1 Introduction
2 Methods
2.1 Review Process
2.2 Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria
2.3 Information Extraction
3 Diversity of Nexus Methods
3.1 Water-Food Nexus Analysis Methods
a. Physical modelling methods. Models are classified into two groups: based on a single discipline (e.g., Hydrology, Cryosphere, and Agriculture) and interdisciplinary. The number of physics-based modelling studies for each discipline and the percentage of total physics-based modelling studies (n = 29) is summarized in bold headings. Many studies used more than one model and there are studies that do not use models; thus, percentages listed by category do not add to 100% | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Model name | Main purpose | Data required | Spatial scale | Minimum temporal scale | Reference studies |
Hydrology | 11 studies (38%) | ||||
Lund-Potsdam-Jena managed Land (LPJmL) | Simulation of the global terrestrial carbon and water cycle | Spatially explicit time series of climate, human land use, soil properties, and river flow directions | Global | Daily | Langerwisch et al. 2018; Pastor et al. 2019; Lutz et al. 2022 |
Soil & Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) | Simulation of the quality and quantity of surface and ground water | Meteorological data, DEM, land use, and soil characteristics | Watershed | Daily | Akoko et al. 2020; Paul et al. 2020; |
Spatial Processes in Hydrology (SPHY) | Hydrological process simulation | Spatially explicit DEM, land use type, glacier cover, lakes/reservoirs and soil characteristics, as well as climate data with time series | Watershed | Daily | Lutz et al. 2022 |
The mesoscale Hydrologic Model (mHM) | Hydrological process simulation | Spatially explicit data of physiographic land surface and meteorological forcings | Watershed | Hourly | Peichl et al. 2019 |
Modular three-dimensional groundwater flow model (MODFLOW) | Groundwater simulation | Site data of geological and other characteristics of the aquifer | Watershed | Undefined or secondly | Goodarzi et al. 2019 |
IHACRES | Streamflow simulation | Time series data of observed rainfall, temperature and streamflow | Watershed | Minutely | Ashofteh et al. 2017 |
Cryosphere | 1 study (3%) | ||||
Glacier Bed Topography model version 2 (GlabTop2) | Estimation of glacier volumes | DEM, glacier outlines and a set of branch lines for each glacier | Regional | - | Lutz et al. 2022 |
Agriculture | 8 studies (28%) | ||||
Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT) | Simulation of crops growth, development and yield | Meteorological data, soil surface and profile information, and detailed crop management | Site | Daily | Ashofteh et al. 2017; Mitchell et al. 2017; Xu et al. 2019; Jha et al. 2020 |
ORYZA | Simulation of rice growth and development | Experiment data, crop data, soil data (required only for water-limited simulation) and weather data | Site | Daily | Wang et al. 2017; Ding et al. 2020 |
Agro-ecological Zone (AEZ) | Crop productivity assessment | Climate data, topography and soil characteristics | Global to regional | Daily | Xu et al. 2019 |
APEX-paddy model | Simulation of water balance components from paddy fields under ponded conditions | Meteorological data, soil type, crop definition, management system and watershed definition | Field | Daily | Kim et al. 2021 |
Interdisciplinary | 11 studies (38%) | ||||
VIC-CropSyst | Simulation of the interactions between hydrology, crop growth and phenology, and crop and water resource management decisions | Grided climate data, soil data, crop patterns, characteristics and management data | Global to regional | Daily | Malek et al. 2018; Rajagopalan et al. 2018 |
Global Crop Water Model (GCWM) | Simulation of crop water use and crop yields in rainfed and irrigated agriculture | Cropping pattern, cropping seasons and average crop productivity, climate data, soil properties, trade and population density | Global | Daily | Qin et al. 2020b |
Irrigation Management System Model (IManSys) | Calculation of irrigation water requirement for any annual or perennial crop | Climate data, soil hydrologic parameters, crop water uptake parameters | Regional | Daily | Cooper et al. 2022 |
IGSM-WRS-US | Assessment of climate change effects on managed water-resource systems | Economic, climatic, and hydrologic drivers | Global to regional | Annually | Blanc et al. 2017 |
Aral Sea Basin management model (ASBmm) | Calculation of the future water balance and water allocation in the Aral Sea Basin | Population data, water use, climate data, and socio-economic data | Watershed | Annually | Duan et al. 2019 |
