Residential water heating is linked to the primary source of waterborne disease outbreaks in the United States, and accounts for greater energy demand than the combined water/wastewater utility sector. To date, there has been little research that can guide decision-making with regards to water heater selection and operation to minimize energy costs and the likelihood of waterborne disease. We have outlined three types of systems that currently dominate the marketplace: 1) a standard hot water tank with no hot water recirculation (STAND), 2) a hot water tank with hot water recirculation (RECIRC), and 3) an on-demand tankless hot water system with no hot water recirculation (DEMAND). Not only did the standard system outperform the hot water recirculation system with respect to temperature profile during flushing, but STAND also operated with 32 – 36% more energy efficiency. Although RECIRC did in fact save some water at the tap, when factoring in the energy efficiency reductions and associated water demand, RECIRC actually consumed up to 7 gpd more and cost consumers more money. DEMAND operated with virtually 100% energy efficiency, but cannot be used in many circumstances dependent on scaling and incoming water temperature, and may require expensive upgrades to home electrical systems. RECIRC had greater volumes at risk for pathogen growth when set at the lower end of accepted temperature ranges, and lower volumes at risk when set at the higher end when compared to STAND. RECIRC also tended to have much lower levels of disinfectant residual (40 -850%), 4-6 times as much hydrogen, and 3-20 times more sediment compared to standard tanks without recirculation. DEMAND had very small volumes of water at risk and relatively high levels of disinfection. A comparison study of optimized RECIRC conditions was compared to the baseline modes of operation. Optimization increased energy efficiency 5.5 – 60%, could save consumers 5 – 140% and increased the disinfectant residual up to 560% higher disinfectant residual as compared to the baseline RECIRC system. STAND systems were still between 3 – 55% more energy efficient and could save consumers between $19 - $158 annual on water and electrical costs. Thus, in the context of “green” design, RECIRC systems provide a convenience to consumers in the form of nearly instant hot water, at a cost of higher capital, operating and overall energy costs. / Ph. D.

Rainwater harvesting (RWH) refers to the collection of rainwater for subsequent on-site use. Rainwater is most often used for non-potable purposes including toilet flushing, laundering, landscape and commercial crop irrigation, industry, fire fighting, air-conditioning, and vehicle-washing. This study evaluates the potential impacts of RWH on residential housing on Virginia Tech campus in southwestern Virginia in regards to potable water offset, energy conservation, stormwater mitigation, carbon emission reduction, and financial savings. Potential rainwater collection was estimated from three simulations used to approximate the maximum, average, and minimum range of annual precipitation. Collected rainwater estimates were used to calculate the impacts on the areas of interest. Cumulatively, the sample buildings can collect 3.4 to 5.3 millions of gallons of rainwater — offsetting potable water use and reducing stormwater by an equivalent amount, save 320 to 1842 kWh of energy, and reduce carbon emissions by 650 to 3650 pounds annually. Cumulative savings for the nine buildings from combined water and energy offsets range between $5751 and $9005 USD, not substantial enough to serve as the sole basis of RWH implementation on campus. A significant advantage of RWH relates to the management and improvement of the Stroubles Creek watershed in which the majority of the campus sits. Additionally, RWH implementation would benefit sustainable initiatives and provide Virginia Tech additional opportunities for conservation incentives and environmental stewardship funding. / Master of Science

Advanced understanding of the global carbon budget requires large-scale and long-term information on forest carbon pools and fluxes. In situ and remote sensing measurements have greatly enhanced monitoring of forest carbon dynamics, but incomplete data coverage in space and time results in significant uncertainties in carbon accounting. Although theoretical and mechanistic models have enabled continental-scale and global mapping, robust predictions of forest carbon dynamics are difficult without initialization, adjustment, and parameterization using observations. Therefore, this dissertation is focused on a synergistic combination of lidar measurements and modeling that incorporates biophysical principles underlying forest growth. First, spaceborne lidar data from the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) were analyzed for monitoring and modeling of forest heights over the U.S. Mainland. Results showed the best GLAS metric representing the within-footprint heights to be dependent on topography. Insufficient data sampling by the GLAS sensor was problematic for spatially-complete carbon quantification. A modeling approach, called Allometric Scaling and Resource Limitations (ASRL), successfully alleviated this problem. The metabolic scaling theory and water-energy balance equations embedded within the model also provided a generalized mechanistic understanding of valid relationships between forest structure and geo-predictors including topographic and climatic variables. Second, the ASRL model was refined and applied to predict large-scale patterns of forest structure. This research successfully expanded model applicability by including eco-regional and forest-type variations, and disturbance history. Baseline maps (circa 2005; 1-km2 grids) of forest heights and aboveground biomass were generated over the U.S. Mainland. The Pacific Northwest/California forests were simulated as the most favorable region for hosting large trees, consistent with observations. Through sensitivity and uncertainty analyses, this research found that the refined ASRL model showed promise for prognostic applications, in contrast to conventional black-box approaches. The model predicted temporal evolution of forest carbon stocks during the 21st century. The results demonstrate the effects of CO2 fertilization and climate feedbacks across water- and energy-limited environments. This dissertation documents the complex mechanisms determining forest structure, given availability of local resources. These mechanisms can be used to monitor and forecast forest carbon pools in combination with satellite observations to advance our understanding of the global carbon cycle.

