The Future Nexus of the Brahmaputra River Basin : Climate, Water, Energy and Food Trajectories

Advance knowledge of conflicting trajectories of water–energy–food (WEF) nexus is highly relevant for water policy and planning, especially for basins that cross national boundaries. The Brahmaputra River Basin in South Asia, home for 130 million people, is such a basin. Development of new hydropowe...

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Main Authors:	Yang, Y.C. Ethan, Wi, Sungwook, Ray, Patrick A., Brown, Casey M., Khalil, Abedalrazq F.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	en_US
Published:	Elsevier 2016
Subjects:	water resources management river basins transboundary rivers Jamuna River Yarlung Tsangpo River
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24238

id	okr-10986-24238
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-242382021-05-25T10:54:35Z The Future Nexus of the Brahmaputra River Basin : Climate, Water, Energy and Food Trajectories Yang, Y.C. Ethan Wi, Sungwook Ray, Patrick A. Brown, Casey M. Khalil, Abedalrazq F. water resources management river basins transboundary rivers Jamuna River Yarlung Tsangpo River Advance knowledge of conflicting trajectories of water–energy–food (WEF) nexus is highly relevant for water policy and planning, especially for basins that cross national boundaries. The Brahmaputra River Basin in South Asia, home for 130 million people, is such a basin. Development of new hydropower projects, upstream water diversions and possible climate changes introduce concerns among riparian countries about future water supply for energy and food production in the basin. This study presents a new hydro-economic water system model of the basin coupled with ex post scenario analysis under the “nexus thinking” concept to identify and illustrate where development paths are in conflict. Results indicate that the ability of future development to remain free of conflict hinges mostly on the amount of precipitation falling in the basin in the future. Uncertain future precipitation along with uncertain future temperature and the unknown amount of upstream water diversion combine to strongly influence future water, energy and food production in the basin. Specifically, decreases in precipitation coupled with large upstream diversions (e.g., diversion in the territory of China) would leave one or more riparian countries unable to secure enough water to produce their desired energy and food. Future climate projected by General Circulation Models suggest a warmer and wetter climate condition in the region, which is associated with an increase in streamflow and easing of conflicts at the WEF nexus in the basin. The methodology presented here is expected to be generally useful for diagnosing the conditions that may cause water resources development goals to not be achieved due to either changes in climate or water use among competing users. 2016-05-05T18:52:13Z 2016-05-05T18:52:13Z 2016-03 Journal Article Global Environmental Change 0959-3780 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24238 en_US CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Elsevier Publications & Research :: Journal Article Publications & Research South Asia Bangladesh China India
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	en_US
topic	water resources management river basins transboundary rivers Jamuna River Yarlung Tsangpo River
spellingShingle	water resources management river basins transboundary rivers Jamuna River Yarlung Tsangpo River Yang, Y.C. Ethan Wi, Sungwook Ray, Patrick A. Brown, Casey M. Khalil, Abedalrazq F. The Future Nexus of the Brahmaputra River Basin : Climate, Water, Energy and Food Trajectories
geographic_facet	South Asia Bangladesh China India
description	Advance knowledge of conflicting trajectories of water–energy–food (WEF) nexus is highly relevant for water policy and planning, especially for basins that cross national boundaries. The Brahmaputra River Basin in South Asia, home for 130 million people, is such a basin. Development of new hydropower projects, upstream water diversions and possible climate changes introduce concerns among riparian countries about future water supply for energy and food production in the basin. This study presents a new hydro-economic water system model of the basin coupled with ex post scenario analysis under the “nexus thinking” concept to identify and illustrate where development paths are in conflict. Results indicate that the ability of future development to remain free of conflict hinges mostly on the amount of precipitation falling in the basin in the future. Uncertain future precipitation along with uncertain future temperature and the unknown amount of upstream water diversion combine to strongly influence future water, energy and food production in the basin. Specifically, decreases in precipitation coupled with large upstream diversions (e.g., diversion in the territory of China) would leave one or more riparian countries unable to secure enough water to produce their desired energy and food. Future climate projected by General Circulation Models suggest a warmer and wetter climate condition in the region, which is associated with an increase in streamflow and easing of conflicts at the WEF nexus in the basin. The methodology presented here is expected to be generally useful for diagnosing the conditions that may cause water resources development goals to not be achieved due to either changes in climate or water use among competing users.
format	Journal Article
author	Yang, Y.C. Ethan Wi, Sungwook Ray, Patrick A. Brown, Casey M. Khalil, Abedalrazq F.
author_facet	Yang, Y.C. Ethan Wi, Sungwook Ray, Patrick A. Brown, Casey M. Khalil, Abedalrazq F.
author_sort	Yang, Y.C. Ethan
title	The Future Nexus of the Brahmaputra River Basin : Climate, Water, Energy and Food Trajectories
title_short	The Future Nexus of the Brahmaputra River Basin : Climate, Water, Energy and Food Trajectories
title_full	The Future Nexus of the Brahmaputra River Basin : Climate, Water, Energy and Food Trajectories
title_fullStr	The Future Nexus of the Brahmaputra River Basin : Climate, Water, Energy and Food Trajectories
title_full_unstemmed	The Future Nexus of the Brahmaputra River Basin : Climate, Water, Energy and Food Trajectories
title_sort	future nexus of the brahmaputra river basin : climate, water, energy and food trajectories
publisher	Elsevier
publishDate	2016
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24238
_version_	1764456014694842368

The Future Nexus of the Brahmaputra River Basin : Climate, Water, Energy and Food Trajectories

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