The water-energy-carbon nexus is complex but important to understand because energy use in water sector is growing and its importance is under-recognized (Rothausen & Conway 2011; PMSEIC 2010). The implications of its linkages are also evident in three key contemporary policy objectives, namely, climate change mitigation, energy security, and water security (PMSEIC 2010; CEC 2005; Vorosmarty et al. 2010). Past research and our understanding on drivers, processes and implications of this nexus is limited, especially for cities. Cities in particular are key places to analyze this nexus since urban settlements now constitute more than half of the global population and improving how efficiently cities manage this nexus will greatly aid our sustainability efforts. Water use in cities is typically lower than agriculture and other sectoral uses but its socio-economic importance is high and the embodied energy and thus carbon is often very high (LBNL 2011; CEC 2005). This workshop aims to enhance our knowledge and understanding of the water-energy-carbon nexus in cities and to facilitate interactions amongst key scholars and build a network with emphasis on Asian cities.
Key questions to be addressed in this workshop include the following:
- How to characterize the water-energy-carbon nexus in cities? What are the key indicators? What are the key (a) drivers, (b) processes and (c) implications of this nexus in cities?
- What do we know about the energy and carbon footprints of water systems in cities? What are the frameworks that are in use and their strengths and limitations?
- What is our image of water-energy-carbon efficient cities? What are the key opportunities, especially the role of technology and the potential for technological innovations, and for behavioral change?
- What are the barriers to and opportunities for water-energy-carbon efficient systems in cities? How do these barriers differ between the types of water management (e.g. public and private? What are the potential roles/impacts of energy and carbon related prices and other policies (identify) in this nexus?
- What are the key commonalities and differences of above across cities?
- Nature Climate Change 1:210–219 (2011), doi:10.1038/nclimate1147
- PMSEIC (2010). Challenges at Energy-Water-Carbon Intersections. Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council, Canberra, Australia
- Global threats to human water security and river biodiversity. Nature 467:555–561, doi:10.1038/nature09440
- See http://water-energy.lbl.gov/node/15, accessed 1 Nov 2011.
- California's Water – Energy Relationship. Prepared in Support of the 2005 Integrated Energy Policy Report Proceeding (04-IEPR-01E), California Energy Commission, CEC-700-2005-011-SF, November 2005.
Dr. Shobhakar Dhakal,
Executive Director - Global Carbon Project,
National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba,
Japan, Tel +81 29 850 2672,
E-mail: shobhakar.dhakal@cger_niesnies.go.jp, shobhakar.dhakal@cger_niesgmail.com
| 09:15 - 09:45
| Opening session |
| Chair |
- Dr Shobhakar Dhakal
- Global Carbon Project
Welcome from organizers, Workshop introduction
Tour de table
|
| 09:45 - 11.45 |
Session 1: Introducing the issue |
| Chair |
- Dr. Robert Wilkinson,
- University of California Santa Barbara
- The aim of this session is to introduce the issue of water-energy-carbon nexus in cities from multiple perspectives. The session presents overarching talks aimed at taking stock of research and prevailing knowledge, methodologies and city contexts and raising key issues to be followed-up for further discussions.
- Prof. Declan Conway
- University of East Anglia, Norwich/UK
- Water-energy-carbon nexus in cities
- Dr. James E. McMahon
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley/USA
- Lessons from California
- Prof. Ng Wun Jern
- Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
- Water-energy nexus in Singapore
- Dr. Yoshiki Yamagata
- National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba/Japan
- Compact and dispersion urban land use scenarios in the future Tokyo metropolitan area: Implications to the heat, CO2 emission, Energy & Water
Discussions
|
| 11.45 – 13.15 |
Lunch |
13.15 – 13.45 |
- Dr. Akio Takemoto
- Director, Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN) Secretariat (Kobe/Japan)
- Role of APN in supporting sustainable development in Asia-Pacific and opportunities for research on water-energy-carbon nexus in cities
|
| 13.45 – 16.00 |
Session 2: Key drivers, mechanisms and implications |
| Chair |
- Prof. Declan Conway
- The University of East Anglia
- The aim of this session is to introduce key elements of the nexus in selected cities for in-depth understanding.
- Prof. Bryan Karney
- University of Toronto, Toronto/Canada
- via Skype from New Zealand
- Dr. Arun Kansal
- TERI University, New Delhi/India
- Water-energy-carbon nexus in Delhi- key indicators, drivers and implications
- Dr. Larry Dale
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley/USA
- Modeling Water, Climate Change and Energy In a California Urban Area
- Prof. Gen Yong
- Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing/China
- Water-energy-carbon nexus in Chinese cities – key drivers, indicators and implications
- Prof. Dr. Sudhakar Yedla
- Indira Gandhi Institute for Development Research, Mumbai/India
- Water-energy-carbon nexus in Mumbai- key indicators, drivers and implications
- Mr. Aumnad Phdungsilp
- Dhurakij Pundit University, Bangkok/Thailand
- Water-energy-carbon nexus in Bangkok - Key indicators, drivers and implications
Discussions
Coffee break
|
| 16.00 – 18.00 |
Session 3: Group discussion |
| |
Participants break out into two groups and will deliberate on the given set of questions moderated by the group’s leader. Each group’s leader will facilitate discussion and present the key findings of the discussions to the plenary session the next day. A 15 minute in-depth presentation of each group will be followed by discussions on the next day.