Submitted by Cláudia Bueno (claudiamoura18@gmail.com) on 2016-01-14T13:57:19Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Thiago Bernardi Vieira - 2015.pdf: 3669196 bytes, checksum: dcec0ac984d5ca70f224cb749d6933cf (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2016-01-15T09:45:52Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Thiago Bernardi Vieira - 2015.pdf: 3669196 bytes, checksum: dcec0ac984d5ca70f224cb749d6933cf (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-01-15T09:45:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Thiago Bernardi Vieira - 2015.pdf: 3669196 bytes, checksum: dcec0ac984d5ca70f224cb749d6933cf (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-03-02 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Encontrar um padrão de distribuição da diversidade de organismos aquáticos e relacionar esse padrão a um gradiente ambiental ou espacial é o objetivo central dos estudos de ecologia de sistemas aquáticos continentais. Três conceitos se destacam nessa busca, o conceito de “rio contínuo” (River Continuum Concept - RCC), o “domínio de processos” (Process Domain Concept – PDC) e a dinâmica do pulso de inundação. Todos esses conceitos (RCC, PDC, pulso de inundação e modelos de produtividade) apresentam as condições ambientais e os recursos como agentes estruturadores do habitat que permitem a coexistência de espécies com diferentes requerimentos ao longo da rede. A interação existente entre o corpo d’água e o meio terrestre faz com que esses sistemas sejam considerados de grande complexidade e excelentes modelos de estudos para a variação temporal e espacial de comunidades bióticas. Além da relação entre a comunidade e as condições ambientais, não podemos deixar de lado a influência de processos espaciais na estruturação da fauna aquática. Os padrões de diversidade são então resultados de interações espécie-espécie, espécieambiente e/ou dinâmicas neutras, em que a dispersão reflete a existência de filtros e\ou barreiras entre as comunidades, representando a permeabilidade da matriz estudada. Por isso a identificação de padrões de diversidade é uma ferramenta importante para determinação de quais processos estão relacionados à estruturação da metacomunidade. Os objetivos dessa tese são então; (i) avaliar a capacidade preditiva das hipóteses macroecológicas no padrão de distribuição da riqueza de peixes de riachos; (ii) quantificar a não estacionariedade presente nessas relações; (iii) determinar qual abordagem é mais eficiente na representação de processos espacialmente explícitos em comunidade de peixes de riachos. E qual a melhor forma de representação das condições ambientais dos riachos e (iv) identificar qual o padrão de coocorrência de espécies de peixes de riachos da bacia do rio Paraná e a qual gradiente ambiental a metacomunidade se relaciona. De modo geral observamos que o conjunto de modelos formado pelas hipóteses Água-Energia, Produtividade Primária Terrestre e Heterogeneidade Temporal é o que melhor explicacou a riqueza da ictiofauna de riacho, sendo que a relação não é estacionaria. Com relação as condições ambientais, nos observamos que é necessário a inclusão de alguma medida da variação, como a variância ou o desvio padrão dos paramentros. Além disso, observamos a necessidade de inclusão de barreiras