Water and energy are strongly linked key global challenges

What is it about?

This is an extended editorial to a special issue on the Water-Energy Nexus.

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Why is it important?

Energy and water affect everyday life. Energy extraction and generation requires water, and water supply depends on energy. This coupling has enormous significance for all humans. For almost all energy production water is a critical ingredient, still not sufficiently recognized. Water is needed for fossil fuel extraction, transport, and processing, for power generation as well as for irrigation of biofuel feedstock. Energy is needed for the complete urban water cycle, from water abstraction to water treatment as well as for used water collection and treatment. A large fraction of the required energy goes for pumping, which will increase in the future, because growing water scarcity will demand longer water transports in pipes and channels. Energy can also be produced in the form of biogas as a by-product from organic sludge treatment.

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