MIROC-INTEG-LAND | Simulation of the interactions among coupled natural–human earth system components | Socioeconomic variables, atmospheric variables, soil and vegetation properties | Global | Different time step in submodels | Yokohata et al. 2020 |
Global Food and Water System (GFWS) | Assessment of the disparity between food production and demands, as well as the difference between water usage for irrigation and the fresh water supply | Population and demographic data, weather data, crop characteristics, land use and water resource | Global | Annually | Grafton et al. 2017 |
WATNEEDS | Simulation of crop-specific green and blue water requirements | Spatially and temporally distributed information on climate, soil, and crop characteristics | Global | Monthly | Rosa et al. 2020 |
Crop-river coupled model (CROVER) | Assessment of crop production under varying water availability | Climate data, soil properties, agricultural management, socioeconomic water demand, reservoir operation management, and land use | Watershed | Daily | Okada et al. 2018 |
Global Biosphere Management Model (GLOBIOM) | Assessment of climate change mitigation policies impact on land-based sectors | Spatially explicit land cover, production, population, GDP, demand, prices and trade, livestock data, crops data and forest data | Global | 10-year | Pastor et al. 2019 |
b. Statistical methods | |||
---|---|---|---|
Method | Main purpose | Data required | Reference studies |
Penman–Monteith equation and crop coefficient approach recommended by the FAO/Cropwat | Calculation of crop water requirements and irrigation requirements | Site location, air temperature, humidity, radiation, wind speed, and crop coefficient | |
Mann–Kendall test | Determining whether a time series has a monotonic upward or downward trend | A series of data with no autocorrelation | |
Regression | Attempting to determine the relationship between dependent variable and independent variables and predicting for the future | A series of dependent variables values and independents variables values | Lu et al. 2019 |
Cobb–Douglas production function | Modelling the correlation between production output and inputs | Production and input parameters | Lu et al. 2019 |
Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) | Decomposing and quantifying the different effects of factors on a variable | Data of factors and variable | Zhang et al. 2020 |
c. Operation optimisation methods | |||
---|---|---|---|
Method | Purpose in related research | Description | Reference studies |
Nonlinear optimisation | Determing optimal crop production strategies / Optimizing hydro-economic framework | It solves optimisation problems where the constraints or the objective functions are nonlinear | |
Multiobjective genetic programming (MOGP) | Optimizing reservoir-operating rules | MOGP considers the accuracy and the tree complexity as the fitness objectives based on Pareto dominance relations, which can reduce the overfitting effectively while optimizing the solution | Ashofteh et al. 2017 |
3.2 Water-Energy Nexus Analysis Methods
a. Physical modelling methods. Models are classified into two groups: based on a single discipline (e.g., Hydrology, Energy, and Water management) and interdisciplinary. The number of physics-based modelling studies for each discipline and the percentage of total physics-based modelling studies (n = 60) is summarized in bold headings. Many studies used more than one model and there are studies that do not use models; thus, percentages listed by category do not add to 100% | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Model name | Main purpose | Data required | Spatial scale | Minimum temporal scale | Reference studies |
Hydrology | 45 studies (75%) | ||||
SWAT | Simulation of the quality and quantity of surface and ground water | Meteorological data, DEM, land use, and soil characteristics | Small watershed to river basin-scale | Daily | |
Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) | Simulation of land–atmosphere fluxes, and the land surface process | Meteorological data, elevation band data, land cover information | Global to regional | Daily | |
Hydrologiska Byråns Vattenbalansavdelning (HBV) | Streamflow simulation | Meteorological data, DEM, land use/cover data | Watershed | Hourly | |
Xinanjiang Model | Streamflow simulation | Meteorological data | Watershed | Daily | |
