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The water-energy-food nexus of unconventional oil and gas extraction in the Vaca Muerta Play, Argentina
... Since the start of unconventional exploitation in the Neuquén Basin, rates of oil and gas production have steadily risen. By 2017, oil/gas production rates were~2×10 6 m 3 /year and~3×10 9 m 3 /year, respectively; cumulative amounts were~8×10 6 m 3 and~7×10 12 m 3 , respectively (Rosa and D'Odorico, 2019). To date, no studies have linked induced seismicity with hydrocarbon production following hydraulic fracturing anywhere throughout the world; although, this could change with time given that induced seismicity has been associated with conventional hydrocarbon production (Wetmiller, 1986;Jacquemond et al., 2024;Muntendam-Bos et al., 2022). ...
... Regarding wastewater disposal Generally, the proper management of water is a significant concern for the Neuquén Basin (Forni et al., 2018(Forni et al., , 2021. During unconventional oil production, roughly one third of the produced fluid is wastewater, which is then disposed of via subsurface injection (only a 5% recycling fraction is reported) (Rosa and D'Odorico, 2019). Basin-scale disposal rates are negligible prior to 2012, but quickly rises to~10 6 m 3 /year by 2014 (Rosa and D'Odorico, 2019); by the end of 2020, there had been~5×10 6 m 3 of wastewater disposed of in the Neuquén Basin (Tamburini-Beliveau et al., 2022). ...
... During unconventional oil production, roughly one third of the produced fluid is wastewater, which is then disposed of via subsurface injection (only a 5% recycling fraction is reported) (Rosa and D'Odorico, 2019). Basin-scale disposal rates are negligible prior to 2012, but quickly rises to~10 6 m 3 /year by 2014 (Rosa and D'Odorico, 2019); by the end of 2020, there had been~5×10 6 m 3 of wastewater disposed of in the Neuquén Basin (Tamburini-Beliveau et al., 2022). Better understanding the potential for disposal earthquakes will likely be important here; especially considering the prevalence of earthquakes caused by comparable wastewater disposal of elsewhere (Horton, 2012;Ellsworth, 2013;Frohlich et al., 2016;Zhai et al., 2021;Schultz et al., 2023c). ...
Earthquakes are known to be induced by a variety of anthropogenic causes, such as hydraulic fracturing. In the Neuquén Basin of Argentina, hydraulic fracturing has been used to produce hydrocarbons trapped in the shales of the Vaca Muerta Formation. Correspondingly, incidences of seismicity there have in- creased. We collect information on well stimulations and earthquakes to perform statistical analysis linking these two datasets together. Spatiotemporal association filters suggest that the catalogue of events is biased towards hydraulic fracturing operations. After accounting for false-positives, we estimate that ~0.5% of oper- ations are associated with earthquakes. These associated event-operation pairs show highly correlated tem- poral signals (>99.99% confidence) between seismicity/injection rates. Based on this evidence, we argue that many of these earthquakes (up to M4) are induced. We support this argument by comparing the geological set- ting of the Neuquén Basin against conditions needed for fault reactivation in other susceptible/seismogenic basins. This recognition adds to the growing list of (hydraulic fracturing) induced seismicity.
... Indirectly, the benefits of agroforestry have led to poverty reduction strategies, such as mitigating school dropout rates [45], and it has even been promoted in the international Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) programme, which aims to reduce carbon emissions by improving the livelihoods of African farmers [46]. On the other hand, in South America, overexploitation of water for unconventional oil and gas extraction competes with other water uses [47]. Research efforts in this region should be done at the regional level to provide a solution to water scarcity in vulnerable watersheds, but due to the heterogeneity of the LAC area, little attention is paid to the needs of communities, households, and small businesses that suffer from this problem [48]. ...
... He has 261 citations in total and 5 published articles; he is also in the ranking author with the highest number of citations. His H Index is 5. D'Odorico has many studies on gas and oil extraction [47,[64][65][66], but his most prominent work is one about the relation Nexus-biofuels [67]. ...
