Author(s): Duan Chen, Meghna Babbar-Sebens

Linked Author(s):

Keywords: Water-energy-food nexus; Key elements; System dynamics; Network analysis;

Abstract: Water, energy, and food sectors are commonly interconnected. The interconnection, namely water-energy-food nexus, is essentially a complex network that is constituted by a large number of system elements (nodes) and their connections (edges). Identification of the hub nodes i.e., the key elements of the network is a critical step in simulating the water-energy-food nexus. This study coupled System Dynamics modeling and Network Analysis (NA) to identify the key elements of the water-energy-food nexus. First, the system elements of the nexus and their interconnections are qualitatively analyzed using the causal-loop diagram of the System Dynamics model. The diagram is then transferred as a network in which the system elements and associated connections are treated as nodes and edges of the network, respectively. The NA is then applied to the network, and attributes of the nodes such as degree, betweenness, and closeness centrality are investigated. The importance of the elements is assigned based on those attributes valuations, and the key system elements are identified using multi-attribute decision approach. A case of water-energy-food nexus is used for demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3850/38WC092019-1037

Year: 2019