Traditionally planners considered the effects of water and energy systems on the other in simplified ways or not at all. This has often led to inefficient use of resources and a somewhat arbitrary allocation of benefits and costs across sectors and geographic regions. Yet the need to decarbonise energy systems is introducing unprecedented interdependencies in multi-resource systems, and creating demand for integrated water-energy systems.
In the webinar below Professor Julien Harou presents a framework developed by FutureDAMS which uses new methods of jointly designing river basins and energy systems. The approach using a trade-off analysis that considers multiple societal objectives and demonstrates how portfolios of infrastructure investments and policy interventions can result in good outcomes under a range of plausible futures.
You may be interested to read the following recent open access publications which describe the approach in detail: