Integrated Water Resource Management and Energy Requirements for Water Supply in the Copiapó River Basin, Chile
Population and industry growth in dry climates are fully tied to significant increase in water and energy demands. Because water affects many economic, social and environmental aspects, an interdisciplinary approach is needed to solve current and future water scarcity problems, and to minimize energ...
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doaj-c2278209646146608e6b1a0fa1dcaacd2020-11-25T00:14:38ZengMDPI AGWater2073-44412014-08-01692590261310.3390/w6092590w6092590Integrated Water Resource Management and Energy Requirements for Water Supply in the Copiapó River Basin, ChileFrancisco Suárez0José F. Muñoz1Bonifacio Fernández2Jean-Marc Dorsaz3Christian K. Hunter4Christos A. Karavitis5Jorge Gironás6Departamento de Ingeniería Hidráulica y Ambiental, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Av. Vicuña Mackenna 4860, Santiago 7820436, ChileDepartamento de Ingeniería Hidráulica y Ambiental, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Av. Vicuña Mackenna 4860, Santiago 7820436, ChileDepartamento de Ingeniería Hidráulica y Ambiental, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Av. Vicuña Mackenna 4860, Santiago 7820436, ChileDepartamento de Ingeniería Hidráulica y Ambiental, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Av. Vicuña Mackenna 4860, Santiago 7820436, ChileDepartamento de Ingeniería Hidráulica y Ambiental, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Av. Vicuña Mackenna 4860, Santiago 7820436, ChileDepartment of Natural Resources Management & Agricultural Engineering, Agricultural University of Athens, Iera Odos 75, Athens 118 55, GreeceDepartamento de Ingeniería Hidráulica y Ambiental, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Av. Vicuña Mackenna 4860, Santiago 7820436, ChilePopulation and industry growth in dry climates are fully tied to significant increase in water and energy demands. Because water affects many economic, social and environmental aspects, an interdisciplinary approach is needed to solve current and future water scarcity problems, and to minimize energy requirements in water production. Such a task requires integrated water modeling tools able to couple surface water and groundwater, which allow for managing complex basins where multiple stakeholders and water users face an intense competition for limited freshwater resources. This work develops an integrated water resource management model to investigate the water-energy nexus in reducing water stress in the Copiapó River basin, an arid, highly vulnerable basin in northern Chile. The model was utilized to characterize groundwater and surface water resources, and water demand and uses. Different management scenarios were evaluated to estimate future resource availability, and compared in terms of energy requirements and costs for desalinating seawater to eliminate the corresponding water deficit. Results show a basin facing a very complex future unless measures are adopted. When a 30% uniform reduction of water consumption is achieved, 70 GWh over the next 30 years are required to provide the energy needed to increase the available water through seawater desalination. In arid basins, this energy could be supplied by solar energy, thus addressing water shortage problems through integrated water resource management combined with new technologies of water production driven by renewable energy sources.http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/6/9/2590water-energy nexusarid regionriver basingroundwaterwater supply |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Francisco Suárez José F. Muñoz Bonifacio Fernández Jean-Marc Dorsaz Christian K. Hunter Christos A. Karavitis Jorge Gironás |
spellingShingle |
Francisco Suárez José F. Muñoz Bonifacio Fernández Jean-Marc Dorsaz Christian K. Hunter Christos A. Karavitis Jorge Gironás Integrated Water Resource Management and Energy Requirements for Water Supply in the Copiapó River Basin, Chile Water water-energy nexus arid region river basin groundwater water supply |
author_facet |
Francisco Suárez José F. Muñoz Bonifacio Fernández Jean-Marc Dorsaz Christian K. Hunter Christos A. Karavitis Jorge Gironás |
author_sort |
Francisco Suárez |
title |
Integrated Water Resource Management and Energy Requirements for Water Supply in the Copiapó River Basin, Chile |
title_short |
Integrated Water Resource Management and Energy Requirements for Water Supply in the Copiapó River Basin, Chile |
title_full |
Integrated Water Resource Management and Energy Requirements for Water Supply in the Copiapó River Basin, Chile |
title_fullStr |
Integrated Water Resource Management and Energy Requirements for Water Supply in the Copiapó River Basin, Chile |
title_full_unstemmed |
Integrated Water Resource Management and Energy Requirements for Water Supply in the Copiapó River Basin, Chile |
title_sort |
integrated water resource management and energy requirements for water supply in the copiapó river basin, chile |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
Water |
issn |
2073-4441 |
publishDate |
2014-08-01 |
description |
Population and industry growth in dry climates are fully tied to significant increase in water and energy demands. Because water affects many economic, social and environmental aspects, an interdisciplinary approach is needed to solve current and future water scarcity problems, and to minimize energy requirements in water production. Such a task requires integrated water modeling tools able to couple surface water and groundwater, which allow for managing complex basins where multiple stakeholders and water users face an intense competition for limited freshwater resources. This work develops an integrated water resource management model to investigate the water-energy nexus in reducing water stress in the Copiapó River basin, an arid, highly vulnerable basin in northern Chile. The model was utilized to characterize groundwater and surface water resources, and water demand and uses. Different management scenarios were evaluated to estimate future resource availability, and compared in terms of energy requirements and costs for desalinating seawater to eliminate the corresponding water deficit. Results show a basin facing a very complex future unless measures are adopted. When a 30% uniform reduction of water consumption is achieved, 70 GWh over the next 30 years are required to provide the energy needed to increase the available water through seawater desalination. In arid basins, this energy could be supplied by solar energy, thus addressing water shortage problems through integrated water resource management combined with new technologies of water production driven by renewable energy sources. |
topic |
water-energy nexus arid region river basin groundwater water supply |
url |
http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/6/9/2590 |
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