Analyzing existing UAE national water, energy and food nexus related strategies

Since 1971, United Arab Emirates strategies on water, food, and energy were top priority for the country and many of the conducted reports were done independently. Today and from security aspect, strategies should take into consideration the interlinkages between the current energy, water, and food strategies, and hence the nexus approach. The paper at hand will identify the historical development of these strategies and their potential relations to the nexus. In addition, the major public and private stakeholders/actors that influence the decision making process are identified. Finally, many of the recent policies that are related to the nexus are evaluated to determine if there are consensus among major stakeholders/actors in the country. Gephi software, network analysis and visualization package, was used to analyze the strength of the relationships among stakeholders/actors. KTAB, a toolkit for behavioral analysis model, is also used to analyze the level of consensus for several selected policies related to the nexus among the major stakeholders that influence the policy decision making in UAE. Results show a consensus among the major stakeholders/actors regarding the relevant policies but the linkages between the different stakeholders/actors need to be enhanced.