Assessing the Level of Inter-Sectoral Policy Integration for Governance in the Water–Energy Nexus: A Comparative Study of Los Angeles and Beijing

Gregory N Sixt,Claudia Strambo,Jingjing Zhang,Guoyi Han,Nicholas Chow,Jie Liu

doi:10.3390/su12177220

Abstract

As concerns around water scarcity and energy security increase, so too has interest in the connections between these resources, through a concept called the water–energy nexus. Efforts to improve the integration of water and energy management and to understand their cross-sector relevance are growing. In particular, this paper develops a better empirical understanding on the extent to which governance settings hinder and/or enable policy coherence between the water and energy sectors through a comparative analysis of two case studies, namely, Los Angeles County, California, the United States, and the city of Beijing, China. This paper examines the extent to which the institutional context enables policy coordination within (vertically) and between (horizontally) the water and energy sectors in Beijing and Los Angeles. To do so, we propose a framework for analyzing policy integration for the water energy nexus based on environmental policy integration (EPI). The results highlight the multiple and flexible approaches of EPI in nexus governance, not least with regards to horizontal and vertical policy integration, but also in terms of explicit (i.e., intended) and implicit (i.e., unintended) coordination. The level of nexus-focused policy integration is highly dependent on the motivation at the local context and the criteria to evaluate policy success in each sector.

Highlights

Water availability and use is deeply interconnected with energy production [1]
In California, the principal sources of water include: the California State Water Project (SWP), transferring water from Northern California to Southern California; the Central Valley Project, providing essential agricultural water for food production in California’s Central Valley; and the Colorado River Aqueduct, which allocates additional water from the Colorado River to be moved to Southern California
These water management decisions are upheld by different agencies, often in mutual coordination, with the SWP being managed by the California Department of Water Resources (DWR), while the latter two are managed by the federal Bureau of Reclamation

Summary

Introduction

Water availability and use is deeply interconnected with energy production [1]. Throughout the last century, these connections were largely ignored—it was assumed that energy for providing and using water would remain cheap and abundant, and energy systems were developed under the assumption that water would remain accessible [2]. As concerns around water and energy security grow, so too has interest in the interlinkages between these resources, known as the water–energy nexus (WEN) [3]. Infrastructure and technology are at the core of the WEN, and the nexus is often characterized in resource use efficiency terms and operational interdependencies [4]. The governance landscape and the processes that dictate how resources are allocated critically influence how technical information on trade-offs between sectoral objectives is translated into action [11]. It is not yet clear how governance contexts of different countries impact the barriers and pathways to water and energy policy coherence

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