Integrated climate-land-energy-water solutions: modelling and assessment of sustainability policy options

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dc.contributor.authorVinca, Adriano
dc.contributor.supervisorDjilali, Ned
dc.contributor.supervisorRowe, Andrew Michael
dc.date.accessioned2021-07-07T01:51:00Z
dc.date.available2021-07-07T01:51:00Z
dc.date.copyright2021en_US
dc.date.issued2021-07-06
dc.degree.departmentDepartment of Mechanical Engineering
dc.degree.levelDoctor of Philosophy Ph.D.en_US
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation reviews the progress in climate, land, energy and water (CLEW) multi-scale models and proposes a framework for quantitative assessment of multi-sector long-term policies. The so-called CLEW nexus approaches have shown their usefulness in assessing strategies to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals in the contexts of increasing demands, resource scarcity, and climate change. This thesis contributes to existing research by (1) focusing on the palette of feasible long-term sustainable solutions at different scales to face current and future sustainable development challenges; (2) improving understanding of how CLEW models can best advise on sustainable development research and highlighting the strengths and limitations of existing configurations; (3) inquiring what is needed for new tools to be accessible, transferable and successful in informing the final user. This dissertation first reviews a set of models that can meet the needs of decision makers discussing research gaps and critical needs and opportunities for further model development from a scientific viewpoint. Particular attention is given to model accessibility, usability, and community support. The review explores at different scales where and why some nexus interactions are most relevant, finding, for example, that both very small scale and global models tend to neglect some CLEW interactions. This dissertation also presents the Nexus Solutions Tool (NEST): a new open modeling platform that integrates multi-scale energy-water-land resource optimization with distributed hydrological modeling. The new approach provides insights into the vulnerability of water, energy and land resources to future socioeconomic and climatic change and how multi-sectoral policies, technological solutions and investments can improve the resilience and sustainability of transformation pathways while avoiding counterproductive interactions among sectors. Finally, a case study analysis of the Indus River Basin in South Asia demonstrates the capability of the NEST framework to capture important interlinkages across system transformation pathways towards the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. The results show how the Indus countries could lower costs for development and reduce soil pollution and water stress, by cooperating on water resources, electricity and food production.en_US
dc.description.scholarlevelGraduateen_US
dc.identifier.bibliographicCitationVinca, A. et al. Transboundary cooperation a potential route to sustainable development in the Indus basin. Nature Sustainability, 1-9. issn: 2398-9629 (Dec. 2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-020-00654-7en_US
dc.identifier.bibliographicCitationVinca, A. et al. The NExus Solutions Tool (NEST) v1.0: an open platform for optimizing multi-scale energy;water;land system transformations. Geoscientific Model Development 13, 1095-1121. issn: 1991-9603 (Mar.2020). https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-1095-2020en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1828/13095
dc.languageEnglisheng
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.rightsAvailable to the World Wide Weben_US
dc.subjectClimate changeen_US
dc.subjectResource accessen_US
dc.subjectLong-term policy planningen_US
dc.subjectSustainability policyen_US
dc.subjectSustainable developmenten_US
dc.subjectWater scarcityen_US
dc.subjectWater-energy-land Nexusen_US
dc.subjectTransboundary cooperationen_US
dc.titleIntegrated climate-land-energy-water solutions: modelling and assessment of sustainability policy optionsen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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