Elsevier

Science of The Total Environment

Volume 655, 10 March 2019, Pages 35-47
Science of The Total Environment

Untangling the water-food-energy-environment nexus for global change adaptation in a complex Himalayan water resource system

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.11.045Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Highlights

  • Water resource systems model is combined with nexus analysis.

  • Socio-economic impacts on nexus components are greater than climate change.

  • Complex scenario-specific synergies & trade-offs stress benefits of systems models

  • Achieving balanced nexus components supports multiple SDGs.

Abstract

Holistic water management approaches are essential under future climate and socio-economic changes, especially while trying to achieve inter-disciplinary societal goals such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of clean water, hunger eradication, clean energy and life on land. Assessing water resources within a water-food-energy-environment nexus approach enables the relationships between water-related sectors to be untangled while incorporating impacts of societal changes. We use a systems modelling approach to explore global change impacts on the nexus in the mid-21st century in a complex western Himalayan water resource system in India, considering a range of climate change and alternative socio-economic development scenarios. Results show that future socio-economic changes will have a much stronger impact on the nexus compared to climate change. Hydropower generation and environmental protection represent the major opportunities and limitations for adaptation in the studied system and should, thereby, be the focus for actions and systemic transformations in pursue of the SDGs. The emergence of scenario-specific synergies and trade-offs between nexus component indicators demonstrates the benefits that water resource systems models can make to designing better responses to the complex nexus challenges associated with future global change.

Keywords

Systems modelling
WEAP
Nexus
Synergies and trade-offs
Climate change
Socio-economic change

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