WIRA: A platform for Water-centered Integrated Resource Assessment in Canada

WIRA：加拿大以水为中心的综合资源评估平台

• 批准号: RGPIN-2019-04590
• 负责人: Elshorbagy, Amin
• 金额: $ 2.62万
• 依托单位: University of Saskatchewan
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=749523
• 关键词: WIRA; platform; Water; centered; Integrated

Water is central to the Canadian economy as it is a fundamental resource for multiple economic sectors, as well as for recreational activities and ecosystem health. Therefore, sustainable water resource management is important for Canadian socioeconomic security. Integrated water resources management (IWRM) has been proposed for making decisions on water allocation to different users based on the availability of water resources. However, IWRM is limited in terms of both implementation and influence on policy makers. The two main reasons for its limited use and influence are (i) the need for IWRM to be applied to a river basin, which is irrelevant to administrative boundaries where decisions and policies are made and (ii) the implicit assumption in IWRM that water availability is the single driving force for water allocation and distribution decisions, yet society has multiple needs for water, energy, and food (WEF) in an economy driven by production maximization activities. The WEF needs dictate an integrated and simultaneous assessment and management of WEF resources (the WEF nexus) and, thus, the overarching question is how to reframe and solve the water resource management problem in a realistic and comprehensive context that addresses the societal needs for integrated WEF resources. The long-term objective of this research program is to develop water-centered integrated resource assessment (WIRA) as a realistic, and adoptable by policy makers, platform for integrated resource assessment in Canada. Although national in scope, WIRA will be initially developed as a province- or territory- based tool that simulates water, energy, and food production and consumption, integrating natural systems with societal development and infrastructure. WIRA will eventually be coupled with global food and energy trade models to include imports and exports into the assessment of Canadian resource use. Specific short-term objectives for the next five years (2019-2024) are: (i) To develop an integrated demand-driven WEF nexus model for the province of Saskatchewan. WEF-Sask will be the nucleus of the WIRA platform, where all of the inter-relationships and feedbacks among the three sectors will be perceived and quantified for the first time in Canada. Subsequently, WEF-Sask will be expanded to cover the Canadian Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba) as one unit (WEF-Prairie); and (ii) To develop a tool to assess and quantify the water footprint of the energy sector in Canada with the model interfacing with global models of energy trade to assess Canada's exports and imports of water in the form of energy. This research will help evaluate the sustainability and use efficiency of WEF nexus, along with impacts on the economy and environment. The main innovative aspects of the proposed research are (i) linking the Canadian WEF model to the global food and energy trade, and (ii) being a realistic, explicitly integrated resource demand-driven model.

水是加拿大经济的核心，因为它是多个经济部门以及娱乐活动和生态系统健康的基本资源。因此，可持续水资源管理对于加拿大社会经济安全非常重要。综合水资源管理（IWRM）被提出，用于根据水资源的可用性做出向不同用户分配水的决策。然而，水资源综合管理在实施和对政策制定者的影响方面都有限。其使用和影响有限的两个主要原因是（i）需要将水资源综合管理应用于流域，这与制定决策和政策的行政边界无关；（ii）水资源综合管理中隐含的假设是水的可用性是水分配和分配决策的单一驱动力，但在生产最大化活动驱动的经济中，社会对水、能源和食品 (WEF) 有多种需求。世界经济论坛的需求决定了对世界经济论坛资源的综合、同步评估和管理（世界经济论坛的联系），因此，最重要的问题是如何在现实和全面的背景下重新构建和解决水资源管理问题，以满足综合水资源管理的社会需求。世界经济论坛资源。该研究计划的长期目标是开发以水为中心的综合资源评估（WIRA），作为加拿大政策制定者可以采用的现实的综合资源评估平台。尽管 WIRA 的范围是全国性的，但 WIRA 最初将开发为一个省或地区的工具，用于模拟水、能源和粮食的生产和消费，将自然系统与社会发展和基础设施相结合。 WIRA 最终将与全球食品和能源贸易模型相结合，将进出口纳入加拿大资源利用评估。未来五年（2019-2024）的具体短期目标是： (i) 为萨斯喀彻温省开发一个综合需求驱动的世界经济论坛联系模型。 WEF-Sask 将成为 WIRA 平台的核心，三个部门之间的所有相互关系和反馈将首次在加拿大被感知和量化。随后，WEF-萨斯喀彻温省将扩大到覆盖加拿大草原省份（艾伯塔省、萨斯喀彻温省、曼尼托巴省）作为一个单位（WEF-Prairie）； (ii) 开发一种工具来评估和量化加拿大能源部门的水足迹，该模型与全球能源贸易模型相结合，以评估加拿大以能源形式的水的进出口情况。这项研究将有助于评估世界经济论坛关系的可持续性和使用效率，以及对经济和环境的影响。拟议研究的主要创新方面是（i）将加拿大世界经济论坛模型与全球粮食和能源贸易联系起来，以及（ii）成为一个现实的、明确整合的资源需求驱动模型。