The future of energy development could be soon restrained by water scarcity. Shale gas, which is highly water-consuming in its extraction, is even more vulnerable. Thus, understanding the power ...system’s response to water constraints considering uncertainties from variable renewable energy generation becomes critical. This study presents a multi-stage stochastic Mixed Complementarity Problem for the energy sector, considering renewables variability and water scarcity’s impact on natural gas extraction. The power and natural gas sectors were modeled with hourly and daily resolution, respectively. Results demonstrate that stochastic planning enables smoother natural gas production and storage strategies, ensuring consistent operations with a narrower production range. Water taxation affects gas production and the generation mix, leading to electricity price changes. Gas-based electricity generation varies up to 16.2% based on water taxation and wind availability. Furthermore, water taxation of up to 20% can raise gas prices by up to 21.1%. This study underscores the need to integrate water scarcity considerations into energy planning, offering insights into sustainable decision-making, water resource management, reliable electricity generation, and price stability amidst evolving renewable portfolios.
•A novel multi-stage Mixed Complementarity Problem model for the gas–electricity nexus.•Analysis of natural gas taxation on the electricity sector under uncertainty.•A comparison of the market outcomes under uncertainty and deterministic case.•Stochastic planning enhances the robustness of the strategies of the gas and electricity market players.•Natural gas-based electricity varies up to 16% depending on water taxation and wind availability.
Sustainability transformations Olsson, Per; Galaz, Victor; Boonstra, Wiebren J.
Ecology and society,
12/2014, Volume:
19, Issue:
4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Scholars and policy makers are becoming increasingly interested in the processes that lead to transformations toward sustainability. We explored how resilience thinking, and a stronger focus on ...social-ecological systems, can contribute to existing studies of sustainability transformations. First, we responded to two major points of critique: the claim that resilience theory is not useful for addressing sustainability transformations, and that the role of “power” in transformation processes has been underplayed by resilience scholars. Second, we highlighted promising work that combines insights from different theoretical strands, a strategy that strengthens our understanding of sustainability transformations. We elaborated three research areas on which such combined perspectives could focus: innovation and social-ecological-technological systems interactions, patterns of transformation, and agency and transformation.
•The stakeholders’ perspectives about water management policy are examined.•The critical factors associated with sustainable water management are identified.•The SWOC-AHP technique is used for ...grouping and prioritising the critical factors.•New scientific requirements for water management research are proposed.
The water availability in Kazakhstan is 37000 m3 per one km2 and 3650 m3 per capita a year, an amount that is lower than the world average (around 6000 m3) (Knoema, 2016). It is expected that water availability falls to 2300 m3 per capita in a year by 2030 (FAO, 2016a). Water pollution is a further problem for exploiting available water resources. In fact, 50–70% of surface water resources in Kazakhstan have been rated “polluted” and “highly polluted” in terms of ecological status (ICSD, 2016). Apart from that, water use efficiency remains very low. The average efficiency of canal water delivery systems is only 15–20% compared to 70–90% in most developed countries (FAO, 2016b). A number of institutional and policy measures have been implemented to enhance the sustainability of water resource use and water security; however, the country is still facing a number of problems of water use in a sustainable manner. This study provides stakeholders’ assessment of the critical factors that affect the sustainable management of water resources in Kazakhstan. The study rests on the results from the interviews that are further examined using the SWOC approach (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Challenges) and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique. The study demonstrates and prioritizes 32 critical SWOC factors relevant to the sustainable management of water resources in Kazakhstan. The study also determines four key stakeholder groups with differing opinions regarding the SWOC factors, which could potentially impact final policy implementation. Creating a comprehensive regulatory framework alongside decentralising water management from state water authorities to community-based water-user associations as well as investment to innovative irrigation technologies are likely to contribute towards a more equitable and efficient water distribution.
Water security is a critical concern due to intensifying anthropogenic activities and climate change. Delineating a water-related ecological security pattern can help to optimize spatial ...configuration, which in turn can inform sustainable water management. However, the methodology remains unclear. In this study, we developed a framework linking ecosystem service flow to water-related ecological security pattern; hence, we identified the sources, sinks, key corridors, and vulnerable nodes in Fujian Province, China. Our results revealed that the sources were located inland at high altitudes with a decreasing area trend in the south and an increasing area trend in the north, whereas the sinks were spread in coastal areas and exhibited a decreasing trend with relatively stable spatial distribution. The water-related ecological security has degraded as represented by a decreasing ecological supply-demand ratio over the last 30 years. Key corridors were identified in 17.12% of the rivers, and 22.5% of the vulnerable nodes were recognized as early warning nodes. Climate variability affected source distribution, while anthropogenic activities drove sink dynamics. These findings have important implications including landscape pattern planning and sustainable water management in the context of accelerated land use/cover and climate changes.
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•We proposed to link water provision service flows to ecological security patterns.•The framework can identify water-abundant and water-scarce areas.•Water security of Fujian Province has degraded during 1995–2022.•We identified key corridors and vulnerable nodes for determining priority protected rivers.
A major problem worldwide is the potential loss of fisheries, forests, and water resources. Understanding of the processes that lead to improvements in or deterioration of natural resources is ...limited, because scientific disciplines use different concepts and languages to describe and explain complex social-ecological systems (SESs). Without a common framework to organize findings, isolated knowledge does not cumulate. Until recently, accepted theory has assumed that resource users will never self-organize to maintain their resources and that governments must impose solutions. Research in multiple disciplines, however, has found that some government policies accelerate resource destruction, whereas some resource users have invested their time and energy to achieve sustainability. A general framework is used to identify 10 subsystem variables that affect the likelihood of self-organization in efforts to achieve a sustainable SES.