Natural resources are becoming scarcer and, together with the growth of the population, a widespread situation of overexploitation is inevitable that has become the biggest challenge for today's world. In this context, the agri-food sector has a considerable environmental impact in terms of water and energy consumption. For about two decades, the Water-Energy-Food Nexus (WEF) Nexus has been trying to address this problem, focusing on efficient interrelationships among these dimensions. The objective of this work is to analyse the evolution of research on WEF Nexus in the agri-food sector and its development in scientific databases. For that purpose, a bibliometric study was carried out with publications obtained from the Scopus database, examining the main journals, authors, institutions, countries, subject areas, funding sponsors, and keywords. Moreover, a final section is specifically dedicated to the agri-food innovations in WEF Nexus in order to explore innovative aspects to effectively overcome technical barriers that hinder a real implementation of the Nexus approach. The results show that, over the past decade, Nexus research in the agri-food sector has been growing exponentially. The top country in this field is USA, the most studied area is environmental science, and the most relevant keywords are "energy use", "water budget", "food security", "sustainable development", and "water resources".
... La cuenca de Neuquén es rica en yacimientos de shales incluyendo los yacimientos de Los Molles y la formación de shales de Vaca Muerta (la más rica en hidrocarburos), así como una serie de formaciones más pequeñas, como la formación Lajas (Administración de Información Energética (Rosa & D'Odorico, 2019). ...
... Rosa y D'Odorico (2019) estimaron que las aguas residuales de la producción no convencional de petróleo y gas en la formación Vaca Muerta aumentaron de 0 a 1,15 millones de m 3 /año entre 2009 y 2017, y que menos del 5% de estas son tratadas y reutilizadas actualmente en la fractura hidráulica. Sin Embargo, las empresas de hidrocarburos proyectan que se espera tratar hasta el 80% del agua producida (Rosa & D'Odorico, 2019), pero solo unas pocas empresas reciclan las aguas residuales y la gestión del agua a veces es insatisfactoria (Sosa, 2020). De manera similar, muchos estudios han encontrado que el uso de aguas residuales tratadas para regar cultivos ha afectado negativamente el rendimiento de los cultivos, lo que a veces resulta en bajo rendimiento de los cultivos, incluso cuando las aguas residuales se diluyeron o se trataron de manera convencional; esto se debe a la compleja interacción de los contaminantes presentes en el reflujo y el agua producida (Chorghe et al., 2017;Oetjen et al., 2018;Sedlacko et al., 2020). ...
A medida que los precios del petróleo regresen a los niveles prepandémicos, aumenta la probabilidad de que Vaca Muerta, Argentina, expanda la producción económica de los reservorios shales (petróleo y gas). Esta situación crea una oportunidad para analizar con más detalle las implicaciones ambientales de la producción de shales en esta región y en sus recursos hídricos.
Examinamos el vínculo entre el agua (cantidad y calidad) y la producción de shales para comprender el impacto de la industria a nivel cuenca y en la seguridad hídrica de la región a largo plazo.
... Studies on the FEW nexus have been conducted in different regions around the world, including countries in Europe [5,10,11], Africa [12][13][14], Asia [15][16][17][18], Oceania, and North America [19,20]. However, there are few articles published in peer-review journals regarding work conducted in Latin America [21][22][23][24][25][26]. ...
... Since the FEW nexus is a vast topic, Endo et al. [27] suggested five groups where peer-reviewed articles can be classified: (1) comprehensive review articles; (2) targeted review articles; (3) synthesis articles; (4) articles that assessed interlinkages, trade-offs, and/or synergies among resources; and (5) nexus case studies. Based on this classification, articles published from work completed in Latin America fall into targeted review articles [21,23,25] and case studies [22,24,26]. Paim et al. [25] indicated that nationally determined contributions (NDCs) might be a useful platform to incorporate nexus elements on a national and international scale. ...
The food-energy-water (FEW) nexus approach has emerged as an alternative for managing these resources more efficiently. Work from studies conducted in the FEW nexus in Latin America is scarce in the scholarly literature. This study aims to develop a framework for water management at the FEW Nexus, with a focus on Colombia. The study focuses on a typical mixed land-use watershed in the Andean region with specific objectives being to: (1) characterize the watershed with respect to land use, climate, water resources, and other factors pertinent to the nexus; (2) explore the relationship between factors in the FEW nexus that may affect water management in terms of quality and availability; and (3) propose a methodology for conducting a FEW Nexus analysis for watersheds located in the Andean region. The results indicate that the Pereira/Dosquebradas urban area has a significant impact on the FEW nexus components in the Otun River Watershed (ORW). Subsequently, an urban FEW nexus framework is proposed for its implementation at the watershed.
... The potential environmental impact of the oil industry in the basin has gained prominence due to the new development of large-scale unconventional shale oil and gas extraction, its potential impact on ground and surface water quality and quantity, and the need to make this use compatible with other important activities in the area, such as agriculture, tourism, and urban development (Rosa and D'Odorico, 2019). Meanwhile, since 2011, fracking locations started to advance over traditional irrigated farms in the upper valley of the Río Negro, generating a direct conflict between both activities (Svampa, 2018 The Senguer and Chubut Rivers jointly make up a large topographic basin of 108,600 km 2 , which extends through three Patagonian provinces, and from the Andes Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean (Fig. 21.2). ...
