Abstract
By their very nature, insular countries face challenges in maintaining adequate supplies for water, energy, and food demands. As the global community and its insular members continue to develop in an age of advancing climate change, there is a recognition that the specific resource challenges of insular nations may be more difficult to address than others. These challenges become more nuanced as international migratory flows change as well, providing insular regions with added resource struggles. In this application of the WEF nexus, Greece serves as apt example; an insular region with unique resource vulnerabilities and dynamic migratory flows. Greece has been at the forefront of an international refugee crisis and significant migration flows into the European continent. Greece is home to the most inhabited islands in the EU. Previously known for outward migration, the country has experienced increased inward migration flows the last few decades.
Today, Greece experiences more and more irregular increases in migration due to refugee crises stemming from the Middle East and parts of Africa and has been hosting the majority of its refugees in the North Aegean region. The purpose of this poster is, by studying Greece in the context of its water, energy, and food systems and the pressures they face from both insularity and migration, to introduce an objective framework to measure the impact of migration on WEF resource systems, interconnections, and associated externalities. Understanding how migrants will impact the future size and composition of Greece’s population and its water, energy, and food resources is important for public and private sector decision-makers who currently lack the tools for quantifying the impact of anticipated migration flows on these interconnected resource systems and on economic, social, and environmental indicators.
Authors
Konstantinos Pappas, Silva C. Hamie, Bassel Daher, Elizabeth Bodenman
Poster Session 3 (Nexus), Room 1 - 28th September, 15:45-16:45
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