Availability and Prevalence of Energy-for-Water Data: A Critical Review of the Urban Energy-Water Nexus
Abstract
Published literature on the energy-water nexus continues to increase, yet much of the supporting data, particularly regarding energy-for-water, remains obscure or inaccessible. Energy is required to supply, transport, and treat drinking water resources and treat wastewater effluent in urban environments. These energy requirements have been extensively studied, but the underlying data remain largely unclear. We perform a critical review of literature that describe the energy demands for drinking water and wastewater resources in urban environments. This review critically analyzes the underlying data sources for over 170 studies, their geographic location, and the data presentation within each study. We determine that there are a few common technical reports that are widely cited in the literature, which could cause uncertainty propagation in the results, especially when misapplied to a different geographical region. Additionally, there are surprising number of primary data sources (data collected directly from utilities) that enables large-scale data sharing to create a more comprehensive understanding of global water-related energy demand. The analyzed studies often also considered greenhouse gas emissions or energy as an important input for life cycle analysis, highlighting the broader importance of the energy-water nexus. We identify several common practices for filling data gaps, discover that research and data are primarily concentrated in three countries (Australia, China, and the United States), and offer suggestions for the future of the energy-water nexus, specifically regarding energy-for-water.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFM.H43P2295C
- Keywords:
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- 1847 Modeling;
- HYDROLOGY;
- 1880 Water management;
- HYDROLOGY;
- 6314 Demand estimation;
- POLICY SCIENCES & PUBLIC ISSUES;
- 6344 System operation and management;
- POLICY SCIENCES & PUBLIC ISSUES