Hydrological Predictions for the Environment (HYPE) | Water flow and substances simulation | Climate data, elevation, stream network, soil type and land use | Watershed | Daily | Skoulikaris 2021 |
NedborAfstromnings Model (NAM) | Streamflow and soil moisture content simulation | Meteorological data | Watershed | Daily | Yimere and Assefa 2021 |
MIKE NAM | Rainfall-runoff processes simulation | Meteorological data | Watershed | Daily | Adynkiewicz-Piragas and Miszuk 2020 |
IHACRES | Streamflow simulation | Meteorological data | Watershed | Minutely | Zolghadr-Asti et al. 2019 |
Veralgemeend Conceptueel Hydrologisch (VHM) | Rainfall-runoff processes simulation | Meteorological data | Watershed | Daily | Donk et al. 2018 |
ABCD water balance model | Streamflow simulation | Meteorological data | Watershed | Daily | Khalkhali et al. 2018 |
Topkapi-ETH | Hydrological process simulation suitable for glacierized mountain areas | Climate data, topography, soil type and vegetation | Watershed | Hourly | Anghileri et al. 2018 |
HEC-HMS | Hydrological process simulation | Meteorological data, DEM, land use type and soil characteristics | Watershed | 10-min | Goodarzi et al. 2020 |
WaterGAP | Water flows, storages, water withdrawals and consumptive uses simulation | Climate data, population data, land cover, soil type, topography, water storage data and water use data | Global | Daily | Turner et al. 2017 |
The PCRaster GLOBal Water Balance model (PCR‐GLOBWB) | Hydrological process simulation and water resource assessment | Soil characteristics, land cover, topography, meteorological data | Global | 1 day for hydrology and water use, sub-daily time stepping for hydrodynamic river routing | Meng et al. 2020 |
Finnish Environment Institute’s Watershed Simulation and Forecasting System (WSFS) | Hydrological process simulation | Meteorological data, topography, soil characteristics, land use and vegetation | Watershed | Daily | Jaaskelainen et al. 2018 |
Integrated Catchment Hydrological Model (ICHYMOD) | Rainfall-runoff processes simulation | Meteorological data | Watershed | Hourly | Francois et al. 2018 |
GR2M + | Streamflow simulation | Meteorological data | Watershed | Monthly | Wagner et al. 2017 |
GR4J | Rainfall-runoff processes simulation | Meteorological data | Watershed | Daily | Zhong et al. 2021 |
Poli-hydro | Hydrological balance and flow routing simulation | Grided meteorological data, DEM and land cover | Watershed | Daily | Bombelli et al. 2021 |
Coupled routing and excess storage model (CREST) | Land surface, subsurface water fluxes and storages simulation | Meteorological data, DEM, soil characteristics and land cover | Global to regional | Daily | Zhao et al. 2021b |
1 K-DHM | Rainfall-runoff processes simulation | Meteorological data and topography | Watershed | 10-min | Meema et al. 2021 |
Modelo de Grandes Bacias (MGB) | Hydrological process simulation | Meteorological data, topography, soil characteristics and land cover | Watershed (generally in South America) | Daily | Almeida et al. 2021 |
Soil Moisture Accounting Procedure (SMAP) | Rainfall-runoff processes simulation | Meteorological data and drainage area | Watershed | Daily | da Silva et al. 2021 |
HYMOD | Rainfall-runoff processes simulation | Meteorological data | Watershed | Daily | Chilkoti et al. 2017 |
Water management | 11 studies (18%) | ||||
Water Evaluation and Planning system (WEAP) | Water resources planning | DEM, demand data, supply data, hydrology, groundwater and reservoirs | Watershed | Monthly | |
The Reservoir System Simulation (HEC-ResSim) | Reservoir operations modelling at one or more reservoirs for a variety of operational goals and constraints | Reservoir properties, control and operational characteristics, river routing properties | Reservoir and cascade series of reservoirs | 5-min | |
The Information System for Water Allocation Management (SIGA) | Planning and operation simulation of water resources systems | Demands and priorities, river routing properties | Reservoir and cascade series of reservoirs | Monthly | da Silva et al. 2021 |
Reservoir Evaluation System Perspective Reservoir Model (HEC-ResPRM) | Reservoir management strategies evaluation | Network connectivity, hydrological flows and penalty functions for reservoirs and links | Multi-reservoir river system | Monthly | Abera et al. 2018 |
Energy | 10 studies (17%) | ||||
Long-Range Energy Alternatives Planning (LEAP) | Energy policy analysis and climate change mitigation assessment | Energy data, climate data, social and economic data | National to regional | Annual | |
