WHAT-IF: an open-source decision support tool for water infrastructure investment planning within the water–energy–food–climate nexus

Payet-Burin, Raphaël; Kromann, Mikkel; Pereira-Cardenal, Silvio; Strzepek, Kenneth Marc; Bauer-Gottwein, Peter

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-4129-2019

Articles | Volume 23, issue 10

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-4129-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-4129-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 23, issue 10

Research article

|

08 Oct 2019

Research article |

| 08 Oct 2019

WHAT-IF: an open-source decision support tool for water infrastructure investment planning within the water–energy–food–climate nexus

Raphaël Payet-Burin, Mikkel Kromann, Silvio Pereira-Cardenal, Kenneth Marc Strzepek, and Peter Bauer-Gottwein

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-4129-2019-supplement

Data sets

Zambezi dataset to "WHAT-IF: an open-source decision support tool for water infrastructure investment planning within the Water-Energy-Food-Climate Nexus" R. Payet-Burin https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2646476

Model code and software

WHAT-IF: Water, Hydropower, Agriculture Tool for Investment and Financing R. Payet-Burin https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3387308

Short summary

We present an open-source tool for water infrastructure investment planning considering interrelations between the water, food, and energy systems. We apply it to the Zambezi River basin to evaluate economic impacts of hydropower and irrigation development plans. We find trade-offs between the development plans and sensitivity to uncertainties (e.g. climate change, carbon taxes, capital costs of solar technologies, environmental policies) demonstrating the necessity for an integrated approach.