Water-Nexus: Benchmarking water-energy-food nexus for a global urban
agglomeration, Hyderabad, India, integrated with socio-economic
conditions
Abstract
The urban population has been on the rise, and as per the European Union
Joint Research Commission, by the year 2015, 75% of the total
population will be in the cities. Urban imports, exports and
infrastructure have a vital role in the local economy, consequently in
both national and global economies as well. Water is a key element of
all the constituents of an urban agglomeration, and it is a known fact
that the constituents utilize water not only from the immediate
neighborhood but from elsewhere. Thus, most likely, water footprint of
an urban agglomeration extends beyond regional, national and
international borders. Methods to estimate water footprint and using the
information in the policy context are underway. Data availability and
its access at different resolutions impose its own challenges. In this
presentation, we present a consumer-centric based approach to understand
the nexus of water-energy-food of urban agglomeration and benchmarking
nexus elements. The consumer-centric approach helps to assess elements
of nexus at the smallest unit level of urban cities, i.e. at the
consumer level. The estimated information assists in policy-making as
well as in bringing the social awareness for the e¨cient use of
resources and sustained development of urban agglomeration. This
assessment is adjuvant to urban governments to know their dependence on
external water resources and it plays a crucial role in smart cities
development.