TIMES_PT | Optimisation of a least-cost energy system to satisfy the demand for energy services and user constraints | Socio-economic data, resource potentials and prices of primary energy supply, policy constraints and energy services | Portugal | 5-year | Teotonio et al. 2017 |
Regional Integration and Planning Assessment (RIPA) tool | Optimisation of mix of generation and transmission | Hydropower generation, shadow prices of constraints for hydropower capacity and energy spill | Regional | Monthly | Yimere and Assefa 2021 |
The Generation Evaluation System (GENESYS) model | Assessment of the adequacy of power supply | Technology data, cost data, demands and energy data | The Pacific Northwest | Hourly | Turner et al. 2019 |
EnergyPLAN | Operation simulation of energy systems | Technical data, economic data and energy demands | National | Hourly | Jaaskelainen et al. 2018 |
PRIMES-IEM power system model | Simulation of electricity system | Plant capacities, demands, load, fuel and carbon prices, reserves, networks and market rules | European | Hourly | Carlino et al. 2021 |
Hydropower simulator nMAG | Hydropower systems simulation | Inflow, production information, operational strategy and power market | Multiple reservoir hydropower systems | Daily | Adera and Alfredsen 2020 |
Poli-power | Hydropower production optimisation | Stream flows, prices, demand of hydropower and geometry of the reservoir | Multiple reservoir hydropower systems | Daily | Bombelli et al. 2021 |
Interdisciplinary | 2 studies (3%) | ||||
The coupled Water Balance Model and Thermoelectric Power and Thermal Pollution Model (WBM TP2M) | Power plant operations simulation | hydrologic flows, climate conditions including air temperature and humidity | Power plants | Daily and 3-min river network resolution | Miara et al. 2017 |
Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM) | Simulation of interactions among various systems between society-earth-climate | Energy resources, technologies and users, agriculture and land use information, greenhouse gas emissions, climate feedback parameters, socioeconomics, policies information | Global | 5-year | Graham et al. 2020 |
b. Statistical methods | |||
---|---|---|---|
Method | Main purpose | Data required | Reference studies |
Hydropower calculation | Calculating hydropower generation | Streamflow, hydraulic head, water density, gravitational acceleration and total plant efficiency | Chilkoti et al. 2017; de Oliveira et al. 2017; Donk et al. 2018; Francois et al. 2018; Khalkhali et al. 2018; Adynkiewicz-Piragas and Miszuk 2020; Jakimavicius et al. 2020; Almeida et al. 2021; Bahati et al. 2021; Jung et al. 2021; Meema et al. 2021; Mutsindikwa et al. 2021; Yimere and Assefa 2021; Qin et al. 2022; Ramião et al. 2023 |
Blue water footprint calculation | Calculating evaporative water losses per unit of net power generation | Allocating factor for hydropower, evaporation rate, surface area and net power generation | Zhao et al. 2021a |
Regression | Attempting to determine the relationship between dependent variable and independent variables and predicting for the future | A series of dependent variables values and independents variables values | |
Mann–Kendall test | Determining whether a time series has a monotonic upward or downward trend | A series of data with no autocorrelation | da Silva et al. 2021 |
Two flood series extraction methods: mean annual flood (MAF) and peak over threshold (POT) | Calculating the average maximum streamflow to evaluate the flood magnitude in a selected period and evaluating flood frequency in other comparative periods | A series of streamflow in selected period | Yun et al. 2021 |
c. Supervised learning | |||
---|---|---|---|
Algorithm | Purpose in related research | Description | Reference studies |
Feedforward Neural Network | Rainfall-runoff process simulation | Each neuron is arranged in layers, and only connected to the neuron in the previous layer. Outputs are received and sent to the next layer, without feedback between layers | |
Backpropagation Neural Networks (BPNN) | Streamflow simulation | BPNN is a multi-layer feedforward neural network trained according to error backpropagation algorithm | Liu et al. 2020 |
Elman Neural Network (ENN) | Streamflow simulation | ENN is a feedback neural network based on BPNN | Wang et al. 2021a |