geográficas na representação dos processos espaciais. Por fim 2 observamos a existência de dois conjuntos de espécies na bacia do Rio Paraná, um conjunto de espécies núcleo, com o padrão de coocorrência Clementisiano, sob o efeito do mecanismo de ocorrência de espécies (species sorting) e uma metacomunidade total sendo estruturada pelo mecanismo de efeito de massa (mass effects). / Encontrar um padrão de distribuição da diversidade de organismos aquáticos e relacionar esse padrão a um gradiente ambiental ou espacial é o objetivo central dos estudos de ecologia de sistemas aquáticos continentais. Três conceitos se destacam nessa busca, o conceito de “rio contínuo” (River Continuum Concept - RCC), o “domínio de processos” (Process Domain Concept – PDC) e a dinâmica do pulso de inundação. Todos esses conceitos (RCC, PDC, pulso de inundação e modelos de produtividade) apresentam as condições ambientais e os recursos como agentes estruturadores do habitat que permitem a coexistência de espécies com diferentes requerimentos ao longo da rede. A interação existente entre o corpo d’água e o meio terrestre faz com que esses sistemas sejam considerados de grande complexidade e excelentes modelos de estudos para a variação temporal e espacial de comunidades bióticas. Além da relação entre a comunidade e as condições ambientais, não podemos deixar de lado a influência de processos espaciais na estruturação da fauna aquática. Os padrões de diversidade são então resultados de interações espécie-espécie, espécieambiente e/ou dinâmicas neutras, em que a dispersão reflete a existência de filtros e\ou barreiras entre as comunidades, representando a permeabilidade da matriz estudada. Por isso a identificação de padrões de diversidade é uma ferramenta importante para determinação de quais processos estão relacionados à estruturação da metacomunidade. Os objetivos dessa tese são então; (i) avaliar a capacidade preditiva das hipóteses macroecológicas no padrão de distribuição da riqueza de peixes de riachos; (ii) quantificar a não estacionariedade presente nessas relações; (iii) determinar qual abordagem é mais eficiente na representação de processos espacialmente explícitos em comunidade de peixes de riachos. E qual a melhor forma de representação das condições ambientais dos riachos e (iv) identificar qual o padrão de coocorrência de espécies de peixes de riachos da bacia do rio Paraná e a qual gradiente ambiental a metacomunidade se relaciona. De modo geral observamos que o conjunto de modelos formado pelas hipóteses Água-Energia, Produtividade Primária Terrestre e Heterogeneidade Temporal é o que melhor explicacou a riqueza da ictiofauna de riacho, sendo que a relação não é estacionaria. Com relação as condições ambientais, nos observamos que é necessário a inclusão de alguma medida da variação, como a variância ou o desvio padrão dos paramentros. Além disso, observamos a necessidade de inclusão de barreiras geográficas na representação dos processos espaciais. Por fim 2 observamos a existência de dois conjuntos de espécies na bacia do Rio Paraná, um conjunto de espécies núcleo, com o padrão de coocorrência Clementisiano, sob o efeito do mecanismo de ocorrência de espécies (species sorting) e uma metacomunidade total sendo estruturada pelo mecanismo de efeito de massa (mass effects).