Patagonia, located at the southern tip of South America and shared by Chile and Argentina, is a vast region covering over one million square kilometers. Its geographical borders differ: in Argentina, the northern limit is marked by the Colorado River (37°S) politically and the Huincul fault (39°S) geologically, while in Chile, Patagonia begins south of 42°S. Though often associated with dramatic landscapes like mountains, glaciers, and forests, Patagonia is primarily dominated by deserts and semi-deserts lying in the Andes' rain shadow.
Several major rivers originate in the humid Andes, flowing east across these arid regions into the Atlantic Ocean. The primary river basins include the Negro, Chubut, Santa Cruz, Gallegos, and Grande. The first three lie entirely within Argentina, while the last two are shared between Chile and Argentina. These basins span 3,000 kilometers and vary significantly in climate, geology, vegetation, and hydrological characteristics. For instance, the Río Negro and Santa Cruz are the largest rivers, with stable flows regulated by glacial lakes, whereas smaller rivers like Chubut and Gallegos lack such natural regulation.
Economic activities, environmental conditions, and cultural histories also differ across these watersheds, shaped by unique hydrological, geological, and biogeographical factors. The region's current population exceeds two million, unevenly distributed across Patagonia and its Atlantic watersheds.
... La metodología seguida en este trabajo con el propósito de evaluar los requerimientos de agua para la extracción de recursos petroleros no convencionales se basa en aproximaciones comunes dentro de la literatura especializada (véanse por ejemplo: Galdeano et al., 2017;Arciniega et al., 2018;Rosa et al., 2018;Rosa y D'Odorico, 2019;Butkovskyi et al., 2019). La diferencia respecto a estos otros trabajos se encuentra en cómo se define la cantidad de pozos a perforar. ...
México tiene una alta dependencia de las importaciones de gas y productos refinados de Estados Unidos, la cual corresponde al 70% del consumo nacional de
gas, el 55% de diésel y el 70% de gasolina. Debido a que los campos convencionales están en declive desde la primera década del siglo, se ha mencionado
la posibilidad de explotar los recursos no convencionales —gas y petróleo de
lutitas— con el objetivo de aumentar la oferta interna de gas seco y petróleo
para lograr con ello una mayor soberanía energética. Si bien es cierto que la
explotación de estos recursos puede tener este beneficio, también tiene altos
impactos y costos ambientales, entre los cuales uno de los principales es el consumo de agua asociado al uso de la técnica de fracking o fracturación hidráulica
que se emplea para explotar este tipo de recursos.
Frente a esta situación, se realizó una estimación del volumen requerido
de agua para explotar el equivalente a una fracción de los volúmenes prospectivos de gas y petróleo no convencionales del país, asumiendo los niveles de
productividad e intensidad de uso del agua por pozo característicos de otras
cuencas petroleras alrededor del mundo. Los resultados obtenidos indican que,
para la recuperación de un volumen equivalente al 1% del total prospectivo, se
podrían requerir entre 749 y 1,455 pozos, con una demanda de agua que varía
entre 5,466 y 47,097 MMlt (5.466 y 47.097 MMm3). Si la extracción fuera del
10% del total prospectivo, se requerirían entre 7,492 y 14,549 pozos, con una
demanda de entre 54,656 y 470,973 MMlt de agua (54.656 y 470.973 MMm3). Al cruzar la disponibilidad de agua que presentan las áreas con mayor
potencial para la extracción de petróleo y gas no convencional con los requerimientos de agua por fracking según su ubicación geográfica, estimamos el
riesgo de déficit hídrico que implicaría la extracción de estos recursos. Si bien
en el sur del país el riesgo hídrico es bajo, en las regiones del norte existen niveles de riesgo crítico, ya que no disponen de agua o la demanda por fracking
superaría los niveles disponibles, lo cual hace inviable la explotación de los
recursos no convencionales. Aunado a los altos costos económicos y el riesgo
de contaminación de agua, aire y suelos que presenta la técnica del fracking,
concluimos que la explotación de petróleo y gas no convencionales sería una
apuesta equivocada para disminuir la dependencia energética.