Multivariate tree boosting | Predicting the interconnected water and electricity demand in the residential sector | It is an extension of gradient tree boosting, which improve prediction accuracy by the meta-algorithm boosting | Obringer et al. 2020 |
d. Operation optimisation methods | |||
---|---|---|---|
Method | Purpose in related research | Description | Reference studies |
Dynamic programming (DP) | Optimising hydropower output | The storage volume of reservoir at each stage is divided into a finite number of points. The global optimum is determined by enumerating all possible combinations of these discrete points | Li et al. 2020 |
Progressive optimality algorithm (POA) | Calculating operation scheduling under climate change | POA is a variant of DP, dividing the multi-stage decision problem into a sequence of two-stage subproblems to reduce computation burden | Liu et al. 2020 |
Multiobjective optimisation technique | Estimating current hydropower system operations and future possible evolution under scenarios | Multiobjective optimisation explores alternative hydropower operating strategies, diversely balancing the different operating purposes | Anghileri et al. 2018 |
Grasshopper Optimisation Algorithm (GOA) | Optimising hydropower generation | GOA is a population-based meta-heuristic optimisation method inspired by grasshopper group behaviour | Rahmati et al. 2021 |
Particle swarm optimisation (PSO) | Optimising hydropower generation | PSO is inspired by social behaviour of birds and fish. PSO introduces a number of variables called particles that are scattered in search space | Rahmati et al. 2021 |
Gravitational Search Algorithm (GSA) | Solving long-term hydropower generation problem of cascade hydropower stations | GSA is an evolutionary method based on Newton’s gravitational law. In GSA, agents are considered as objects, and the gravitational interaction between them leads to a global movement of all objects towards those with heavier masses, which represents an optimum solution in the search space | Feng et al. 2018 |
Stochastic Dynamic Programming (SDP) | Optimising the turbine release decision by the human | SDP combines stochastic programming and dynamic programming, explicitly considering stream flow uncertainty in its recursive equation | Turner et al. 2017 |
Discrete differential dynamic programming (DDDP) combined with the large-scale system decomposed coordinating (LSSDC) method | Hydropower generation prediction for large-scale reservoirs considering climate change and specific reservoir operation processes | DDDP is an improved DP algorithm, alleviating the influence of “cruse of dimensionality” and simplifying the modelling process | Zhong et al. 2020 |
Nondominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm-II (NSGA-II) | Quantifying the hydropower-ecology trade-offs | NSGA-II is based on the Pareto optimum solution that has several advantages, including high calculation speed, good convergence of solutions, high diversity of solution sets, and adaptability to high-dimensional inputs | Zhong et al. 2021 |
Improved dynamic programming (IDP) algorithm | Optimising Reservoir operation | IDP is developed based on the monotonic relationship in the reservoir optimisation and can greatly enhance the computational efficiency as compared to DP algorithm | Zhao et al. 2021b |
Genetic Algorithm (GA) | Optimising Reservoir operation | GA is a metaheuristic derived from the principles of natural selection that belongs to the larger class of evolutionary algorithms | Guo et al. 2021 |
Improved multi-objective cuckoo search algorithm (MoCS) | Optimisation of multi-objective long-term hydropower generation | MoCS is based on the NSGA-II algorithm and the improved cuckoo search algorithm | Feng et al. 2021 |
Threshold Accepting (TA) | Optimising hydropower generation | TA is a local search algorithm, exploring the search space by affecting the turbine schedule. It avoids staying stuck in a local optimum, while staying efficient | Bonato et al. 2019 |
An optimisation framework with interval-parameter programming (IPP) | Supporting sustainable development of China’s energy system | IPP reflects uncertainty derived from data collection, parameter estimation and policy formulation | Suo et al. 2021 |
3.3 Water-Energy-Food Nexus Analysis Methods
