Cities and “budget-based” management of the energy-water-climate nexus: Case studies in transportation policy, infrastructure systems, and urban utility risk management

doi:10.1002/ep.12765

Title: Cities and “budget-based” management of the energy-water-climate nexus: Case studies in transportation policy, infrastructure systems, and urban utility risk management

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This article reviews city case studies to inform a framework for developing urban infrastructure design standards and policy instruments that together aim to pursue energy efficiency and greenhouse gas mitigation through city carbon budgets and water use efficiency and climate risk adaptation through city water budgets. Here, this article also proposes combining carbon and water budgeting at the city-scale for achieving successful coupled city carbon and water budget (CCCWB) programs. Under a CCCWB program, key actors including local governments, infrastructure designers/operators, and households would be assigned a GHG emissions and water 'budget' and be required by state or federal levels to keep within this budget through the use of flexibility mechanisms, incentive programs, and sanctions. Multiple incentives and cross-scale governance arrangements would be tied to energy-water systems integration, resource-efficient transportation and infrastructure development, and effective monitoring and management of energy use, emissions, climate risks to, and security of energy-water-transport-food and other critical systems. As a first step to promote strategies for CCCWB development, we systematically review approaches of and shortcomings to existing budget-based programs in the UK and US, and suggest improvements in three areas: measurement, modeling effectiveness of interventions for staying within a budget, and governance. To date, themore »

Authors:

; Ramaswami, Anu ^[2]

National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Univ. of Colorado, Denver, CO (United States)
Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States); Univ. of Colorado, Denver, CO (United States)

Publication Date:: 2017-11-03

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA-5400-70542
Journal ID: ISSN 1944-7442

Grant/Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308

Type:: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: Environmental Progress and Sustainable Energy

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 37; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 1944-7442

Research Org:: National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Org:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY; INCENTIVES; INFRASTRUCTURE; MEASURING TRANSPORTATION VEHICLE MILES TRAVELED; CARBON INTENSITY OF ENERGY; WATER SUPPLY; URBAN POLICY AND GOVERNANCE

OSTI Identifier:: 1409728


                    Sperling, Joshua B., and Ramaswami, Anu. Cities and “budget-based” management of the energy-water-climate nexus: Case studies in transportation policy, infrastructure systems, and urban utility risk management.  United States: N. p.,  
        Web.  doi:10.1002/ep.12765.

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                    Sperling, Joshua B., & Ramaswami, Anu. Cities and “budget-based” management of the energy-water-climate nexus: Case studies in transportation policy, infrastructure systems, and urban utility risk management.  United States.  doi:10.1002/ep.12765.

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                    Sperling, Joshua B., and Ramaswami, Anu. 2017.  
        "Cities and “budget-based” management of the energy-water-climate nexus: Case studies in transportation policy, infrastructure systems, and urban utility risk management".  United States.  
        doi:10.1002/ep.12765.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1409728.

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@article{osti_1409728,

  title        = {Cities and “budget-based” management of the energy-water-climate nexus: Case studies in transportation policy, infrastructure systems, and urban utility risk management},

  author       = {Sperling, Joshua B. and Ramaswami, Anu},

  abstractNote = {This article reviews city case studies to inform a framework for developing urban infrastructure design standards and policy instruments that together aim to pursue energy efficiency and greenhouse gas mitigation through city carbon budgets and water use efficiency and climate risk adaptation through city water budgets. Here, this article also proposes combining carbon and water budgeting at the city-scale for achieving successful coupled city carbon and water budget (CCCWB) programs. Under a CCCWB program, key actors including local governments, infrastructure designers/operators, and households would be assigned a GHG emissions and water 'budget' and be required by state or federal levels to keep within this budget through the use of flexibility mechanisms, incentive programs, and sanctions. Multiple incentives and cross-scale governance arrangements would be tied to energy-water systems integration, resource-efficient transportation and infrastructure development, and effective monitoring and management of energy use, emissions, climate risks to, and security of energy-water-transport-food and other critical systems. As a first step to promote strategies for CCCWB development, we systematically review approaches of and shortcomings to existing budget-based programs in the UK and US, and suggest improvements in three areas: measurement, modeling effectiveness of interventions for staying within a budget, and governance. To date, the majority of climate action or sustainability plans by cities, while mentioning climate impacts as a premise for the plan, do not address these impacts in the plan. They focus primarily on GHG mitigation while ignoring resource depletion challenges and energy-climate-water linkages, whereby water supplies can begin to limit energy production and energy shifts to mitigate climate change can limit water availability. Coupled carbon-water budget plans, programs, and policies - described in this study- may address these concerns as well as the emerging trends that will exacerbate these problems - e.g., including population growth, climatic changes, and emerging policy choices that are not coordinated. Cities and 'Budget-Based' Management of the Energy-Water-Climate Nexus: Case Studies to Inform Strategy for Integrated Performance- and Incentive-Based Design and Policy Instruments.},

  doi          = {10.1002/ep.12765},

  journal      = {Environmental Progress and Sustainable Energy},

  number       = 1,

  volume       = 37,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {2017},

  month        = {11}

}

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Accepted Manuscript (DOE)
Publisher's Version of Record
10.1002/ep.12765
https://doi.org/10.1002/ep.12765

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Title: Cities and “budget-based” management of the energy-water-climate nexus: Case studies in transportation policy, infrastructure systems, and urban utility risk management

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