... General Motors implemented an energy-efficient heat recovery system in its manufacturing facility in Ohio, USA From Fig.2. The system recovered waste heat from the paint shop and used it to heat the building, reducing energy consumption by 30% and saving approximately $1.2 million per year in energy costs [12,[44][45]. ...
The industrial manufacturing sector is the biggest final usage sector when speaking of both final energy consumption and emission of greenhouse gases (accounting for over 30% of the total); the industry's expansion is fast modifying the climate of the whole globe. Energy conservation is one of the key components of success for sustainable production because of the pressing need to reduce the negative effects that industrial operations have on the surrounding environment. As a direct consequence of this, the scientific community's involvement in energy management has significantly increased, which has resulted in a number of literature evaluations being conducted on methodologies. However, there is a dearth of both a detailed study of the techniques and tools that attempt to improve energy awareness as well as an assessment of the impact that these methods and tools have on energy efficiency. To try to fill this void, the author of this work conducts an extensive literature study on the various energy assessment methodologies and tools with their microstructures. After examining the databases of scientific literature, a total of 1366 publications were retrieved; however, it might be of use to industry practitioners in the field of energy management. In accordance with the guidelines provided by ISO 50001, the procedures and instruments were categorized into three primary areas (namely, AAM which means analysis, assessment, and saving measures), and the particular results important to each category were then synthesized as the outcome of study. In its concluding section, the article discusses problems and topics that still need to be addressed and offers proposals for new lines of inquiry.
... Embracing the WEF nexus is essential for sustainability and creating a more secure, resilient, and prosperous future for all (Namany et al., 2019). Scientific endeavors in this domain have garnered increased attention from experts, stakeholders, and politicians, prompting greater focus on the nexus and the creation of research opportunities in numerous countries (Norouzi, 2022;Taniguchi et al., 2017;Rosa and D'Odorico, 2019;Meng et al., 2023aMeng et al., , 2023b. ...
The swift growth of cities worldwide poses significant challenges in ensuring a sufficient water, energy, and food supply. The Nexus has innovated valuable systems to address these challenges. However, a crucial issue is the potential for pollution resulting from these systems, which directly and indirectly impacts public health and the overall quality of urban living. This study comprehensively reviews the interconnected challenges of the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus and various forms of pollution in cities. The primary focus of this review article is to showcase the findings of WEF nexus studies regarding various pollutions across different geographical regions and spatial scales. It aims to examine the problems resulting from these pollutions, specifically their effects on human health and urban life. It also delves into the sources of pollution as identified in these studies. Furthermore, the article will highlight the proposed solutions from the research aimed at effectively mitigating pollution in each sector studied. This article is a systematic review which analyses research sources from the Scopus database. It extensively reviewed 2463 peer-reviewed published articles and focused explicitly on articles related to the WEF nexus that discussed pollution. Our study emphasizes, firstly, raising awareness about the crucial link between the WEF nexus, pollution, urban environments, and human health among policymakers and key stakeholders, including urban planners, industry partners and municipalities. This is to promote the development of policies that encourage sustainable practices and key stakeholders. Secondly, it evaluates WEF nexus and pollution research methods and findings, aiding in identifying research gaps technological innovation and potential, as well as J o u r n a l P r e-p r o o f Journal Pre-proof 2 enhancing decision-making. Lastly, it outlines future research challenges, providing a roadmap for researchers and policymakers to advance understanding in this domain and identify opportunities for resource efficiency and collaboration between different sectors.
... However, exploring the social-ecological costs and benefits associated with extractive industry impacts on nexus resource sustainability-via a nexus approach-is still nascent, even though it may be gaining traction. Examples include: examining the impacts of unconventional oil and gas extraction on water scarcity and irrigated agriculture in Argentina (Rosa & D'Odorico, 2019); investigating the socio-economic and environmental impacts of mining on communities and surrounding ecosystems in Suriname (Roy et al., 2016); highlighting how the costs (e.g., increased surface and groundwater withdrawals, heavy metal contamination of watercourses, heighten energy demand) and benefits (e.g., transportation, communication, employment and sanitation and waste infrastructure) of mining extend across sectors and differ over the lifetime of a mine (Huppé et al., 2015), and in Mpumalanga, South Africa, addressing key trade-offs between coal mining and food production . In China, the nexus approach has revealed unseen linkages among water, energy and food resources embedded within upstream production and downstream consumption processes for agricultural, manufacturing, construction, power, mining, transport, and services supply chains (Deng et al., 2020), whilst also demonstrating the spatial interconnections between these sectors at the level of provincial supply chains (Liang et al., 2020). ...