Submitted by Marlene Santos (marlene.bc.ufg@gmail.com) on 2016-07-29T17:40:22Z No. of bitstreams: 3 Dissertação - Carlos Roberto Marques Araújo - 2016.pdf: 1356967 bytes, checksum: a67bce138d3f3fc43354746e29bef2f6 (MD5) Ata de defesa-Carlos Roberto marques Araújo - 2016.jpg: 604004 bytes, checksum: b0fd3fa197d5329a4b1df03e7e2636c0 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2016-08-01T13:30:23Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 3 Dissertação - Carlos Roberto Marques Araújo - 2016.pdf: 1356967 bytes, checksum: a67bce138d3f3fc43354746e29bef2f6 (MD5) Ata de defesa-Carlos Roberto marques Araújo - 2016.jpg: 604004 bytes, checksum: b0fd3fa197d5329a4b1df03e7e2636c0 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-01T13:30:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 3 Dissertação - Carlos Roberto Marques Araújo - 2016.pdf: 1356967 bytes, checksum: a67bce138d3f3fc43354746e29bef2f6 (MD5) Ata de defesa-Carlos Roberto marques Araújo - 2016.jpg: 604004 bytes, checksum: b0fd3fa197d5329a4b1df03e7e2636c0 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-04-06 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The biodiversity have a heterogeneous distribution along the globe. Available area, energy, evolutional and historical processes, spatial and/or temporal heterogeneity are some of the processes raised to explain those variation on species richness. On this study we tested the following hypothesis, or the combination between them to explain the richness of stream’s aquatic insects. The hypotheses were: (i) Energy, (ii) Water-energy, (iii) Temporal climatic heterogeneity, (iv) Terrestrial primary productivity and (v) Area. We used genus richness of aquatic insects from all South America, this data was retrieved from papers published on periodic with editorial board. We used Ordinary Least square models, and then choose the best model using the Akaike Information Criterion. Our results support the idea that models with multiples hypothesis are more effective when compared to single hypothesis models. The best multi-model utilized the hypotheses Water-Energy, Primary Productivity and Temporal Climatic Heterogeneity. Our models were impaired by the lack of comprehensiveness data, however we could conclude that the Water-Energy was the most robust hypothesis to explain the richness distribution of stream’s aquatic insects. / A distribuição da biodiversidade no planeta ocorre de forma heterogênea. Área disponível, energia, processos evolutivos e históricos, heterogeneidade espacial e/ou temporal são alguns dos processos organizadores propostos para explicar a variação na riqueza de espécies. Neste estudo testamos se alguma das seguintes hipóteses, ou se a combinação entre elas melhor explica a riqueza de insetos aquáticos em riachos de baixa ordem. As hipóteses foram: (i)energética, (ii) água-energia, (iii)heterogeneidade climática temporal, (iv)produtividade primária terrestre e (v)área. Usamos dados da riqueza de gêneros de insetos aquáticos para toda a América do Sul, recolhidos de artigos publicados em periódicos com corpo editorial. Nos então desenvolvemos modelos lineares de mínimos quadrados, e fizemos a seleção do melhor modelo utilizando o Critério de Informação de Akaike. Nossos resultados suportam a ideia de que modelos com múltiplas hipóteses são mais efetivos em comparação a modelos individuais. Quando analisados separadamente o modelo de água-energia foi o que melhor explicou a riqueza de gêneros. O melhor multimodelo integrou as hipóteses de Água-energia, Produtividade e Heterogeneidade Climática Temporal. A falta de abrangência nos dados prejudicou nossos modelos, porém podemos afirmar que a hipótese de água energia se mostrou como a mais robusta explicação da distribuição de insetos aquáticos em larga escala.

Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs) are sophisticated systems that have to sustain long-term qualified performance, regardless of temporally volatile volumes or compositions of the incoming wastewater. Membrane filtration in the Membrane Bioreactors (MBRs) reduces the WWTPs footprint and produces effluents of proper quality. The energy or electric power consumption of the WWTPs, mainly from aeration equipment and pumping, is directly linked to greenhouse gas emission and economic input. Biological treatment requires oxygen from aeration to perform aerobic decomposition of aquatic pollutants, while pumping consumes energy to overcome friction in the channels, piping systems, and membrane filtration. In this thesis, we researched full-scale WWTPs Influent Conditions (ICs) monitoring and forecasting models to facilitate the energy consumption budgeting and raise early alarms when facing latent abnormal events. Accurate and efficient forecasts of ICs could avoid unexpected system disruption, maintain steady product quality, support efficient downstream processes, improve reliability and save energy. We carried out a numerical study of bioreactor microbial ecology for MBRs microbial communities to identify indicator species and typical working conditions that would assist in reactor status confirmation and support energy consumption budgeting. To quantify membrane fouling and cleaning effects at various scales, we proposed quantitative methods based on Matern covariances to analyze biofouling layer thickness and roughness obtained from Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) images taken from gravitydriven MBRs under various working conditions. Such methods would support practitioners to design suitable data-driven process operation or replacement cycles and lead to quantified WWTPs monitoring and energy saving. For future research, we would investigate data from other full-scale water or wastewater treatment process with higher sampling frequency and apply kernel machine learning techniques for process global monitoring. The forecasting models would be incorporated into optimization scenarios to support data-driven decision-making. Samples from more MBRs would be considered to gather information of microbial community structures and corresponding oxygen-energy consumption in various working conditions. We would investigate the relationship between pressure drop and spatial roughness measures. Anisotropic Matern covariance related metrics would be adopted to quantify the directional effects under various operation and cleaning working conditions.