Group A (Lead: Dr. Steven Kenway): Room 1
- Larry Dale (LBNL, Berkeley)
- Latdaphone Banchongphanith(Hiroshima U, Hiroshima)
- Aumnad Phdungsilp(DPU, Bangkok)
- Arun Kansal (TERI U, New Delhi)
- Ng Wun Jern(NTU, Singapore)
- Govindarajan Venkatesh (NTNU,Trondheim)
- Adrian Wing-Keung (NTU, Singapore)
- Hajime Seya (NIES, Tsukuba)
- Tran Thi Phuong (Vietnam- NIES, Tsukuba)
- Anindya Bhattacharya (IGES, Hayama/Japan)
Group B (Lead: Dr. James E. McMahon): Room 2
- Robert Wilkinson (UC Santa Barbara)
- Sudhakar Yedla (IGIDR, Mumbai)
- GenYong (CAS, Beijing)
- Declan Conway(U of East Anglia)
- ShinjiKaneko (Hiroshima U, Hiroshima)
- Wang Jing-Yuan (NTU, Singapore)
- AkioTakemoto(APN, Kobe)
- Yoshiki Yamagata (NIES, Tsukuba)
- Ngo Thanh Son (Vietnam- NIES, Tsukuba)
- Kumiko Nakamichi (NIES, Tsukuba)
- Yatsuka Kataoka (IGES, Hayama)
Questions to deliberate:
- How to characterize the water-energy-carbon nexus in cities?What are the key indicators? What are the key (a) drivers, (b) processes and (c) implications of this nexus in cities?
- What is our image of water-energy-carbon efficient cities? What are the key opportunities, especially the role of technology and the potential for technological innovations, and for behavioral change?
- What are the barriers to and opportunities of water-energy-carbon efficient systems in cities? How do these barriers differ between the types of water management (e.g. public and private? What are the potential roles/impacts of energy and carbon related prices and other policies (identify) in this nexus?
- What are the key commonalities and differences of above across cities?
|
| 9.00 – 11.30 |
Sessions 4: Water-energy-carbon modeling and footprint in cities’ context |
| Chair |
- Prof. Keisuke Hanaki
- The University of Tokyo
- This session presents talks and discussions on current knowledge of the energy and carbon footprint of water system in cities, scope and boundaries, compilation of quantified numbers in cities, various frameworks and methodologies (potential new methods)with their strengths and limitations.
- Dr. Steven Kenway
- University of Queensland, Brisbane/Australia
- Quantifying water-energy-carbon nexus in cities
- Dr. Robert Wilkinson
- University of California, Santa Barbara/USA
- Methodologies for quantifying the energy-water-carbon nexus and integrated policy strategies to manage it
- Dr. Latdaphone Banchongphanith and Prof. Shinji Kaneko
- Hiroshima University
- I-O economic modeling to evaluate carbon footprint of water system in cities
- Dr. Govindarajan Venkatesh
- Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim/Norway
- Urban water systems metabolism modeling
- Dr. Anindya Bhattacharya
- Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, Hayama/Japan
- A Limit to Urbanization in India: An Assessment of Water-Energy Nexus of Power Sector in India
Discussions:
- What do we know about the energy and carbon footprints of water systems in cities?
- What are the frameworks that are in use and their strengths and limitations?
- What are the key challenges for modeling?
Coffee break
|
| 11.30 – 12.30 |
Session 5: Feedback from the sessions and group discussion |
| Chair |
- Dr. Shobhakar Dhakal
- GCP
Summary of Session 1
- Dr. Robert Wilkinson
- University of California Santa Barbara
Summary of Session 2
- Prof. Declan Conway
- University of East Anglia
Summary of Session 3
- Key findings Group A: Dr. Steven Kenway, University of Queensland
- Key findings Group B: Dr. James E. McMahon, LNBL
Summary of Session 4
- Prof. Keisuke Hanaki
- University of Tokyo
Discussion
|
| 12.30 – 14.00 |
Lunch |
| |
|
| 14.00 – 16.00 |
Session 6: Deliberations for the future work |
| Chair |
- Dr. Shobhakar Dhakal
- GCP
- Short talk on recent initiatives / programs
- Prof. Keisuke Hanaki
- The University of Tokyo
- Prof. Anu Ramaswami
- University of Colorado (Denver, USA)
Points of discussion:
- Key knowledge/research/modeling challenges and gaps in this topic; identification of key niche area and framework that we can pursue collectively
- Ideas and discussions related to possible product from this workshop (e.g. publishing workshop summary and findings; planning for a special issue in well-established journal, a high-level synthetic journal paper outlining the state-of-art knowledge on the topic etc.)
- Leadership, timeline and resource acquisition for the possible activities
- Ways to sustaining/expanding this network
|
| 16.00 - 17.00 |
Closing: Summary and conclusions of the workshop |
GCP Canberra