The water‐energy‐food (WEF) nexus is a prominent approach for addressing today's sustainable development challenges. In our critical appraisal of the WEF, covering different approaches, drivers, enablers, and applications, we emphasize the situation across the Global South (Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean). Here, WEF research covers at least 23 focal domains. We find that the nexus is still a maturing paradigm primarily rooted in a physical and natural sciences framing, which is itself embedded in a neoliberal securities narrative. While providing insights and tools to address the systemic interdependencies between resource sectors whose exploitation, degradation, and sub‐optimal management contribute to (un)sustainable development, there is still insufficient engagement with social, political, and economic dimensions. Progress related to climate, urbanization, and resource consumption is encouraging, but while governance and finance are central enablers of current and future nexus systems, gaps remain in relation to implementation and operationalization. Harnessing the nexus for sustainable development across the Global South means recognizing that it is more than a biophysical system, but also a multi‐scale complex of people, institutions, and infrastructure, affected by history and context. Addressing this complexity requires alternative and possibly challenging perspectives to counter dominant narratives, and manage problems associated with policy integration, trade‐offs, and winners and losers. We outline 10 emergent research areas that we think can contribute to this endeavor and enable the nexus to be a stronger policy force.
... However, the location of Argentine shale gas reserves in sparsely populated areas makes environmental concerns less pressing issues, but significant challenges are posed by growing opposition to fracking and slow down shale gas development (Mares, 2013). Consequently, in 2014, Argentina implemented a hydrocarbon reform to revive the energy sector and increase investments in mining its unconventional oil and gas resources (Rabbia, 2020;Rosa & D'Odorico, 2019). Mauter et al. (2014) and Bernáldez and Herrera (2020) established that the granting of exploration permits and overseeing operations in Argentina were concentrated at the provincial level hence; provinces have the authority to tighten environmental regulations beyond those issued by the Federal Secretary of Energy. ...
Shale gas exists in abundant quantities around the world and could augment conventional natural gas supplies. However, shale gas exploration through the fracking process is associated with negative connotations and is opposed in many countries because of the perceived environmental impacts including water contamination and competition with other water demands. In this context, the contribution of this work is to analyze the long-term impact of fracking water demand on water availability and possible contamination in Brazil. The objective is to estimate the long-term impacts of shale gas development in Brazil considering the water demand and propose regulations to address water withdrawal and contamination concerns based on best practices from around the world as a way forward. The study demonstrates that competition for water by prospective fracking activities in Brazil in comparison to available water resources and other water demands in associated hydrological basins is insignificant. Furthermore, an analysis of policy and regulations identify policy and regulatory recommendations that may ameliorate public concerns about fracking impact on water by enforcing compliance from exploration and production companies. Following this study, other countries can estimate their shale gas exploration realities to determine the impact of fracking impact on water resources.
... The main Argentinian Patagonia cities have developed as a result of oil and gas extraction, which requires massive quantities of water due to fracking and drilling techniques. Vaca Muerta is the major region in SA, where those techniques are used to extract oil and gas, and this will lead to an exacerbation of current water scarcity issues and to competition with irrigated agriculture (Rosa and D'Odorico, 2019), which in the context of drought may exacerbate socioenvironmental conflicts (medium confidence). ...
Central and South America are highly exposed, vulnerable and strongly impacted by climate change, a situation amplified by inequality, poverty, population growth and high population density, land use change particularly deforestation with the consequent biodiversity loss, soil degradation, and high dependence of national and local economies on natural resources for production of commodities (high confidence1). Profound economic, ethnic and social inequalities are exacerbated by climate change. High
levels of widespread poverty, weak water governance, unequal access to safe water and sanitation services and lack of infrastructure and financing reduce adaptation capacity, increasing and creating new population vulnerabilities (high confidence). {12.1.1, 12.2, 12.3, 12.5.5, 12.5.7, Figure 12.2}
... La revisión de tema se concentró en trabajos de la industria del gas y petróleo producidos principalmente en Estados Unidos; para el subtema de contaminación atmosférica, contaminación del agua y contaminación radiactiva por la industria petrolera también se revisaron trabajos de los países de la región latinoamericana principalmente Argentina [14], Brasil, Ecuador, México y Venezuela. ...