This dissertation reviews the progress in climate, land, energy and water (CLEW) multi-scale models and proposes a framework for quantitative assessment of multi-sector long-term policies. The so-called CLEW nexus approaches have shown their usefulness in assessing strategies to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals in the contexts of increasing demands, resource scarcity, and climate change. This thesis contributes to existing research by (1) focusing on the palette of feasible long-term sustainable solutions at different scales to face current and future sustainable development challenges; (2) improving understanding of how CLEW models can best advise on sustainable development research and highlighting the strengths and limitations of existing configurations; (3) inquiring what is needed for new tools to be accessible, transferable and successful in informing the final user. This dissertation first reviews a set of models that can meet the needs of decision makers discussing research gaps and critical needs and opportunities for further model development from a scientific viewpoint. Particular attention is given to model accessibility, usability, and community support. The review explores at different scales where and why some nexus interactions are most relevant, finding, for example, that both very small scale and global models tend to neglect some CLEW interactions. This dissertation also presents 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. Finally, a case study analysis of the Indus River Basin in South Asia demonstrates the capability of the NEST framework to capture important interlinkages across system transformation pathways towards the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. The results show how the Indus countries could lower costs for development and reduce soil pollution and water stress, by cooperating on water resources, electricity and food production. / Graduate

Food, water and energy are three essential resources for human well-being, poverty reduction and sustainable development. These resources are very much linked to one another, meaning that the actions in any one particular area often can have effects in one or both of the other areas. At the same time, an economy's shift towards climate neutrality requires a massive expansion of energy production from renewable sources. Among these ground-mounted photovoltaic (PV) and biomass will be expanded massively to meet the clean energy generation goal, simultaneously influence regional water and food availability and supply security. It is crucial to understand Food-Water-Energy Nexus (FWE) nexus during the energy transition. However, current studies have limitation both methodically (qualitative assessments) and spatially (aggregated data on a national level is more available). Firstly, a consistent share input data set in geographical format was created with the resolution of building/field. An energy simulation platform (SimStadt) was then extended with new workflows on biomass potential, ground-mounted PV potential, food demand/potential, and urban water demand. Combining with existing workflows on urban building heating/electricity demand and roof PV potential, the dissertation created a complete simulation environmental covering most-relating FWE topics in energy transition with consistent input and output structures at a fine resolution. Secondly, the most representative inter-linkage between ground-mounted PV and biomass on hinterland is investigated in details with the new tools. The output data of each field from ground-mounted PV and biomass workflows are linked and ranked according to the scenarios emphasizing PV yield, feasibility, profit, or biomass. The assessment and scenarios are applied at three representative German counties with distinguished land-use structures and geometries as case studies. Results show that current policies does not guarantee the technically efficient allocation of fields. The optimal technical strategy is to follow the individual market profit drive, which is very likely, at the same time for the social good, to achieve high PV yields with limited biomass losses and more significant crop water-saving effects. The local food, water, and energy demands are also included as a metric for resource allocation on the potential side. Besides focusing on the biomass-PV tradeoff simulation and analysis, pioneer works have also been done to test the transferability of the method in cases outside Germany, and the complement of urban solid waste to agricultural biomass is explored to achieve energy autarky.