a. Physical modelling methods. Models are classified into two groups: based on a single discipline (e.g., Hydrology, Energy, and Agriculture) and interdisciplinary. The number of physics-based modelling studies for each discipline and the percentage of total physics-based modelling studies (n = 28) is summarized in bold headings. Many studies used more than one model and there are studies that do not use models; thus, percentages listed by category do not add to 100% | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Model name | Main purpose | Data required | Spatial scale | Minimum temporal scale | Reference studies |
Interdisciplinary | 15 studies (54%) | ||||
System Dynamics (SD) model | Simulation of complex systems | Variables and equations in the systems | The space where the simulation systems located | Second | |
TIMES-WEF | Investigation of the climate change impacts and policies on the agricultural system | Land use, energy demand, primary energy supply, techno-economic factors, environmental variables and other policy parameters | Reginal | Annual | Tortorella et al. 2020 |
WEF Nexus Tool 2.0 | Identifying sustainable resource management strategies informed by the water-energy-food nexus | Local characteristic data and scenario components | Regional | Annual | Schull et al. 2020 |
Irrigation Management System Model (IManSys) | Calculation of irrigation water requirement for any annual or perennial crop | Climate data, soil hydrologic parameters, crop water uptake parameters | Regional | Daily | Cooper et al. 2022 |
Food-Energy-Water Calculator (FEWCalc) | Addressing multi-scale, multi-stakeholder food-energy-water problems | Crop characteristic data, irrigation practices, water availability, renewable energy investment, and environmental conditions | Regional | Annual | Phetheet et al. 2021 |
A systematic approach | Analysing resilience in the security of water-energy-food nexus in areas that present significant climatic variations throughout the year | Water, food and energy demand, possible failures modes including hurricanes, freezing, and drought | Regional | Monthly | Núñez-López et al. 2022 |
A two-way coupled agent-based model (ABM-SWAT) | Calculating the water availability for irrigated crop production, hydropower generation, and riverine ecosystem health | Meteorological data, DEM, land use type, soil characteristics, agent preference, agent priority, and historical irrigated area | Watershed | Daily | Yang et al. 2018 |
GCAM | Simulation of interactions among various systems between society-earth-climate | Energy resources, technologies and users, agriculture and land use information, greenhouse gas emissions, climate feedback parameters, socioeconomics, policies information | Global | 5-year | Giuliani et al. 2022 |
Integrated Model to Assess the Global Environment (IMAGE) | Simulating the environmental consequences of human activities worldwide | Population, economy, policies, technology, lifestyle, resources, agriculture and land use, energy supply and demand | Global | Annual | de Vos et al. 2021 |
Hydrology | 9 studies (32%) | ||||
SWAT | Simulation of the quality and quantity of surface and ground water | Meteorological data, DEM, land use type and soil characteristics | Small watershed to river basin-scale | Daily | |
VIC | Simulation of land–atmosphere fluxes, and the land surface process | Meteorological data, elevation band data, land cover information | Global to regional | Daily | |
LPJmL | Simulation of the global terrestrial carbon and water cycle | Spatially explicit time series of climate, human land use, soil properties, and river flow directions | Global | Daily | |
HBV | Streamflow simulation | Meteorological data, DEM, land use/cover data | Watershed | Hourly | |
Hydro-BID | Streamflow simulation | Climate, land cover and soil properties | Watershed | Daily | Wade et al. 2022 |
Water management | 8 studies (29%) | ||||
WEAP | Water resources planning | DEM, demand data, supply data, hydrology, groundwater and reservoirs | Watershed | Monthly | |
Agriculture | 2 studies (7%) | ||||
DSSAT | Simulation of crops growth, development and yield | Meteorological data, soil surface and profile information, and detailed crop management | Site | Daily | |
Energy | 1 study (4%) | ||||
LEAP | Energy policy analysis and climate change mitigation assessment | Energy data, climate data, social and economic data | National to regional | Annual | Nasrollahi et al. 2021 |
b. Statistical methods | |||
---|---|---|---|
Method | Main purpose | Data required | Reference studies |
Penman–Monteith equation and crop coefficient approach recommended by the FAO/Cropwat | Calculation of crop water requirements and irrigation requirements | Site location, air temperature, humidity, radiation, wind speed, and crop coefficient | |