p>Despite the scientific consensus on the need to limit global warming, the urgency for the autonomous provision of energy resources has led many States to authorize projects that apply non-conventional fossil fuel extraction techniques, such as horizontal drilling and high-volume hydraulic fracturing of shale. Although few studies present conclusive evidence, these techniques are accused of causing dangers to the environment and to the health of the people who work and live in fracking areas, so that the States are faced with the dilemma of extending their energy autonomy for a few years, squeezing their natural gas and oil reserves to the end, or seeking a balance with the planet by moving towards more sustainable energy sources. Based on the review of studies that present evidence of physical and chemical contamination and other impacts on the environment in areas where the fracking technique has been developed, a panorama of risks for people living near extraction platforms and the dangers of developing fracking projects in tropical climate zones is presented.</p
... La revisión de tema se concentró en trabajos de la industria del gas y petróleo producidos principalmente en Estados Unidos; para el subtema de contaminación atmosférica, contaminación del agua y contaminación radiactiva por la industria petrolera también se revisaron trabajos de los países de la región latinoamericana principalmente Argentina [14], Brasil, Ecuador, México y Venezuela. ...
A pesar del consenso científico hacia la necesidad de limitar el calentamiento global, la urgencia por la provisión autónoma de recursos energéticos ha llevado a muchos Estados a autorizar proyectos que aplican técnicas no convencionales de extracción de combustibles fósiles, como es el caso de la perforación horizontal y la fracturación hidráulica de esquisto de gran volumen. Aunque son pocos los estudios que presentan evidencias concluyentes, estas técnicas son acusadas de acarrear peligros al ambiente y la salud de las personas que trabajan y habitan zonas de fracking, de tal manera que los Estados están ante la disyuntiva de extender algunos años la autonomía energética exprimiendo hasta el final sus reversas de gas natural y petróleo, o buscar algún equilibrio con el planeta moviéndose hacia fuentes energéticas más sostenibles. A partir de la revisión de trabajos que presentan evidencias de contaminación física y química y otros impactos al ambiente en zonas donde se ha desarrollado la técnica del fracking, se presenta un panorama de riesgos para las personas que habitan cerca de plataformas de extracción y los peligros de desarrollar proyectos de fracking en zonas climáticas tropicales.
... Además, Zonn et al. (2017) encuentran que la construcción de los pozos genera alteraciones biomorfológicas relacionadas con la remoción de árboles y la reducción del área de distribución de la flora y la fauna, entre otras. El reciclaje de agua, reutilización de aguas residuales domésticas, el uso de agua subterránea salobre y las tecnologías no convencionales de extracción de petróleo y gas sin agua son algunas de las estrategias que podrían adoptarse para satisfacer la futura demanda adicional de agua (Rosa y D'Odorico, 2019). ...
La oferta y la demanda mundial de energía están enfrentando profundos cambios. Mientras que las fuentes tradicionales, principalmente fósiles, observan una caída relativa en el balance energético, se desarrolla el uso de fuentes alternativas, al mismo tiempo que crece la inversión en tecnologías para mejorar la eficiencia energética en general. En este contexto, la apa-rición de reservas de gas no convencional y de tecnologías que permiten su recuperación ha dado lugar a la denominada revolución (o boom) del gas (Wang y Krupnick, 2013). Según la Energy International Agency, 2 las reservas probadas de gas en el mundo han crecido 40% entre 1998 y 2018.
... regenerative and restorative at the same time [1]. The circular approach is a challenge to the linear economy based on the principles of take-make-use-destroy [2] and is supported by various political aims, such as the European Union's Action Plan for a Circular Economy [3,4]. ...
The business case for circular economy in water management perspective has gain relevance in the recent times. By 2030, it is estimated that 160% of global total available water will be required to satisfy demand of anthropogenic-related activities and increasing waste-related water will be produced. Gaps on the conceptual framing of water reuse within supply chain management are clearly emerging and the demand for decision support systems helping at assessing effective water consumption in industrial setting is pressing. Despite the numerous local initiatives towards wastewater resource usage, barriers remain for its implementation in practice. Through a systematic review of previous studies in this field, the barriers towards the uptake of wastewater use in agriculture were classified according to the PESTEL (political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal) framework. Alongside political and legal support, it is identified that for an economically and environmentally sustainable scheme for incentivising the deployment of feasible technologies, there is also a need to gain acceptance for wastewater usage in society in order to enhance the deployment of existing technological solutions. Addressing these factors in tandem can aid the development towards a circular economy for wastewater.
... While other research has been undertaken to better understand water usage and its effects on those outside the UOG industry [17], none have coupled quantitative methods with measures of drought and water stress. By accounting for water scarcity at the county level, the research presented here has both increased the accuracy of these measures for evaluation of water usage while also allowing for higher resolution that allows for water usage to be understood at a local level. ...
