A review of the water-energy nexus

Water and electricity are fundamentally linked. At a basic level electricity generation requires water, and water treatment and transportation use electricity. Historically, there has been little reason to understand the nature of these links, due largely to the presumption that water was not a threat to energy security, nor electricity a threat to water security. This presumption is now being challenged. Industry reforms, increasing demand, and more recently climate change - are bringing into sharp focus the links between water and electricity in unprecedented ways. General awareness of the links between water and electricity is increasing daily, as the ramifications of the links are being felt the world over: Society's ability to deal with the challenges and uncertainties arising from the links between water and electricity is being hindered by limited understanding of the nature of the links, and seeming lack of policy tools to effectively analyze them. This paper reviews comprehensively the links between water and electricity. Presents a classification system for identifying links. Using the classification system, this study further discusses these links by drawing upon examples from literature and follows with a synopsis of the nature of these links. With this background, the paper reviews and compares water-energy studies in terms of scope, objectives, methodologies and key findings, discusses major limitations of these studies and identifies important areas that would benefit from more in-depth research. This research contends that this type of approach is unsuitable in the longer term, particularly when examining complex and multidimensional issues like the water-energy nexus. This work suggests that the nature of the nexus should and can be explored from a wider perspective, by developing a suitable integrated methodological framework to serve as a platform for such exploration. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to outline the development of such a framework. Introduces Integral Theory and discusses how Integral Theory has shaped the development of the methodological framework employed in this research. Presents the framework and describes the suite of methods. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.