The NExus Solutions Tool (NEST) v1.0: An open platform for optimizing multi-scale energy-water-land system transformations

Open access
Date
2020Type
- Journal Article
Citations
Cited 26 times in
Web of Science
Cited 26 times in
Scopus
ETH Bibliography
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Abstract
The energy–water–land nexus represents a critical leverage future policies must draw upon to reduce trade-offs between sustainable development objectives. Yet, existing long-term planning tools do not provide the scope or level of integration across the nexus to unravel important development constraints. Moreover, existing tools and data are not always made openly available or are implemented across disparate modeling platforms that can be difficult to link directly with modern scientific computing tools and databases. In this paper, we present the NExus Solutions Tool (NEST): a new open modeling platform that integrates multi-scale energy–water–land resource optimization with distributed hydrological modeling. The new approach provides insights into the vulnerability of water, energy and land resources to future socioeconomic and climatic change and how multi-sectoral policies, technological solutions and investments can improve the resilience and sustainability of transformation pathways while avoiding counterproductive interactions among sectors. NEST can be applied at different spatial and temporal resolutions, and is designed specifically to tap into the growing body of open-access geospatial data available through national inventories and the Earth system modeling community. A case study analysis of the Indus River basin in south Asia demonstrates the capability of the model to capture important interlinkages across system transformation pathways towards the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, including the intersections between local and regional transboundary policies and incremental investment costs from rapidly increasing regional consumption projected over the coming decades. Show more
Permanent link
https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000406780Publication status
publishedExternal links
Journal / series
Geoscientific Model DevelopmentVolume
Pages / Article No.
Publisher
Copernicus PublicationsOrganisational unit
09451 - Patt, Anthony G. / Patt, Anthony G.
Related publications and datasets
Is new version of: https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000383006
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Citations
Cited 26 times in
Web of Science
Cited 26 times in
Scopus
ETH Bibliography
yes
Altmetrics