Unconventional oil and gas (UOG) production requires intensive freshwater consumption, but whether hydroclimate variation, which alters regional water availability, affects its activity and water footprint is still unknown. In this study, we investigate the temporal and spatial correlations of drought intensity with UOG activity and water consumption in Colorado over a 13-year period. We found that hydroclimate variation has a negligible or weak impact on the well number and water footprint of UOG production, and that monthly UOG water consumption in areas already under drought conditions could sustain up to >110% of municipal water usage at the county scale. By defining a new metric of drought-escaping distance, we show that drought climate could cover areas more than 500 miles from the well sites, preventing UOG producers from acquiring water from areas without water stress. This results in local water withdrawal that intensifies water scarcity and competition. Our study also quantifies the potential of UOG wastewater reuse to reduce regional water stress. Our findings underscore the importance of UOG production in water resource allocation in particular under drought conditions. Our research could provide new insights into understanding the effects of UOG production on regional water sustainability during drought periods in Colorado.
... We run WATNEEDS using baseline, 1.5°C warmer, and 3°C warmer precipitation and evaporation data while keeping the spatial extent of global croplands fixed to the MIRCA2000 dataset (39)-the most updated dataset containing spatially explicit information of global croplands extent. WAT-NEEDS has been extensively used to assess CWR and IWR (9,10,14,57,58). ...
Significance
Climate change is expected to reshape the distribution of irrigated lands. Using climatic projections from three global climate models, we investigate global patterns of irrigation water demand and availability in 1.5 °C and 3 °C warmer climates. We find that in up to 35% of currently rain-fed croplands, irrigation could be expanded as an adaptation strategy to climate change without negative environmental externalities on freshwater resources. Irrigation expansion could reduce vulnerability to water stress and improve crop productivity to feed up to 300 million additional people using small-scale water storage and up to 1.4 billion additional people using large-scale water storage. This work contributes to identifying target regions where investments in sustainable intensification of agriculture through irrigation expansion are needed.
... The injected water can cause formation damage, such as clay swelling, water blockage, and precipitation of fine grains and chemicals (Fu et al., 2019). Also, the colossal water consumed by hydraulic fracturing can cause ecological problems for the water-scarcity area (Rosa and D'Odorico, 2019). For instance, the estimated water usage (from 2018 to 2020) for hydraulic fracturing operations in Changning play is about 10% of the annual runoff of the Changning river (Wu et al., 2019). ...
Electromagnetic heating has been proposed to environmentally produce shale gas, shale oil, and oil shale. Unlike hydraulic fracturing that cracks shale by tensile and shear stresses through injecting a massive amount of fracturing fluid, electromagnetic heating creates fractures by internal stress caused by the interaction between formation rocks and electromagnetic waves, which eliminates the use of water. In this study, we conducted experiments and simulations to investigate the influential factors, stimulating mechanisms, and fracturing performance of electromagnetic heating for its application in stimulating shales. First, shale samples with different compositions are subjected to electromagnetic (microwave) heating for 3 min. Then, scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive X-ray, N2-adsorption/desorption, and microscope-imaging are used to characterize pore-structure changes and fracture generation of shale samples. Finally, a finite element theoretical simulation is conducted to investigate the effects of confining pressure, electromagnetic heating power, and time on the stress distributions of the sample. Results show that both macro-fracture and micro-fractures are created after electromagnetic heating; samples either crumble into pieces or fracture into several parts, depending on their clay and pyrite contents. The stimulating mechanisms of electromagnetic heating are shrinkage of clay, and decomposition of organic content, and tensile failure by the heterogeneous expansions of minerals, which significantly enhance the pore space. Moreover, simulations show that the expansion of pyrite induces considerable tension that causes tensile failures to the shale sample, which echoes well with the experimental observations. Confinement can lower the induced tensile stress, which can be overcome by raising the electromagnetic heating power. Our study demonstrates that electromagnetic heating is a promising stimulation technique to eliminate water usage and effectively fracture the shale rock, leading to greener production of hydrocarbon resources from shale.
