An integrated model to evaluate water-energy-food nexus at a household scale

- Develop a model capturing the interactions between WEF at a household scale.
- The developed model can quantify WEF demand and the generated waste from a household.
- Explore the impact of change in user behaviour, income and seasonality on WEF.
- Sensitivity, uncertainty and comparison with historical data for model validation.
- Investigate the impact of future scenarios using the system dynamics-based model.

To achieve a sustainable supply and effectively manage water, energy and food (WEF) demand, interactions between WEF need to be understood. This study developed an integrated model, capturing the interactions between WEF at end-use level at a household scale. The model is based on a survey of 419 households conducted to investigate WEF over winter and summer for the city of Duhok, Iraq. A bottom-up approach was used to develop this system dynamics-based model. The model estimates WEF demand and the generated organic waste and wastewater quantities. It also investigates the impact of change in user behaviour, diet, income, family size and climate.The simulation results show a good agreement with the historical data. Using the model, the impact of Global Scenario Group (GSG) scenarios was investigated. The results suggest that the 'fortress world' scenario (an authoritarian response to the threat of breakdown) had the highest impact on WEF.