Problem Statement

Water and energy are strongly interrelated and the links between the two systems are expected to intensify further in the future. The energy sector withdraws more water than any other sector in the United States, mainly for power generation. Similarly, the water sector relies heavily on energy for water supply and water treatment (including desalinization). The interdependency between energy and water is referred to as Energy-Water (EW) Nexus. The intent of this module is to introduce students to Energy-Water Nexus and analyze stresses on water system under different scenarios of current and future energy demands, including factors such as fuel type, cooling technologies, greenhouse regulations, and population growth. The analysis is done at the scale of eight-digit watershed hydrologic unit code (HUC8).

Module Overview

The module is composed of three main sections; each section has background information and contains a set of quantitative, hypothesis-driven learning activities that utilize different datasets on water use, water supply and thermoelectric power plants.