RT Journal Article
T1 Methodological guidelines for the calculation of a WaterEnergy-Food nexus index for seafood products
A1 Entrena-Barbero, Eduardo
A1 Moreira Vilar, María Teresa
A1 Feijoo Costa, Gumersindo
K1 Environmental footprints
K1 Nutritional index
K1 Composite indicator
K1 Life Cycle Assessment
K1 Ecolabel
K1 Seafood sector
AB Indicators from Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodologies (i.e., footprints) have emerged as useful tools for identifying and communicating the environmental impacts of a system because of their accessible and intuitive understanding to non-expert public. However, the focus on a single environmental problem is one of their main drawbacks. Moreover, LCA studies have shown a lack of homogeneity in addressing the impacts related to seafood production systems, apart from these are often assessed on an individual basis. In view of finding a solution to this matter, the concept of Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus arises for raising awareness of the connections between the universal rights to water supply, energy security and food provision. Hence, this paper aims, on the one hand, to provide technical guidance to shed light on the harmonisation of LCA studies applied to the seafood sector and, on the other hand, propose a methodology for estimating a WEF nexus index (WEFni). For that, an integrative perspective was followed in which four indicators were selected to be integrated into one single value:  carbon, water, energy and nutritional footprints. Likewise, the WEFni was shown in the form of an easy-to-read ecolabel for benchmarking seafood products, thus creating a useful communication channel between stakeholders: producers and consumers. Finally, the methodology introduced is expected to serve as reference to be applied to a series of cases studies of the European Atlantic area within the NEPTUNUS project. Despite this, certain aspects should be reassessed so that the WEF nexus ecolabel can be present in the seafood supply chain as well as in other food sectors, such as the indicators chosen or the normalisation, weighting and integration procedures considered.
PB Elsevier
SN 1879-1026
YR 2023
FD 2023-03-21
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10347/39123
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10347/39123
LA eng
NO Entrena-Barbero, E., Santos, S. C., Cortés, A., Esteve-Llorens, X., Moreira, M. T., Villanueva-Rey, P., ... & Feijoo, G. (2023). Methodological guidelines for the calculation of a Water-Energy-Food nexus index for seafood products. Science of the Total Environment, 877, 162845.
NO CRETUS, Department of Chemical Engineering, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 15705 Santiago de Compostela, Spain
NO Energylab, Fonte das Abelleiras s/n, Campus Universidad de Vigo, 36310 Vigo, Spain
NO IPMA, Instituto Portugês do Mar e da Atmosfera, Divisão de Aquacultura, Valorização e Bioprospeão, Avenida Doutor Alfredo Magalhães Ramalho 6, 1495-165 Lisboa, Portugal
NO CIIMAR, Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental, Terminal de Cruzeiros do Porto de Leixões, Avenida General Norton de Matos, S/N, 4450-208 Matosinhos, Portugal
NO Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM), Department of Environment and Planning, University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal
NO Departamento de Ingenierías Química y Biomolecular, Universidad de Cantabria, Avda. de Los Castros, s/n, 39005 Santander, Spain
NO Interreg Atlantic Area (EAPA_576/2018 NEPTUNUS project)
NO Xunta de Galicia (ED431C 2021/37, ED481A-2021/164)
DS Minerva
RD 24 abr 2026