The Water/Energy Nexus: Climate, Consumption and Ecosystem Services

Water and energy are drivers of living systems. This work provides an assessment of the Water Energy Nexus in the United States, comparing the well-watered north-east and the arid west. Electric grid systems are most stressed on hot summer afternoons. Grid stress can lead to cascading failures of electricity, water and wastewater treatment systems. (Zimmerman, 2017) Water for power generation and/or water supply depend on ecosystem services. The ecosystem services and resource trade-offs embedded in provision of a watt of power and an ounce of potable water, however, have yet to be comprehensively enumerated nor have the cost relationships been explicitly quantified My data collection and analysis suggest that in the study areas water and electricity use increases in hot weather. Geography and the age and size of homes are also qualifiers. Data analysis suggests that wealthier people use more water and electricity per household/person than the less wealthy. Review of water provisioning ecosystem services reveal regional differences. The Texas Colorado River watershed serves multiple uses; water supply, water for electric generation, irrigation and water for unrestricted recreation. (LCRA, n.d.) The Cat-Del watershed serves only one; water supply. The value of ecosystem services and payments for ecosystem services are reflected in part in the price of water and electricity services and in the regional taxes in the study areas. In addition to the price of water, payments for ecosystem services include transaction costs: regulatory activities that monitor and protect environmental quality and infrastructure necessary to bring the service to market. (Coase,1960) Research for this paper uncovered an exciting possibility. Regardless of the ecosystem Services payment framework, no large-scale mechanism for identifying and aggregating payments for ecosystem services in water and electric utilities were found. This gap in utility accounting offers an opportunity for transforming utility accounting systems to identify and account for payments for ecosystem services (PES). Developing large scale corporate PES accounting systems is the next step in the process

Risk Management and Adaptation Transitions in New York City

Local risk managers in New York City were keenly aware that the city’s residents, businesses, and infrastructure were vulnerable to significant flooding events before Hurricane Sandy hit in October 2016. The storm and its aftermath have influenced the structure of the city’s approach to risk management and urban development in many ways. The objective of this manuscript is to characterize the current risk management regime in New York City, how it is changing, and how it might shift with the further onset of climate change. More specifically, the paper addresses three basic questions: 1. How does current risk management policy in New York City intersect with climate change adaptation and urban development?; 2. Is there sentiment that transition to a new risk management paradigm is needed?; and 3. If transition is necessary, how will it be enabled or blocked by the current actors, organizations and policy-making networks for adaptation and risk management in the city? In the analysis we focus on examining the relative importance of a suite of possible factors and drivers. Two sources of data are reviewed and integrated. These include results from a workshop with local risk managers, and as well as face-to-face extended interviews with risk manager stakeholders and practitioners. The results indicate that there is significant need for a transition to wider and more comprehensive transformative adaptation policy but the means and opportunities to do is limited

Peak Electric Load Relief in Northern Manhattan: An Exploratory Data Analysis

The aphorism “Think globally, act locally,” attributed to René Dubos, reflects the vision that the solution to global environmental problems must begin with efforts within our communities. PlaNYC 2030, the New York City sustainability plan, is the starting point for this study. Results include (a) a case study based on the City College of New York (CCNY) energy audit, in which we model the impacts of green roofs on campus energy demand and (b) a case study of energy use at the neighborhood scale. We find that reducing the urban heat island effect can reduce building cooling requirements, peak electricity loads stress on the local electricity grid and improve urban livability

Peak Electric Load Relief in Northern Manhattan

The aphorism “Think globally, act locally,” attributed to René Dubos, reflects the vision that the solution to global environmental problems must begin with efforts within our communities. PlaNYC 2030, the New York City sustainability plan, is the starting point for this study. Results include (a) a case study based on the City College of New York (CCNY) energy audit, in which we model the impacts of green roofs on campus energy demand and (b) a case study of energy use at the neighborhood scale. We find that reducing the urban heat island effect can reduce building cooling requirements, peak electricity loads stress on the local electricity grid and improve urban livability