Water, land and energy footprint analysis | Calculating the volume of water, land and energy required for producing one ton of crops | Irrigation water requirement, the area of fields, the production, energy use for using agricultural machinery in fields, energy use for supplying 1 m3 of irrigation water, and irrigation water use | Lee et al. 2020 |
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) | Assessing the inputs and outputs of raw materials and energy linked to environmental consequences throughout the stages of production, utilization, and disposal | Unit process data, and environmental input–output data | Yuan et al. 2018 |
Pearson's correlation test | Identifying synergies and trade-offs, here for disentangle the synergies and trade-offs between nexus component indicators | A correlation matrix which shows the level of consistency between pairs of nexus indicators under each global change scenario | Momblanch et al. 2019 |
Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) approach | Evaluating multiple conflicting criteria in decision making | Policy scenarios, criteria and indicators | Nasrollahi et al. 2021 |
c. Supervised learning | |||
---|---|---|---|
Algorithm | Purpose in related research | Description | Reference studies |
Feedforward Neural Network | Rainfall-runoff process simulation | Each neuron is arranged in layers, and only connected to the neuron in the previous layer. Outputs are received and sent to the next layer, without feedback between layers |
d. Operation optimisation methods | |||
---|---|---|---|
Method | Purpose in related research | Description | Reference studies |
Compromise programming (CP) | Optimising allocation of surface water, groundwater and planting structure for crops | CP uses a distance measure to identify the optimal solution | Li et al. 2021 |
Particle swarm optimisation (PSO) | Optimising energy, irrigation and yield of production | PSO is inspired by social behaviour of birds and fish. PSO introduces a number of variables called particles that are scattered in search space | Sedighkia and Abdoli 2022 |
Multi-objective programming (MOP) | Optimising the trade-off between water, food, energy, climate change, and land subsystems | MOP is widely used to deal with sustainable management in a coordinated manner | Yue et al. 2021 |
Stochastic Dual Dynamic Programming (SDDP) algorithm | Optimising the operation of reservoir systems | SDDP is an approximate stochastic optimisation algorithm to analyse multistage, stochastic, decision-making problems | Tariku et al. 2021 |
Dynamic Bayesian network | Optimising the management of food, energy, and water systems under the effect of climate variability | Dynamic Bayesian network is a specific family of model-based reinforcement learning | Memarzadeh et al. 2019 |
Linear programming (LP) | Optimising the trade-off between water, food and energy | LP is done with a mathematical model where all the functions in the model are linear functions | Yuan et al. 2018 |
Evolutionary multiobjective direct policy search method | Solving multi-objective policy design problems for large-scale water systems | It is a reinforcement learning method that combines direct policy search, nonlinear approximation network and multi-objective evolutionary algorithms | Giuliani et al. 2022 |
Multi-attribute decision-making (MADM) framework | Addressing the water-energy-food security problems | MADM can conduct planning and management under changing circumstances such as climate change | Enayati et al. 2021 |
4 Studies for Different Spatial Scales
Research scale | Themes | Research objectives related to climate change impacts | Typical models used |
---|---|---|---|
Global scale | Water-Food (6 of 45, 13%) | • Evaluating possible food and water deficits • Evaluating the effects of climate change on crop and irrigation water requirements • Identifying regions and crops that are most dependent on snowmelt water resources • Assessing future global crop production under a changing climate and expanded surface water irrigation • Optimizing the allocation of future cropland and water withdrawals | GFWS GCWM LPJmL |
Water-Energy (2 of 64, 3%) | • Projecting future global hydropower production under climate change | WaterGAP | |
Water-Energy-Food (2 of 36, 6%) | • Quantifying competing water demands between food production, freshwater ecosystems and utilities (energy, industries and households) • Analysing potential trade-offs and related impacts of climate change scenarios • Projecting future water scarcity under climate change | IMAGE GCAM LPJmL | |
