A review of water–energy nexus trend, methods, challenges and future prospects

Fayiah, Moses; Dong, Shikui; Singh, Swati

doi:10.1007/s42108-020-00057-6

Cited by 28 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 93 publications

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“…Although many studies have assessed and improved the performance of infrastructures in WEIHN, 227,228 few have investigated the human behaviors related to these infrastructures. 229 Because the complexity of infrastructures requires extensive technical knowledge and expertise to operate and maintain the decentralized WEIHN, a major challenge of humaninfrastructure interactions is to ensure that the infrastructures and technologies are designed to meet the needs of local communities in a broader social and environmental context. 230 For example, the water and energy policy decisions are progressively influenced by the social dimensions of WEIHN, a fact underscored by the ongoing large-scale energy transitions worldwide.…”

Section: Challenges and Potential Opportunities Of The Human Dimensio...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Next generation decentralized water systems: a water-energy-infrastructure-human nexus (WEIHN) approach

Huang,

Zhang,

Ren

et al. 2023

Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol.

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Section: Challenges and Potential Opportunities Of The Human Dimensio...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Next generation decentralized water systems: a water-energy-infrastructure-human nexus (WEIHN) approach

Huang,

Zhang,

Ren

et al. 2023

Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol.

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“…The nexus approach has drawn attention in the academic, political, and industrial fields due to its characteristics (Ozturk 2015, Garcia and You 2016, Al-Riffai et al 2017, Weitz et al 2017, Fayiah et al 2020. Dynamic quantification techniques are necessary to identify the critical variables influencing the performance of the coupled nexus system and to highlight the dynamics of natural processes in conjunction with various dimensions that sustain the interrelationships between nexus sectors (Zhang et al 2018).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

A simultaneous equations approach to analyze the sustainable water–energy–food nexus in South Korea

2023

Environ. Res. Commun.

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Factors such as climate change, economic development, population growth, pandemics, and geopolitical instability threaten water, energy, and food (WEF) security, which consequently put sustainability at risk. However, studies that simultaneously consider WEF security and sustainability aspects still need improvement. This research aimed to build a sustainable WEF nexus framework and analyze the interrelationships among water consumption, electricity demand, food production, and ecological footprint, considering the Environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis and external factors of the WEF nexus. For the empirical analysis, this study employed the three-stage least squares method to identify synergies and trade-offs in the sustainable WEF nexus in South Korea using panel data from 2005 to 2019. The results indicated that rice production causes excessive use of agricultural water, thereby deteriorating water availability and quality. This phenomenon leads to scarce water resources and environmental degradation, which negatively impact energy production and sustainability. Although increased agricultural productivity through automation “improves food security,” it can pose a threat to energy security by increasing electricity demand and energy imports. The EKC hypothesis test revealed that environmental problems cannot be solved through economic development. However, the indicators related to WEF security influence environmental sustainability rather than economic growth. These results indicate that WEF security and sustainability can be improved simultaneously by maximizing synergies and minimizing trade-offs within a sustainable WEF nexus. Therefore, this research provides a roadmap for policymakers regarding efficient ways to improve environmental quality and WEF security.

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“…With rapid economic development and population growth, over 30% of the human population is limited to no access to clean water, which has been recognized as the key sustainable development goal by the United Nations 1 , 2 . Electricity driven reverse osmosis and thermal desalination have been utilized for years to produce fresh water from seawater 3 – 5 , but these technologies are energy intensive and directly or indirectly depend on fossil fuels with significant greenhouse gas emissions 6 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable biomimetic solar distillation with edge crystallization for passive salt collection and zero brine discharge

Abdelsalam,

Sajjad,

Raza

et al. 2024

Nat Commun

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The urgency of addressing water scarcity and exponential population rise has necessitated the use of sustainable desalination for clean water production, while conventional thermal desalination processes consume fossil fuel with brine rejection. As a promising solution to sustainable solar thermal distillation, we report a scalable mangrove-mimicked device for direct solar vapor generation and passive salt collection without brine discharge. Capillarity-driven salty water supply and continuous vapor generation are ensured by anti-corrosion porous wicking stem and multi-layer leaves, which are made of low-cost superhydrophilic nanostructured titanium meshes. Precipitated salt at the leaf edge forms porous patch during daytime evaporation and get peeled by gravity during night when saline water rewets the leaves, and these salt patches can enhance vaporization by 1.6 times as indicated by our findings. The proposed solar vapor generator achieves a stable photothermal efficiency around 94% under one sun when treating synthetic seawater with a salinity of 3.5 wt.%. Under outdoor conditions, it can produce 2.2 L m−2 of freshwater per day from real seawater, which is sufficient for individual drinking needs. This kind of biomimetic solar distillation devices have demonstrated great capability in clean water production and passive salt collection to tackle global water and environmental challenges.

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A review of water–energy nexus trend, methods, challenges and future prospects

Cited by 28 publications

References 93 publications

Next generation decentralized water systems: a water-energy-infrastructure-human nexus (WEIHN) approach

Next generation decentralized water systems: a water-energy-infrastructure-human nexus (WEIHN) approach

A simultaneous equations approach to analyze the sustainable water–energy–food nexus in South Korea

Sustainable biomimetic solar distillation with edge crystallization for passive salt collection and zero brine discharge

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