Integrated energy-water-land nexus planning in the Colorado River Basin (Argentina)

Thomas B Wild,Mengqi Zhao,Fernando Miralles-Wilhelm,Brinda Yarlagadda,Marcelo Gavino-Novillo,Jonathan Lamontagne,Leon Clarke,Micaela Suriano,Julia Lacal Bereslawski,Fekadu Moreda,Raul Muñoz-Castillo,Abigail Birnbaum,José Casado,Zarrar Khan,Paula Roberts,Mohamad Hejazi

doi:10.1007/s10113-021-01775-1

Abstract

Integrated energy-water-land (EWL) planning promotes synergies and avoids conflicts in ways that sector-specific planning approaches cannot. Many important decisions that influence emerging EWL nexus issues are implemented at regional (e.g., large river basin, electricity grid) and sub-regional (e.g., small river basin, irrigation district) scales. However, actual implementation of integrated planning at these scales has been limited. Simply collecting and visualizing data and interconnections across multiple sectors and sub-regions in a single modeling platform is a unique endeavor in many regions. This study introduces and applies a novel approach to linking together multiple sub-regions in a single platform to characterize and visualize EWL resource use, EWL system linkages within and among sub-regions, and the EWL nexus implications of future policies and investments. This integrated planning methodology is applied in the water-stressed Colorado River Basin in Argentina, which is facing increasing demands for agricultural and fossil fuel commodities. Guided by stakeholders, this study seeks to inform basin planning activities by characterizing and visualizing (1) the basin’s current state of EWL resources, (2) the linkages between sectors within and among basin sub-regions, and (3) the EWL nexus implications of planned future agricultural development activities. Results show that water scarcity, driven in part by human demands that have historically reached 60% of total surface water supply, poses a substantial constraint to economic development in the basin. The Colorado basin has the potential to serve as a testbed for crafting novel and generalizable sub-regional EWL planning approaches capable of informing the EWL planning dialogue globally.

Highlights

Many regions of the world have developed effective institutional and infrastructural mechanisms for managing resources within individual sectors
The electricity system may increasingly rely on agricultural products to meet demands for a decarbonized electricity system to mitigate climate change (Azar et al 2010), which in turn increases agricultural water demand (Gerbens-Leenes et al 2009)
This paper introduces an option for addressing the data scarcity challenge in a multi-sector sub-regional planning context, by fusing together local data sets with globally available data sets that are commonly used by the Integrated Assessment Modeling (IAM) community

Summary

Introduction

Many regions of the world have developed effective institutional and infrastructural mechanisms for managing resources within individual sectors. The traditional sectoral planning paradigm is becoming decreasingly effective because energy, water, and land (EWL) systems are becoming increasingly interconnected and strained (Bazilian et al 2011; Ringler et al 2013; Scanlon et al 2017; D'Odorico et al 2018; Liu et al 2018). The electricity system may increasingly rely on agricultural products (e.g., biomass) to meet demands for a decarbonized electricity system to mitigate climate change (Azar et al 2010), which in turn increases agricultural water demand (Gerbens-Leenes et al 2009). The success of ambitious efforts currently underway at national and global scales, such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and mid-century strategies to mitigate climate change, will require more integrated planning at the regional (e.g., river basin) and sub-regional (e.g., subbasin) scales at which many important EWL decisions are made

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