A quadruple bottom line sustainability assessment of the energy water waste nexus in Egyptian irrigated agriculture

Agriculture in arid regions such as Egypt faces a structural trilemma of water scarcity, energy insecurity, and organic waste mismanagement, yet current sustainability assessments often overlook critical social dimensions and lack integrated, farm-level decision-making tools. This study addresses this gap by developing and applying a novel quadruple-bottom-line sustainability assessment framework that integrates the technical, environmental, economic, and social dimensions with context-specific weighting for the Egyptian agricultural context. The framework operationalizes a food affordability metric and uses crop-specific benchmarks to evaluate conventional and improved scenarios for wheat and maize production. The results from its application show that baseline systems achieve just over half (≈ 52%) of their technical sustainability potential. Integrated interventions, particularly drip irrigation, solar-powered systems, and agricultural waste recycling, deliver targeted gains: drip irrigation improved technical performance by up to 31%, solar-powered systems enabled near-complete (85–100%) decarbonization of operational energy, and waste recycling emerged as the most balanced intervention for improving resource circularity. The framework’s reliance on crop-specific benchmarks and context-sensitive weighting makes it a policy-relevant tool. This study concludes that an integrated deployment of water efficiency, renewable energy, and circular waste management, supported by cross-sectoral planning, is essential for achieving sustainable intensification in Egypt, offering a blueprint for analogous arid agricultural systems.