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Relationship of Energy and Water Resource Availability
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Relationship of Energy and Water Resource Availability

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Water-Energy Nexus".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (5 December 2022) | Viewed by 12460

Special Issue Editor

Dr. May Wu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Principal Environmental System Scientist, Argonne National Laboratory, Energy Systems Division, Argonne, IL 60439, USA
Interests: water resource availability; water footprint of biofuels, water consumption in petroleum production and electricity generation; reclaimed municipal wastewater use; water management in biorefineries; water quality impacts of feedstock production; agricultural conservation practices and landscape design for biomass

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims to present recent progress in understanding the relationships between water resource availability and energy production in a global context that encompasses both a rapidly changing climate and economic development.

Water availability is essential to sustainable energy production. Across the globe, a rapid increase in extreme weather events and a shift in weather patterns signal that the world is facing a changing climate – and negative impacts on water resources as a result. Increasing energy demand compounds impacts on water resources. To help overcome these challenges, researchers have explored potential strategies to adapt to a new normal of energy-water nexus that is emerging. Technology advancement and analysis focus on increasing the efficiency of water use and selecting low-water-intensity pathways of energy production. Alternative water resources – saline water, reclaimed municipal wastewater, and seawater, for example – are shown to be promising substitutes for freshwater. Understanding the interactions among technology, climate, policies, and management strategy as well as the implications of these variables on water availability and socioeconomics will enable stakeholders and policy makers to make sound decisions, even in the face of uncertainty. This Special Issue will cover research and analysis on freshwater availability at regional and global scales; water resource consumption in conventional and renewable energy production; alternative water resource use; competing water use among energy, agriculture, and urban sectors; and socioeconomic effects. These findings, success stories, and lessons learned help in addressing the energy-water nexus in a low-carbon, energy-driven circular water economy.

Dr. May Wu
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • water resource availability
  • freshwater, reclaimed water, saline water, sea water
  • fuel production
  • electric power generation
  • conventional and renewable energy
  • water management
  • climate change impact

