Quantifying the Sustainability of Water Availability for the Water-Food-Energy-Ecosystem Nexus in the Niger River Basin
Authored by Y C Ethan Yang, Jie Yang, Hassaan F Khan, Hua Xie, Claudia Ringler, Andrew Ogilvie, Ousmane Seidou, Abdouramane Gado Djibo, Weert Frank van, Rebecca Tharme
Date Published: 2018
DOI: 10.1029/2018ef000923
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Abstract
Water, food, energy, and the ecosystems they depend on interact with
each other in highly complex and interlinked ways. These
interdependencies can be traced particularly well in the context of a
river basin, which is delineated by hydrological boundaries. The
interactions are shaped by humans interacting with nature, and as such,
a river basin can be characterized as a complex, coupled socioecological
system. The Niger River Basin in West Africa is such a system, where
water infrastructure development to meet growing water, food, and energy
demands may threaten a productive and vulnerable basin ecosystem. These
dynamic interactions remain poorly understood. Trade-off analyses
between different sectors and at different spatial scales are needed to
support solution-oriented policy analysis, particularly in transboundary
basins. This study assesses the impact of climate and
human/anthropogenic changes on the water, energy, food, and ecosystem
sectors and characterizes the resulting trade-offs through a set of
generic metrics related to the sustainability of water availability.
Results suggest that dam development can mitigate negative impacts from
climate change on hydropower generation and also on ecosystem health to
some extent.
Tags
Agent-based modeling
Reliability
vulnerability
resilience
Model
security
Impacts
West-africa
System
Climate-change
Hydrologic alteration
Trade-offs
Land
Indicators
Niger river basin
Resources
management