of the U.S. and Canada); East Africa's Great Lakes region (the largest lakes in Africa, facing rapid eutrophication and diminishing productivity of its inland fisheries); and South America's Amazon River (the largest river system on Earth, facing increasing pressure from hydroelectric development and fisheries collapse). Participants will explore stresses on the food-energy-water systems of these regions and identify gaps in knowledge about cross-border governance of these systems. This conference will specifically examine the connections between water resources and energy production, contamination of water from food, fish, and energy production, and the depletion of fresh water stocks resultant from human-environment interactions related to food (e.g. irrigation) and energy production (e.g. hydroelectric power).