Surface and groundwater availability and demand — carried as commodities so water scarcity constrains energy and food choices.
Water is represented as a set of commodities that technologies consume and supply, exactly like energy carriers. This lets the model account for where water comes from (surface vs ground), who uses it (agriculture, power generation, other sectors), and what that implies when expanding electricity supply — for instance, the water footprint of hydropower or of irrigating bioenergy crops.
| To | Linkage |
|---|---|
| Energy | Hydropower depends on water; thermal & pumping use water and energy reciprocally |
| Land / Food | Irrigation withdrawals for crops compete with other water uses |
| Climate | Energy spent moving/treating water carries emissions; climate shifts alter supply |
The wiki notes that water and agriculture demand/supply are handled on an annual basis (unlike the sub-annual energy timeslices), reflecting their slower dynamics.
In this version water is tracked one-way — the model monitors water use and demand changes but water does not yet feed back to constrain the solution. All water change is assumed to occur in the surface water body.
