Effects of a Shifting Demographic on the Water Energy Food Nexus in a Water-poor, Energy-rich City
Abstract
Global water-energy-food (WEF) use, security and sustainability is highly determined by urban areas, as more than half of the world's population are urban dwellers, and this percentage is on the rise. This is apparent given that 80% of global GDP is produced in cities, and 75% of global primary energy is consumed in urban areas. We examined the links between water energy and food in Adelaide, a coastal city in Australia with a population of around 1.25 million inhabitants. This region has ample energy supplies, with one of the highest rates of renewable energy production in the world, and access to additional, conventional energies supplies from other parts of the Australian network. However, the water supplies in this region are theoretically limited, as groundwater depletion is already occurring in the food production areas surrounding the city, and municipal water supplies rely heavily on the fully allocated Murray River system. Within this concept, we examined the urban links between the water, energy, and food sectors for Adelaide, and how these links have changed in time. Initial quantification of water and energy links in Adelaide is available from 2008, while information on food consumption (e.g. from state and federal censuses), showed a changing demographic emerging already at the turn of the century. This temporal analysis is important for predicting trends into the future to meet the changing requirements of a global population.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFMGC32A..05S
- Keywords:
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- 0402 Agricultural systems;
- BIOGEOSCIENCES;
- 1630 Impacts of global change;
- GLOBAL CHANGE;
- 1878 Water/energy interactions;
- HYDROLOGY;
- 6344 System operation and management;
- POLICY SCIENCES & PUBLIC ISSUES