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 3534 KiB  
Article
Viability of Reclaiming Municipal Wastewater for Potential Microalgae-Based Biofuel Production in the U.S.
by May Wu, Sarah McBride and Miae Ha
Water 2023, 15(17), 3123; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15173123 - 31 Aug 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1309
Abstract
Reclaimed municipal wastewater is a crucial component in biofuel production, especially in regions experiencing increasing freshwater scarcity. However, accurately estimating the potential for fuel production is challenging because of the uneven distribution of biofuel feedstock regions and wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). This study [...] Read more.
Reclaimed municipal wastewater is a crucial component in biofuel production, especially in regions experiencing increasing freshwater scarcity. However, accurately estimating the potential for fuel production is challenging because of the uneven distribution of biofuel feedstock regions and wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). This study assesses the viability of using reclaimed municipal water for algal biomass production in pond systems co-located with WWTPs under scenarios driven by biomass production and based on water transport logistics. We performed state- and county-level analysis of reclaimed water resources throughout the United States based on WWTP facility data. We overlaid these data onto estimated algae facility sites and examined the temporal resource availability to address seasonal variations in cultivation demand. Our findings reveal that 2694 billion liters per year of reclaimed water could potentially be used to produce 42.2 million metric tons (ash-free dry weight) of algal biomass, equivalent to 29.2 billion liters of renewable diesel equivalent (RDe). The use of reclaimed water would double current national water reuse and expand such reuse significantly in 455 counties across the United States. However, when we limit the construction of algae facilities to counties that can fully meet their water demand in order to minimize water transport burdens, the available supply decreases by 80%, to 512 billion liters, resulting in annual production of 12.2 billion liters of RDe, which still doubles current biodiesel production. Our analysis highlights the degree to which the location and flow of WWTPs and water transport affect the deployment of algae biofuel facilities and tradeoffs. These findings underscore the importance of improving the current WWTP infrastructure for reclaimed water reuse, especially in southern states. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Relationship of Energy and Water Resource Availability)
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22 pages, 4587 KiB  
Article
A Hybrid Approach to Improve Flood Forecasting by Combining a Hydrodynamic Flow Model and Artificial Neural Networks
by Li Li and Kyung Soo Jun
Water 2022, 14(9), 1393; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14091393 - 26 Apr 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2666
Abstract
Climate change is driving worsening flood events worldwide. In this study, a hybrid approach based on a combination of the optimization of a hydrodynamic model and an error correction modeling that exploit different aspects of the physical system is proposed to improve the [...] Read more.
Climate change is driving worsening flood events worldwide. In this study, a hybrid approach based on a combination of the optimization of a hydrodynamic model and an error correction modeling that exploit different aspects of the physical system is proposed to improve the forecasting accuracy of flood water levels. In the parameter optimization procedure for the hydrodynamic model, Manning’s roughness coefficients were estimated by considering their spatial distribution and temporal variation in unsteady flow conditions. In the following error correction procedure, the systematic errors of the optimized hydrodynamic model were captured by combining the input variable selection method using partial mutual information (PMI) and artificial neural networks (ANNs), and therefore, complementary information provided by the data was achieved. The developed ANNs were used to analyze the potential non-linear relationships between the considered state variables and simulation errors to predict systematic errors. To assess the hybrid forecasting approach (hydrodynamic model with an ANN-based error correction model), performances of the hydrodynamic model, two ANN-based water-level forecasting models (ANN1 and ANN2), and the hybrid model were compared. Regarding input candidates, ANN1 considers the historical observations only, and ANN2 considers not only the historical observations that used in ANN1 but also the prescribed boundary conditions required for the hydrodynamic forecast model. As a result, the hybrid model significantly improved the forecasting accuracy of flood water levels compared to individual models, which indicates that the hybrid model is able to take advantage of complementary strengths of both the hydrodynamic model and the ANN model. The optimization of the hydrodynamic model allowing spatially and temporally variable parameters estimated water levels with acceptable accuracy. Furthermore, the use of PMI-based input variable selection and optimized ANNs as error correction models for different sites were proven to successfully predict simulation errors in the hydrodynamic model. Hence, the parameter optimization of the hydrodynamic model coupled with error correction modeling for water level forecasting can be used to provide accurate information for flood management. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Relationship of Energy and Water Resource Availability)
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15 pages, 635 KiB  
Article
Green Energy and Water Resource Management: A Case Study of Fishery and Solar Power Symbiosis in Taiwan
by Han-Shen Chen and Hung-Yu Kuo
Water 2022, 14(8), 1299; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14081299 - 15 Apr 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 4112
Abstract
Renewable energy development is a key pathway for mitigating climate change. The Taiwan government has been actively developing low carbon green energy with solar photovoltaic technology and wind power as their primary development projects. Cigu Taiwan provides an ideal research site to examine [...] Read more.
Renewable energy development is a key pathway for mitigating climate change. The Taiwan government has been actively developing low carbon green energy with solar photovoltaic technology and wind power as their primary development projects. Cigu Taiwan provides an ideal research site to examine tradeoffs between ecological conservation, marine fisheries, and green power development, and the factors affect commitments to ecological conservation in the face of these tradeoffs. This research investigates the fishery and electricity symbiosis project in Cigu through a novel combination of the theory of planned behavior and the contingent valuation method to analyze the factors influencing the local residents’ behavioral intentions to safeguard ecological achievements in ecologically fragile areas through conservation trust funds. Analysis of survey responses from a convenience sample of 715 residents and resource users in the Cigu area reports that attitudes (ATT), subjective norms (SN), perceived behavioral control (PBC), environmental concern (EC), and environmental risk (ER) significantly influence the behavioral intention to pay eco-compensation fees; the local residents’ willingness to pay for the conservation trust funds was NTD 621.4/year (USD 21.9/year), and decreased to NTD 545.9/year (USD 19.2/year) after the implementation of fishery and electricity symbiosis. The discussion section argues that the drivers of ATT, SN, PBC, EC, and ER can be used by policy makers to direct local residents’ intentions and behavior toward conserving ecological achievements in fragile eco-environmental areas through payments for ecosystem services. Thus, this strategy can improve the sustainability of ecological and environmental restoration programs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Relationship of Energy and Water Resource Availability)
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27 pages, 5562 KiB  
Article
Sustainable Surface Water Storage Development: Measuring Economic Benefits and Ecological and Social Impacts of Reservoir System Configurations
by Nishadi Eriyagama, Vladimir Smakhtin and Lakshika Udamulla
Water 2022, 14(3), 307; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14030307 - 20 Jan 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3554
Abstract
This paper illustrates an approach to measuring economic benefits and ecological and social impacts of various configurations of reservoir systems for basin-wide planning. It suggests indicators and examines their behavior under several reservoir arrangement scenarios using two river basins in Sri Lanka as [...] Read more.
This paper illustrates an approach to measuring economic benefits and ecological and social impacts of various configurations of reservoir systems for basin-wide planning. It suggests indicators and examines their behavior under several reservoir arrangement scenarios using two river basins in Sri Lanka as examples. A river regulation index is modified to take into account the volume of flow captured by reservoirs and their placement and type. Indices of connectivity illustrate that the lowest river connectivity in a basin results from a single new reservoir placed on the main stem of a previously unregulated river between the two locations that command 50% and 75% of the basin area. The ratio of the total affected population to the total number of beneficiaries is shown to increase as the cumulative reservoir capacity in a river basin increases. An integrated index comparing the performance of different reservoir system configurations shows that while results differ from basin to basin, the cumulative effects of a large number of small reservoirs may be comparable to those with a few large reservoirs, especially at higher storage capacities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Relationship of Energy and Water Resource Availability)
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