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The economics of green transition strategies for cities: Can low carbon, energy efficient development approaches be adapted to demand side urban water efficiency?

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  • Topi, Corrado
  • Esposto, Edoardo
  • Marini Govigli, Valentino

Abstract

Cities are major contributors to global emissions, producers of waste and consumers of resources such as energy, water and food: implementing green development strategies is hence a core challenge of modern city-planning. The attention of research has been focusing on the development of energy efficient, low carbon strategies, yet city decision-makers need truly integrated approaches, as the one proposed by the water-energy-food Nexus. The purpose of our paper is to investigate whether it is possible to take one step in this direction by extending existing approaches to energy efficiency strategies to progressively include other priority resources, in particular water. To test this hypothesis we have taken a robust and well accepted methodology, the ELCC (Economics of Low Carbon development strategies for Cities) developed by SEI and CCCEP, and we have extended it to the case of demand side water efficiency strategies for cities. We have then applied the adapted ELCC framework to the case study of the domestic sector of the city of Bologna (Italy), identifying and prioritizing several efficiency measures. Measures were evaluated through their capital investment, annual values of savings, payback period and reduction in consumption, and then aggregated in different scenarios in order to highlight potential urban investments and to showcase a possible approach to the prioritization of demand side water efficiency measures. The results show that, with an upfront investment of € 17 million, a feasible subset of Bologna’s households could be equipped with five selected cost-effective measures, generating annual savings of € 10.2 million and reducing the total domestic water consumption of 34% by 2020 compared to the 2012 initial value. With additional € 28.5 million, households could be equipped with more costly appliances reaching an overall water reduction of 37% by 2020. Our findings confirm that it is possible to successfully extend current approaches to urban energy efficiency strategies to include demand side water efficiency, adding an important building block to the construction of an integrated Nexus-based approach to green development strategies at the city-level. We encourage further tests to confirm the robustness of the methodology.

Suggested Citation

  • Topi, Corrado & Esposto, Edoardo & Marini Govigli, Valentino, 2016. "The economics of green transition strategies for cities: Can low carbon, energy efficient development approaches be adapted to demand side urban water efficiency?," Environmental Science & Policy, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 74-82.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enscpo:v:58:y:2016:i:c:p:74-82
    DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2016.01.001
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Chuloh Jung & Jihad Awad, 2023. "Sharjah Sustainable City: An Analytic Hierarchy Process Approach to Urban Planning Priorities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-21, May.
    2. Mengzhu Xiao & Sonja Simon & Thomas Pregger, 2019. "Energy System Transitions in the Eastern Coastal Metropolitan Regions of China—The Role of Regional Policy Plans," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-30, January.
    3. Jo-Ting Huang-Lachmann & Edeltraud Guenther, 2020. "From Dichotomy to an Integrated Approach: Cities’ Benefits of Integrating Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-17, September.
    4. Ramón Barberán & Diego Colás & Pilar Egea, 2019. "Water Supply and Energy in Residential Buildings: Potential Savings and Financial Profitability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-12, January.
    5. Skiba, Marta & Mrówczyńska, Maria & Bazan-Krzywoszańska, Anna, 2017. "Modeling the economic dependence between town development policy and increasing energy effectiveness with neural networks. Case study: The town of Zielona Góra," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 356-366.
    6. Athar Kamal & Sami G. Al-Ghamdi & Muammer Koç, 2021. "Assessing the Impact of Water Efficiency Policies on Qatar’s Electricity and Water Sectors," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-30, July.
    7. Weiping Tang & Zhengjia Niu & Zili Wei & Liandong Zhu, 2022. "Sustainable Development of Eco-Cities: A Bibliometric Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-19, August.
    8. Congyu Zhao & Kangyin Dong & Farhad Taghizadeh-Hesary, 2023. "Can smart transportation enhance green development efficiency?," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 56(2), pages 825-857, April.
    9. Ting Yang & Kaile Zhou, 2024. "Green development evaluation of China’s Yangtze River Economic Belt based on hierarchical clustering and composite ecosystem index system," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(8), pages 21197-21216, August.
    10. Ghosh, Bikramaditya & Gubareva, Mariya & Ghosh, Anandita & Paparas, Dimitrios & Vo, Xuan Vinh, 2024. "Food, energy, and water nexus: A study on interconnectedness and trade-offs," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    11. Yibo Wang & Bocheng Wang, 2024. "Can Resource Dependency and Corporate Social Responsibility Drive Green Innovation Performance?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-22, June.
    12. Wang, Qiao & Yi, Hongtao, 2021. "New energy demonstration program and China's urban green economic growth: Do regional characteristics make a difference?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    13. Fan, Jing-Li & Kong, Ling-Si & Wang, Hang & Zhang, Xian, 2019. "A water-energy nexus review from the perspective of urban metabolism," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 392(C), pages 128-136.

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