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Water-energy nexus

Assessing integrated systems

Nature Climate Change volume 4, pages 246–247 (2014)Cite this article

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The various supply chains that deliver the services society needs are often managed in silos. Research now shows the advantages of integrated management.

Living in the beautiful cities of Stockholm and Vienna we note, with some irritation, occasional interruptions to their scenic walkways. Striving to provide services, a street might get torn up several times within a few months. First to do sewage repairs, then to lay new high-capacity data cables and finally to increase the capacity of the gas mains — efforts that might cost three times more tax money than if these activities were coordinated. And this is just an example at local level — globally it can be worse. Our societies are simply not organized to undertake integrated planning and action1. We spend far more than we need to deliver the services societies demand. Writing in Environmental Science and Technology, Bartos and Chester2 show the missed opportunities from the lack of integrated water-energy management in the state of Arizona, USA.

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Figure 1: The embodied energy in the water-cycle components in Arizona, USA in 2008.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mark Howells is in the Unit of Energy Systems Analysis at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Brinellvägen 68, SE-100 44, Stockholm, Sweden,

    Mark Howells

  2. H-Holger Rogner is at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Schlossplatz 1, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria,

    H-Holger Rogner

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  1. Mark Howells
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  2. H-Holger Rogner
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Correspondence to Mark Howells or H-Holger Rogner.

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Howells, M., Rogner, HH. Assessing integrated systems. Nature Clim Change 4, 246–247 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2180

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