A framework for joint management of regional water-energy ... - Orbit

7 Further research
Further research should be conducted in order to address the limitations of
this study, and to move forward in the development of tools for integrated
assessment of the water-energy nexus.
Further spatial disaggregation of the hydrological system would allow for a
more realistic representation of hydropower reservoirs and a better spatial
differentiation of irrigation agriculture that would improve the identification
of upstream-downstream trade-offs.
A more realistic representation of the power market could be achieved by
considering temporal variability at scales shorter than the weekly time steps
used here. This would result in a better representation of power supply and
demand functions and allow for the inclusion of pumped-storage hydropower.
These improvements would already allow the inclusion of other components
of the water-energy nexus into the modeling framework. For instance, desalination
and pumping could be used to shift the timing of power demands. Furthermore,
spatial disaggregation of thermal power producers would make it
possible to assess the impact of reduced river discharge on cooling of thermal
power plants, or the impact of carbon capture and storage projects on river
discharge.
The proposed methodological framework should also be expanded to include
more aspects of the water-energy nexus. For example, the impact of biofuels
on agriculture and water resources, and its efficiency as a climate change mitigation
option could be assessed by adding a market for transport energy, a
simple representation of the agricultural system, and an accounting mechanism
for the green house gas emissions of all the components in the integrated
system. This type of assessments is very ambitious, but such studies must
be carried out if we are to manage our resources sustainably.
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