A New Integrated Portfolio Based Water-Energy-Environment Nexus in Wetland Catchments

Abstract

Increasing demand of vital resources such as water and energy will impose some overwhelming environmental degradation, particularly on wetlands as the most vulnerable bodies of the environment. Consequently, optimization of water and energy portfolios have been widely studied in order to ensure environmental sustainability and to consider the constraints simultaneously. In this study improving the security of portfolios has been performed based on resource security index to find non-dominated portfolios (Pareto Frontier). Non-dominated portfolios as scenarios to remediate water bankruptcy have been developed and probable environmental impacts have been assessed. A new Financial-Environmental Index called Water-Energy-Environment Nexus Security Index (WEENSI) have been utilized through a multi criteria decision making approach to find admiringly compatible non-dominated water and energy portfolios for environmental remediation purposes in the case of the Lake Urmia catchment as an epitome of water bankruptcy situation. Results indicate that portfolio based management approaches could be a desired solution to water bankruptcy and an inspiring option for environmental remediation, particularly in wetland catchments. It has further become known that persisting on the conventional water resources management in this catchment will increase water demand of energy sector up to more than 500 million cubic meters (MCM) in 2060, exacerbating the current critical environmental condition. Also, increasing the share of renewable energies at least up to 40% must be taken into account by managers and policy makers. Broadly speaking, any development of energy sector requires an urgent change in the currently practiced approach and considerable investment in non-conventional energy resources. The increase in primary costs of optimizing and improving the water and energy portfolios may alleviate the anthropogenic impacts with high social costs to the region.

Enhancing Energy Security through Portfolio Thinking: An Analysis of National Energy Portfolios

“…Step 1: Development of an aggregated measure called Resource Security Index (RSI) based on ten sub-indices. These indices are: GHG Emission, Water Consumption, Water Withdrawal, Land Footprint, Cost and Social Cost which has been demonstrated in our previous study (78). Also, we added four other indices to widen our aggregated measure's scope.…”

“…Complex problems of human-environment systems in the energy sector require complicated convenient solutions to address all aspects of the energy security debate in the 21 st century which makes a more environmentally friendly future for the planet earth (73). Considering all aspects of energy security discussed in this section, new holistic portfolio based solutions (74,75), reinforced with aggregated evaluative measures (76)(77)(78)(79) and enclosed with several alternative frontier solutions have helped decision makers to make wise decisions to ensure sustainable development targets in the energy sector which are described in the following: Goal 7 of the United Nations environment and sustainable development programme includes: Target 7.1: By 2030, ensure universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services. Target 7.2: By 2030, increase substantially the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix.…”

Numerical analysis of water, energy, and environment nexus in the hybrid thermal and solar multigeneration power plants

“…For calculating the amount of saving in energy resources, the rate of consumed fuel in exchange for gross production in 1 year by Fajr steam power plant has been considered 317.1 L in exchange of each MWh and based on Equation (), the amount of saving in fossil fuel consumption during the 20 years of useful life of the PV power plant has been calculated. Moreover, for converting this amount of fuel consumption into energy, the thermal value of mazut is equal to 1.032 tons of crude oil in exchange for each cubic meter and the thermal value of gasoline equals to 0.903 tons of crude oil in exchange of each cubic meter, 47 and the energy balance in the form of the balance of the saved energy have been calculated on the basis of Equation (), respectively 48 $$$\mathrm{EB}={\rm{E}}\times {\rm{Y}}\times {\rm{F}}\times {\rm{H}}.$$$…”

Hydropower representation in water and energy system models: a review of divergences and call for reconciliation

“…Recognizing the need for sector integration is not new, as evidenced by the broader emergence of 'nexus' research fields involving water and energy, combined water-energy system models and modeling frameworks, and previous explicit calls for such integration. Related 'nexus' fields vary in scope, and include the water-energy nexus (Hussey and Pittock 2012, U.S. Department of Energy 2014, Hamiche et al 2016, Khan et al 2017, Ding et al 2020, the food-energy-water nexus (Smajgl et al 2016, Endo et al 2017, Zhang et al 2018a, the water-energy-environment nexus (Lofman et al 2002, Yazdandoost andYazdani 2019), and others. Many models and model frameworks exist in the literature to support these nexuses, as reviewed by others (e.g.…”