Water–Energy Nexus for Multi-Criteria Decision Making in Water Resource Management: A Case Study of Choshui River Basin in Taiwan

Mengshan Lee,Chia-Yii Yu,Pen-Chi Chiang,Chia-Hung Hou

doi:10.3390/w10121740

Abstract

The Choshui river basin, the mother river in Taiwan, suffers from severe water shortage from extensive water use in irrigation as well as land subsidence from over-pumping of groundwater. To address these challenges, several water-related strategies and actions, including enhancement of water-use efficiency, development of alternative water sources, and improvement in effective water management, were proposed in this study to support sustainable water resource management in the watershed. Management of water resources in Taiwan is expected to confront not only freshwater resource but also energy source constraints. Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA), an approach for ranking overall performances of decision options, was then used to prioritize the water resource management strategies. The analysis considered economic (economic feasibility) and environmental (stability from the influence of climate change) criteria in the context of water–energy nexus (water supply/conservation potential and systemic energy efficiency). Our results indicated that, while economic feasibility was considered as the most important factor in implementation of the practices, improvement in groundwater pumping control and management was ranked as a high-priority water resource management action, followed by initiating water conservation programs for residential sector and reducing leakage rate for agricultural irrigation canals. The results from this study are expected to provide direction for future decision making in water resource management.

Highlights

Water scarcity and energy security are well-recognized worldwide challenges; they are addressed as key components in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 6 and7)
These scenarios were set for maintaining the systemic energy efficiency the most important criteria, respectively, considering those two criteria may stability in both water and energy systems, which couldwere be attributed to the minimization of both time be prioritized before economic feasibility
The thinking of water–energy nexus was important in this study as water resource management in Taiwan may confront freshwater resource and energy resource constraints

Summary

Introduction

Water scarcity and energy security are well-recognized worldwide challenges; they are addressed as key components in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 6 and7). Water scarcity and energy security are well-recognized worldwide challenges; they are addressed as key components in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Water and energy are vulnerable to the impacts of global climate change [1], and, the development of urban, industrial, or agricultural activities strongly rely on the use of both of the two resources. The processes of abstracting, treatment and distribution of water all require energy; and, generation of energy needs water. The term of water–energy nexus is used to represent the interactions and interdependences between water and energy, implying that water constraints can translate into energy constraints or vice versa [2]. It is worth mentioning that the interdependences between water and energy is an important issue for future sustainability planning and strategic policy considerations [3].

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Results

Conclusion