Drastic changes in electricity demand have been observed since March 2020 in Europe, after several countries implemented lockdown-like measures to contain the spread of COVID-19. We investigate the sensitivity of the electricity–water nexus in the European electric grid to large-scale behavior changes during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown-like measures. We quantify changes in the blue virtual water trade between five European countries heavily affected by COVID-19 during the same period. As a result, the consumptive water footprint of thermal power plant operations in Europe decreased by 1.77 × 10 6 m 3 /day during the COVID-19 lockdowns, compared to the average of the past four years. Reduced electricity demand accounts for 16% (0.29 × 10 6 m 3 /day) of the decrease, while the remainder is attributable to changes in the electricity generation mix toward less water-intensive technologies before 2020 and during lockdowns. Virtual water transfers associated with electricity were also affected: Italy, a hotspot of COVID-19, reduced its water footprint by 8.4% and its virtual water imports by 70,700 m 3 /day. Germany and France slightly reduced their domestic water footprint of electricity but increased their virtual water imports. These findings improve our understanding of the impacts of large-scale behavior and technological changes to the European electricity–water nexus.

Costa Rica's annual mean precipitation is above 3300 mm, but this precipitation is not evenly distributed in time or space, producing clear differentiated wet and dry seasons in most of the country. Droughts are also common phenomena which greatly affect the availability of water resources. Managed aquifer recharge (MAR) schemes are being taken into consideration to enhance the underground water storage capacity of the country. The present study constitutes the first assessment for the identification of suitable sites for the implementation of MAR technology spreading methods (SM) in Costa Rica. The suitable sites are identified by means of a geographic information system multi-criteria decision analysis (GIS-MCDA) based on four criteria: hydrogeological aptitude, terrain slope, top soil texture and drainage network density. Four steps are performed in order to identify these sites: problem definition, screening for suitable areas, suitability mapping, and sensitivity analysis. The suitability map was divided in two zones after the screening: suitable and unsuitable, the first zone was further divided in five classes according to the weighted linear combination (WLC) ranking. The results indicate that 61% of the country is suitable for conducting SM. This map is a tool for future implementation of MAR techniques in the country.

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Abstract:The Sustainable Development Goals have placed integrated resources management, such as integrated water resource management, at the heart of their targets. The upcoming "International Decade for Action-Water for Sustainable Development", 2018-2028 has highlighted the importance of promoting efficient water usage at all levels, taking into account the water, food, energy, and environmental nexus. While integrated resource management approaches have been defined and applied for decades, nexus approaches are more recent. For these latter approaches to be implemented on the ground, their system boundaries need to be clarified. While the Water-Energy-Food Nexus focuses on sectors, the Water-Soil-Waste Nexus addresses linkages between environmental resources-namely water, soil and waste-to tackle sustainable management. In this paper, we analyzed integrated management systems and how their system boundaries are defined. From this we determined that in order for system boundaries to be applicable, they should be clear, wide and flexible. Based on this, we propose the boundary of the Water-Soil-Waste Nexus system. We use two case studies to exemplify the usefulness of these system boundaries.