The Water Footprint Assessment of Electricity Production: An Overview of the Economic-Water-Energy Nexus in Italy

Miglietta, Pier Paolo; Morrone, Domenico; Leo, Federica De

doi:10.3390/su10010228

Cited by 31 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Future climate projections suggest no additional constraints on freshwater availability for rice irrigation (Elliott et al, ). However, water demand is high in the region (Miglietta, Morrone, & De Leo, ), and water resources are subject to multiple pressures, such as nitrogen pollution from agriculture (mainly caused by livestock farm), alteration of the natural river flow regime for water abstractions, contributing to the degradation of the ecological status and biodiversity of rivers (Grizzetti et al, ) and reducing the value of the related ecosystem services (Grizzetti et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptation and sustainability of water management for rice agriculture in temperate regions: The Italian case‐study

et al. 2019

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We review, analyse, and discuss the recent evolution and the future sustainability of rice paddy fields in Italy-the largest European producer-using outcomes from available literature and new analysis of agricultural statistics from local authorities, landuse and surface temperature data from remote sensing, hydrological and climate data from observations, and numerical models. We show that Italy can be considered a good representative for rice cultivation in temperate regions that are not freshwater-limited. However, this situation is changing. We report strong evidence linking the largest European reduction of seasonal surface water that have gradually occurred since 2000 over the rice cultivation area of Northern Italy, to the change in paddy management from traditional continuous flooding to a less greenhousegases-emitting practice, that is, dry-seeding with postponed flooding. This change was accompanied by several improvements in agro-practices and crop varieties. Concurrently, regional climate rapidly shifted towards sunnier weather conditions that partly contributed to higher rice yields and stability, decoupling yields from interannual climate variability, but also reducing water availability. In Northern Italy, a complete shift of rice cultivation towards dry-seeding is not compatible with seasonal water availability, and a number of drawbacks, with respect to the traditional wet seeding, are also identified from literature review. Therefore, in the context of near-term climate change, sustainable rice cultivation in the middle latitudes seems achievable (without limiting production and/or increasing volatility) by balancing traditional and dry-seeding.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptation and sustainability of water management for rice agriculture in temperate regions: The Italian case‐study

et al. 2019

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“…A total of 53.3 GW of electricity is from renewables accounting to 35% of Italian energy mix, where hydropower accounts for 35% of the renewable energy produced [49,50]. Hydropower is strategic since Italy conceals a minimum amount of fossil feedstock and depends on resources from abroad [51]. As of 2016, the import of fossil fuels accounted for 92.6% [52].…”

Section: Italian Hydropower: Current Situation and Climate Change Impmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water-Energy Nexus for an Italian Storage Hydropower Plant under Multiple Drivers

Bonato

Ranzani

Patro

et al. 2019

Water

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Climate change has repercussions on the management of water resources. Particularly, changes in precipitation and temperature impact hydropower generation and revenue by affecting seasonal electricity prices and streamflow. This issue exemplifies the impact of climate change on the water-energy-nexus, which has raised serious concern. This paper investigates the impact of climate change on hydropower with a multidisciplinary approach. A holistic perspective should be favored as the issue is complex, consequently, we chose to investigate a specific case study in Italy. It allows grasping the details, which matters in mountainous area. We integrated a hydrological model, hydropower management model, nine climate scenarios, and five electricity scenarios for a specific storage hydropower plant. Independently from the scenarios, the results show a glacier volume shrinkage upward of 40% by 2031 and minimum of 50% by 2046. The reservoir mitigates losses of revenue that reach 8% in the worst case, however, are lower compared with run-of-the-river configuration. Changes in price seasonality amplitude also determine modifications in revenues, while temporal shifts appear to be ineffective. For run-of-the-river, any variation in hydrological cycle immediately translates into revenue. Comparing the results of all future scenarios with the base scenario, it can be concluded that an increase in temperature will slightly improve the performances of hydropower.

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“…Electrical power production is one of the largest water-intensive activities worldwide [1]. Growing global concern about this link, known as the 'water-energy nexus', has led to an increase in the number of related studies in the international literature in recent years [2][3][4][5][6]. Most of the research focuses on regions vulnerable to drought, such as Africa, the Middle East, and some areas in the U.S. [7][8][9][10][11][12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The River’s Light: Water Needs for Thermoelectric Power Generation in the Ebro River Basin, 1969–2015

Sesma-Martín

2019

Water

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Water is essential for almost all energy processes. This paper analyses the evolution of the cooling water needs of thermal power plants in the Ebro River basin, the largest contributor to the Spanish electricity grid, over the period 1969–2015. It makes several contributions. First, the cooling water needs for the plants are estimated. Second, these water requirements are compared to other water-using activities in the region. Third, a long-term water-use efficiency analysis is carried out. Finally, water-saving measures are proposed to counter possible future water scarcities. The results show that thermoelectric water consumption per capita is around 7 m3/year. Estimated future thermal power generation water withdrawals (around 500m3 per capita/year) might compromise flows for other water uses in periods of drought.

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The Water Footprint Assessment of Electricity Production: An Overview of the Economic-Water-Energy Nexus in Italy

Cited by 31 publications

References 38 publications

Adaptation and sustainability of water management for rice agriculture in temperate regions: The Italian case‐study

Adaptation and sustainability of water management for rice agriculture in temperate regions: The Italian case‐study

Water-Energy Nexus for an Italian Storage Hydropower Plant under Multiple Drivers

The River’s Light: Water Needs for Thermoelectric Power Generation in the Ebro River Basin, 1969–2015

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