Development of an input-output model for food-energy-water nexus in the pacific northwest, USA

Abstract

With growing populations and changing climate, the food, energy and water (FEW) security have become a global issue. In response, the concept of FEW nexus in which the interdependency between FEW sectors are taken into account in order to effectively manage the resources and provide FEW security has emerged. Thus, in order to understand the interdependency between FEW sectors a thorough quantitative framework is necessary. Although there are numerous studies on FEW nexus, there is limited research on developing mathematical equations to model the FEW nexus. The goal of this study was to develop an input-output (IO) model to quantify the interdependency between FEW sectors in the Pacific Northwest. The FEW sectors were divided into 21 subsectors and IO model was used to quantify the total output of each subsector. Intensity coefficients were calculated and further broken down to technology coefficients and allocation coefficients. The uncertainty analysis was used to quantify the effect of variation in technology coefficients and allocation coefficients on output of each subsector and the results showed that these two distributions are significantly different. The results of sensitivity analysis showed that agricultural crops, especially alfalfa has the highest sensitivity to water and energy consumption due to the fact that alfalfa production is energy and water intensive. The multi-objective optimization was used to minimize the cost and environmental impact of FEW system and the results showed that in order to minimize the cost and environmental impacts, more surface water and hydroelectricity and wind electricity should be utilized.