Water, energy, and food security assessment in regions with semiarid climates

The availability, accessibility, and sustainability of resources can enhance or jeopardize the security of meeting human needs for water, energy, and food in several regions of the world. For this reason, it is crucial to propose strategies that allow quantifying the current situation of resource security and preventing alarming scenarios in the future. The objective of this paper is to assess the current condition of food, energy, and water security of a region with rampant economic development, but struggling with natural resources as a result of its adverse climatic conditions. An approach for assessing the water–energy–food security in arid or semiarid areas is presented through different scenarios considering the availability, accessibility, and sustainability of the involved resources. The proposed approach is applied in the State of Nuevo León in Mexico, which is the second-most important state regarding contribution to the national Gross Domestic Product. Nevertheless, the rapid increase in its population and the semiarid climate condition with precedents of natural catastrophes jeopardize the continuity of its development. Results show that the state may not be able to meet the demands of water and food due to the stress generated on its resources. In contrast, the energy situation is more promising with the implementation of energy from renewable sources. The analysis is carried out over a past time period and making projections until 2030, providing a tool to be able to make decisions in the medium and long term. The main goal is to propose preventive measures and to ensure sustainable planning covering economic, social, and environmental needs without compromising the well-being of future generations. In this sense, the implementation of new policies for the water sector is analyzed, with the aim of reducing domestic and agricultural consumption, targeting improvements in the evaluated indices.