National scale | Water-Food (13 of 45, 29%) | • Assessing climate change impact on water linked parameters (soil moisture, water availability) and crop yields • Evaluating the effects of climate change on crop and irrigation water requirements • Analysing primary driver of future yields under climate change | SWAT IGSM |
Water-Energy (5 of 64, 8%) | • Evaluating climate change impacts on water resources availability and energy parameters (hydropower generation and thermoelectric plants) • Providing optimal schemes for energy system management under climate change • Simulating hydropower availability during drought period and estimating the indirect impacts of a drought in neighboring nations | HBV WBM TIMES | |
Water-Energy-Food (5 of 36, 14%) | • Projecting food parameters (e.g., crop production, farm incomes) based on climate and human factors (e.g., crop selection, irrigation practices, water availability, energy input) • Quantifying increased agricultural challenges under climate change • Investigating energy implications of implementing the irrigation master plan • Assessing the present status and historical changing pattern of Water-Energy-Food nexus • Assessing future drought conditions from the aspect of water-energy-food | DSSAT WEAP | |
Watershed scale Regional scale City scale Reservoir systems scale | Water-Food (23 of 45, 51%) | • Simulating watershed hydrology and crop parameters (crop yield, crop growing period) • Evaluating the effects of climate change on crop and irrigation water requirements • Assessing how the sources of irrigation water supply may shift • Determining optimal crop production strategies | SWAT DSSAT LPJmL VIC-CropSyst |
Water-Energy (55 of 64, 86%) | • Simulating future streamflow/water availability/flood and hydropower generation/electricity parameters • Calculating hydropower system operation scheduling under climate change • Evaluating the impacts of climate change on evaporative water losses of power generation • Assessing the sensitivity of reservoir operation to water resource uncertainty driven by a combination of climate change and upstream cascade dam development • Evaluating impact of energy policies on water resources management under climate change • Identifying power shortfall risk under compound climate change impacts on hydropower | ANN VIC SWAT HBV WEAP LEAP HEC-Ressim HEC-HMS Xinanjiang model | |
Water-Energy-Food (28 of 36, 78%) | • Simulating changes in water, energy, food (e.g., yield change and irrigation requirements) under climate change scenarios • Ensuring water, energy, and food security • Analysing the supply–demand scenarios and trade-offs between water, food and energy • Addressing issues of water management through a nexus lens • Assessing the impacts of proposed lake restoration measures and climate change to lake level • Obtaining optimal allocation schemes of Water-Energy-Food (planting structure, irrigation water, hydropower production, energy use) under climate change • Understanding the main source of climate risk to development plans across the water, energy, and food sectors • Evaluating how the system failures caused by hurricanes, low-temperature events, and droughts affect the supply of water, energy and food • Investigating potential plausible cross-nexus implications and synergies on Water-Energy-Food due to policy interventions • Calculating the water availability for irrigated crop production, hydropower generation, and riverine ecosystem health • Analysing appropriate bioenergy production rates under climate change • Evaluating impacts of hydrologic extremes on the reservoir operations during flood and low flow events • Assessing the impact of seasonal variability on water, energy and food | SWAT VIC HBV ANN WEAP LEAP TIMES LPJmL ABM SD model WEF Nexus Tool 2.0 | |
Site scale Reservoir/Dam/Plant scale Household scale | Water-Food (3 of 45, 7%) | • Investigating crop yield, irrigation water requirement and other parameters linked to irrigation in response to future climate change | ORYAZ |
Water-Energy (2 of 64, 3%) | • Simulating future streamflow/water availability and hydropower generation • optimizing hydropower multi-reservoir systems • Quantifying the effect of changes in price and water seasonality on future revenue distribution and its related uncertainty in run-of-the-river plant | ANN | |
Water-Energy-Food (1 of 36, 3%) | • Assessing the impact of seasonal variability on water, energy and food | SD model |