Historically, water, energy and agricultural resources have been naturally scarce in Jordan, but current economic, demographic, geopolitical and environmental conditions are aggravating the situation. The influxes of refugees are increasing the already high natural population growth; better economic conditions and living standards are changing consumption and production patterns; surrounding conflicts affect the supply of resources; and negative effects associated to climate change can be noticed already. Therefore, nexus thinking as a basis for integrated and cross-sectorial natural resources management is essential to achieve water, energy and food security, and eventually to move towards a sustainable development of the country. To that end, understanding the existing nexus interlinkages is crucial. This document constitutes a first nexus approach focused on water, energy and agriculture (WEA) sectors in Jordan. The research has adopted a case study method based on literature review to consider different contextual factors, and three levels of study were regarded: national level, Lower Jordan River Basin within Jordanian borders level, and As-Samra WWTP level, which has constituted the case study. Based on an extensive literature review that has resulted in an updated analysis of the current Jordanian context, the main WEA nexus interlinkages have been identified at every level of study. Thirteen future alternative pathways have been proposed, their potential impacts on WEA nexus sectors have been investigated, and related indicators to evaluate these impacts have been suggested. Additionally, three combined pathways have been analyzed in detail. In general, results show that interdependencies between WEA sectors at all levels are strong and projected to intensify in the future, and highlight the critical situation of Jordan in terms of resource management. Inefficiencies and unsustainable uses of natural resources stand out as decisive problems that urge to be solved, and future pathways appear to be potentially harmful for the Jordanian system unless they are included in an integrated nexus-based planning. / Historiskt sett har vatten-, energi- och jordbruksresurser varit naturligt begränsade i Jordanien, men de nuvarande ekonomiska, demografiska, geopolitiska och miljöbetingade förhållandena förvärrar situationen. Inkommande flyktningar ökar den redan höga populationsökningen; bättre ekonomiska förutsättningar och levnadsstandarder ändrar konsumtion- och produktionsmönster; kringliggande konflikter påverkar utbudet av resurser; och negativa effekter associerade med klimatförändringar är redan tydliga. På denna grund så är Nexus en god grund för integrerad och tvärsektoriell förvaltning av naturresurs och vital för att säkerställa resurser för vatten, energi och mat och eventuellt gå mot en hållbar utveckling inom landet. För att åstadkomma det ovannämnda så är förståelse för nuvarande nexus samband avgörande. Denna studie utgör ett tillvägagångssätt för en nexus studie med fokus på vatten, energi och jordbruk (WEA) sektorerna i Jordanien. Arbetet utgår från en fallstudie och baseras på en litteraturstudie som är gjord på tre olika nivåer: nationell, Lower Jordan River Basin inom gränserna av Jordanien och As-Samra vattenreningsverk, sistnämnda utgör fallstudien. Baserat på en omfattande litteraturstudie som resulterat i en uppdaterad analys av Jordaniens situation, så har de huvudsakliga WEA nexus sambanden identifierats för varje nivå. Tretton framtida alternativa utfall har föreslagits, deras potentiella påverkan på WEA sektorerna har undersökts och relaterade indikatorer har föreslagits för att utvärdera deras påverkan. Vidare, tre kombinerade utfall har utvärderats i detalj. Överlag så visar resultaten på starkt ömsesidigt beroende mellan WEA sektorerna på alla nivåer och är beräknad att intensifieras i framtiden, vilket betonar den kritiska situationen Jordanien befinner sig i med avseende på naturresurshantering. Ineffektivt och ohållbart utnyttjande av naturresurser står ut som ett stort problem som kräver en lösning, och framtida utfall tycks vara potentiellt skadliga för Jordanien om de inte inkluderas i en integrerad planering baserat på ett nexus tillvägagångssätt.

A quantitative assessment of food-water-energy interactions is important to assess pathways and scenarios towards a holistically sustainable regional development. While a range of tools and methods exist that assess energetic demands and potentials on a regional scale, the same is not true for assessments of regional food demand and potential. This work introduces a new food simulation workflow to address local food potential and demand at the regional level, by extending an existing regional energy-water simulation platform. The goal of this work is to develop a GIS-based bottom-up approach to simulate regional food demand that can be linked to similarly GIS-based workflows assessing regional water demands and energetic demands and potentials. This allows us to study food-water-energy issues on a local scale. For this, a CityGML land use data model is extended with a feed and animal potential raster map as well as a soil type map to serve as the main inputs. The workflow simulates: (1) the vegetal and animal product food potentials by taking climate, crop type, soil type, organic farming, and food waste parameters into account; (2) the food demand of vegetal and animal products influenced by population change, body weight, age, human development index, and other indicators. The method is tested and validated in three German counties with various land use coverages. The results show that restricting land used exclusively for energy crop production is the most effective way to increase annual food production potential. Climate change by 2050 is expected to result in annual biomass yield changes between −4% and 2% depending on the region. The amount of animal product consumption is expected to rise by 16% by 2050, while 4% fewer vegetal products are excepted to be consumed.