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•Water balance and groundwater dynamics in the oasis and desert sites were altered.•Soil water and groundwater level patterns in the oasis-desert system were reshaped.•Regional ...groundwater availability is changing and approaching hydrological limits.•Over-development is the dominant control on regional hydrological regimes change.
Irrigated agriculture greatly affects the hydrological systems and thereby eco-environment and food security in arid and semi-arid regions. However, a comprehensive assessment of the hydrological system dynamics in response to irrigated agriculture is still scarce, especially in oasis-desert systems of arid inland regions. Thus, we investigated the impact of irrigated agriculture on hydrological regimes in an oasis-desert system of northwest China. Temporal variations in water balance and lateral groundwater flow in oasis and desert experimental fields (i.e. oasis plot and desert plot) were quantified using the water balance analysis method. Soil water variations, groundwater dynamics and surface water and groundwater interactions in the oasis-desert system were determined by combining line transect survey methods and stable isotope (18O, 2H) techniques using the USGS MODFLOW software. The results showed that water exchange fluxes and groundwater dynamics were altered by the application of water-saving irrigation techniques and the increase in total precipitation. In particular, the downward total exchanging flux above groundwater table and the outward total lateral groundwater flow reduced significantly in the oasis plot. Spatial heterogeneity and profile variability of soil moisture along the soil water content (SWC) transect significantly reduced. Simultaneously, the depth dependence of SWC in oasis cropland and the deep soil moisture at the edge of desert were improved under water-saving irrigation scenario. Temporal variations in groundwater table depths (GTDs) exhibited three different patterns (i.e. stable, metastable and fluctuating) and maintained a continuously downward trend except for the oasis-desert ecotone along the GTD transect, and an abrupt change was found to have occurred during 2006–2012, prompting changes in the seasonality of groundwater resource availability. Groundwater recharge and discharge processes changed dramatically due to large-scale land reclamation and groundwater pumping. Groundwater depletion is approaching hydrological limits although the process is largely compensated by precipitation and streamflow variability. Water-saving irrigation in conjunction with restriction of land reclamation and adaptation of water management practices is, at least for the present, the most effective way to maintain the coexistence of oasis and desert ecosystems in arid inland regions.
In this paper we compare 10 established frameworks for analyzing social-ecological systems. We limited ourselves to frameworks that were explicitly designed to be used by a wider community of ...researchers and practitioners. Although all these frameworks seem to have emerged from the need for concepts that permit structured, interdisciplinary reasoning about complex problems in social-ecological systems, they differ significantly with respect to contextual and structural criteria, such as conceptualization of the ecological and social systems and their interrelation. It appears that three main criteria suffice to produce a classification of frameworks that may be used as a decision tree when choosing a framework for analysis. These criteria are (i) whether a framework conceptualizes the relationship between the social and ecological systems as being uni- or bidirectional; (ii) whether it takes an anthropocentric or an ecocentric perspective on the ecological system; and (iii) whether it is an action-oriented or an analysis-oriented framework.
Water Sustainability for China and Beyond Liu, Jianguo; Yang, Wu
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
08/2012, Volume:
337, Issue:
6095
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
A water crisis has prompted the Chinese government to develop an ambitious water conservancy plan. However, the plan may not achieve water sustainability and may cause unintended environmental and ...socioeconomic consequences, unless it accounts for complex human-nature interactions (1). Water shortages, for example, force people to find alternatives, such as treatment facilities, whose land and energy requirements aggravate food and energy production, which need large amounts of water. Other nations face similar challenges and share real water from China along international rivers and/or virtual water through trade. Water problems are particularly challenging in China, which has the largest population, fastest-growing economy, rising water demand, relatively scarce water, dated infrastructure, and inadequate governance. We highlight China's water crisis and plan, and then offer recommendations.
In light of human population growth, global food insecurity is an escalating concern. To meet increasing demand for food, leading scientists have called for "sustainable intensification", defined as ...the process of enhancing agricultural yields with minimal environmental impact and without expanding the existing agricultural land base. We argue that this definition is inadequate to merit the term "sustainable", because it lacks engagement with established principles that are central to sustainability. Sustainable intensification is likely to fail in improving food security if it continues to focus narrowly on food production ahead of other equally or more important variables that influence food security. Sustainable solutions for food security must be holistic and must address issues such as food accessibility. Wider consideration of issues related to equitable distribution of food and individual empowerment in the intensification decision process (distributive and procedural justice) is needed to put meaning back into the term "sustainable intensification".
The current Southwest drought is exceptional for its high temperatures and arguably the most severe in history. Coincidentally, there has been an increase in forest and woodland mortality due to ...fires and pathogenic outbreaks. Although the high temperatures and aridity are consistent with projected impacts of greenhouse warming, it is unclear whether the drought can be attributed to increased greenhouse gasses or is a product of natural climatic variability. Climate models indicate that the 21st century will be increasingly arid and droughts more severe and prolonged. Forest and woodland mortality due to fires and pathogens will increase. Demography and food security dictate that water demand in the Southwest will remain appreciable. If projected population growth is twinned with suburb-centered development, domestic demands will intensify. Meeting domestic demands through transference from agriculture presents concerns for rural sustainability and food security. Environmental concerns will limit additional transference from rivers. It is unlikely that traditional supply-side solutions such as more dams will securely meet demands at current per-capita levels. Significant savings in domestic usage can be realized through decreased applications of potable water to landscaping, but this is a small fraction of total regional water use, which is dominated by agriculture. Technical innovations, policy measures, and market-based solutions that increase supply and decrease water demand are all needed. Meeting 21st-century sustainability challenges in the Southwest will also require planning, cooperation, and integration that surpass 20th-century efforts in terms of geographic scope, jurisdictional breadth, multisectoral engagement, and the length of planning timelines.
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