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Data for WEF Nexus Analysis: a Review of Issues

  • Nexus of Food, Water, Energy (R Mohtar, Section Editor)
  • Published:
Current Sustainable/Renewable Energy Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose of Review

The purpose of this review is to discuss challenges regarding assembly and use of water-energy-food (WEF) nexus data.

Recent Findings

WEF nexus analysis endeavors including nexus-wide-scoped data are relatively new although component data has been gathered for years. However, such data are not frequently comprehensive across all WEF sectors nor are they typically integrated into a WEF wide system database. Data systems covering the full set of WEF domains are evolving and there are challenges that must be faced to better support WEF system wide analysis.

Summary

Nexus data must facilitate stakeholder and analyst understanding of nexus scope, locations, production, consumption, diversion, return flows, and conveyance possibilities along with costs. There is important need for data that supports efforts to understand system boundaries, and spatial dimensions, along with the origin and fate of WEF commodities plus cross-sector interactions and interfaces. A wide, rather comprehensive set of data are necessary across the full WEF scope as the nexus approach is about widening perspectives to unexplored levels. Additionally, WEF nexus data systems need to reflect study region uniqueness incorporating appropriate activities with contents varying as focus shifts from place to place. Challenges arise in representing appropriate scope, mix of enterprises, stochastic variation in water supplies, WEF commodity production practices, WEF commodity market prices, and costs and returns from ongoing and potential future technological choices. Data challenges arise due to proprietary interests, scale differences in analysis, model requirements, representation of unexplored possibilities, assembly cost, projections of the future, representation of stochastic variation, quick query and retrieval systems, and integration with visualization. Comprehensive, innovative procedures are needed for data collection, storage/retrieval and inference in support of high quality WEF nexus analyses.

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Acknowledgements

This research was partially supported by the Texas A&M WEF Nexus initiative plus an NSF FEW Nexus grant entitled “A Modeling Framework to Couple Food, Energy, and Water in the Teleconnected Corn and Cotton Belts.”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agricultural Economics, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843-2124, USA

    Bruce A. McCarl & Yingqian Yang

  2. Department of Ecosystem Sciences and Management, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

    Raghavan Srinivasan

  3. Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

    Raghavan Srinivasan & Rabi H. Mohtar

  4. Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M Energy Institute, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

    Efstratios N. Pistikopoulos

  5. Zachry Department of Civil Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

    Rabi H. Mohtar

Authors
  1. Bruce A. McCarl
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  2. Yingqian Yang
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  3. Raghavan Srinivasan
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  4. Efstratios N. Pistikopoulos
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  5. Rabi H. Mohtar
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bruce A. McCarl.

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Conflict of Interest

Bruce A. McCarl, Yingqian Yang, Raghavan Srinivasan, Efstratios N. Pistikopoulos, and Rabi H. Mohtar declare no conflicts of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Nexus of Food, Water, Energy

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McCarl, B.A., Yang, Y., Srinivasan, R. et al. Data for WEF Nexus Analysis: a Review of Issues. Curr Sustainable Renewable Energy Rep 4, 137–143 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40518-017-0083-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40518-017-0083-3

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