The WEF nexus has become a leading framing for resource management policies. This chapter discusses the main challenges regarding the analytical tools used to address the WEF nexus studies: to develop holistic, multidisciplinary approaches that are able to fully understand the multi-sectoral trade-offs and to explore the interdependencies and feedbacks across different hierarchical and spatial scales, from the macroeconomic development to regional planning, down to the local communities.

The aim of this chapter was to summarize recent works, analysing the impact of structural infrastructure development on the WEF nexus and identifying strengths, shortcomings, and methodological gaps. The review covers not only multinational and large-scale analyses, as, for example, CGE models or IAM approaches, but also physical models in the WEF field, as well as small-scale analyses addressing the effect of uncertainty in the WEF elements and the WEF nexus perception and impacts at local level, e.g. through stakeholders’ involvement or agent-based approaches. A review of empirical tools available both to test economic theories and evaluate actual policies is also provided.