2015/04/08

The realization of the Water-Soil-Waste Nexus Approach requires a holistic understanding of the interlinkage of all related environmental processes, while also taking into consideration global change and socioeconomic aspects. Exploring these interlinkages and advancing a nexus-oriented management approach requires integrated modeling tools. However, no single modeling tool is available or conceivable that can cover all processes, interactions and drivers related to the management of water, soil and waste resources. Instead, a vast number of models are available that deal with specific environmental cycles related to water, soil and waste resources at varying degrees of detail. They vary also with regard to spatial and temporal scales and the choice of mathematical process-describing relationships. To address a specific research question or management issue, in particular when applying a nexus approach, it is both more efficient and more feasible to make use of available tools and modify or couple them as required, instead of developing an appropriate modeling tool from scratch. To make use of existing tools, a tools database that allows the interactive comparison of those tools is a prerequisite.

The United Nations University Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resources (UNU-FLORES) has therefore developed an interactive Nexus Tools Platform (NTP) for inter-model comparison of existing modelling tools related to the water-soil-waste nexus. The NTP provides detailed model information and advanced filtering based on real-time visualizations and will continuously grow with the input and feedback from the model developers and model users. Currently, the NTP database consists of 60 models from around the world.

The Nexus Tools Platform (alpha) can be accessed freely here.