Environmental livelihood security in Southeast Asia and Oceania: a water-energy-food-livelihoods nexus approach for spatially assessing change

This document addresses the need for explicit inclusion of livelihoods within the environment nexus (water-energy-food security). The authors present a conceptualisation of ‘environmental livelihood security’, which combines the nexus perspective with sustainable livelihoods. The geographical focus of this paper is Southeast Asia and Oceania, which the authors highlight is a region currently wrought by the impacts of a changing climate. Climate change is the primary external forcing mechanism on the environmental livelihood security of communities in Southeast Asia and Oceania which, therefore, forms the applied crux of this paper. The paper provides a primer for using geospatial information to develop a spatial framework to enable geographical assessment of environmental livelihood security across the region. It concludes by linking the value of this research to ongoing sustainable development discussions, and for influencing policy agendas.