... A more comprehensive illustration of existing nexus research is shown in Figure 6, in which black lines represent a focus on the study of a particular resource (e.g., food, energy, or water), yellow lines indicate the study of integrated systems with two principal resources, and gray dashed lines emphasize the interlinkages of subsections of different nexuses. In terms of focus and level of integration, 29 papers focused on the FEW nexus, but these mostly aimed to conduct general analysis and systematic review, whereas 10 papers focused on water (Larsen & Drews, 2019;Rosa & D'Odorico, 2019), 5 on food (Abdelkader et al., 2018;Neto et al., 2018;Zhang, Campana et al., 2018), 4 on energy (Yuan et al., 2018;Ahjum et al., 2018;Whitney et al., 2019), 9 on water-energy nexus (Engstr€ om et al., 2017;Wang et al., 2017;Liu et al., 2019), 2 on energyfood (Hanes et al., 2018), and 1 on water-food (Zhang & Vesselinov, 2017). The rest of the articles applied nexus research from various angles. ...
The Food-Energy-Water (FEW) nexus for urban sustainability needs to be analyzed via an integrative rather than a sectoral or silo approach, reflecting the ongoing transition from separate infrastructure systems to an integrated social-ecological-infrastructure system. As technology hubs can provide food, energy, water resources via decentralized and/or centralized facilities, there is an acute need to optimize FEW infrastructures by considering cost-benefit-risk tradeoffs with respect to multiple sustainability indicators. This paper identifies, categorizes, and analyzes global trends with respect to contemporary FEW technology metrics that highlights the possible optimal integration of a broad spectrum of technology hubs for possible cost-benefit-risk tradeoffs. The challenges related to multiscale and multiagent modeling processes for the simulation of urban FEW systems were discussed with respect to the aspects of scaling-up, optimization process, and risk assessment. Our review reveals that this field is growing at a rapid pace and the previous selection of analytical methodologies, nexus criteria, and sustainability indicators largely depended on individual FEW nexus conditions disparately, and full-scale cost-benefit-risk tradeoffs were very rare. Therefore, the potential full-scale technology integration in three ongoing cases of urban FEW systems in Miami (the United States), Marseille (France), and Amsterdam (the Netherlands) were demonstrated in due purpose finally.
... For example, some nexuses only highlighted water resources (Daher, Hannibal et al., 2019;Larsen & Drews, 2019;Rosa & D'Odorico, 2019), food production (Abdelkader et al., 2018;Neto et al., 2018;Zhang, Campana et al., 2018), or energy generation (Mroue et al., 2019;Nouri et al., 2019;Wang, Fath et al., 2019), with few interdependent relationships. Others focused on case-based engineering practices integrating food-water or water-energy systems (Di Felice et al., 2019;Engstr€ om et al., 2017;Hanes et al., 2018;Wang et al., 2017;Wicaksono & Kang, 2019). ...
The Food-Energy-Water (FEW) nexus for urban sustainability needs to be analyzed via an integrative rather than a sectoral or silo approach, reflecting the ongoing transition from separate infrastructure systems to an integrated social-ecological-infrastructure system. As technology hubs can provide food, energy, water resources via decentralized and/or centralized facilities, there is an acute need to optimize FEW infrastructures by considering cost-benefit-risk tradeoffs with respect to multiple sustainability indicators. This paper identifies, categorizes, and analyzes global trends with respect to contemporary FEW technology metrics that highlights the possible optimal integration of a broad spectrum of technology hubs for possible cost-benefit-risk tradeoffs. The challenges related to multiscale and multiagent modeling processes for the simulation of urban FEW systems were discussed with respect to the aspects of scaling-up, optimization process, and risk assessment. Our review reveals that this field is growing at a rapid pace and the previous selection of analytical methodologies, nexus criteria, and sustainability indicators largely depended on individual FEW nexus conditions disparately, and full-scale cost-benefit-risk tradeoffs were very rare. Therefore, the potential full-scale technology integration in three ongoing cases of urban FEW systems in Miami (the United States), Marseille (France), and Amsterdam (the Netherlands) were demonstrated in due purpose finally.
... This methodology to evaluate water scarcity has been extensively validated in studies aiming at analysing the influence of energy and agricultural production on water resources 22,[42][43][44]53 . Water consumption accounts for freshwater consumption for irrigation, domestic use and CFPPs. ...
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Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a strategy to mitigate climate change by limiting CO2 emissions from point sources such
as coal-fired power plants (CFPPs). Although decision-makers are seeking to implement policies regarding CCS, the consequences
of this technology on water scarcity have not been fully assessed. Here we simulate the impacts on water resources
that would result from retrofitting global CFPPs with four different CCS technologies. We find that 43% of the global CFPP
capacity experiences water scarcity for at least one month per year and 32% experiences scarcity for five or more months per
year. Although retrofitting CFPPs with CCS would not greatly exacerbate water scarcity, we show that certain geographies lack
sufficient water resources to meet the additional water demands of CCS technologies. For CFPPs located in these water-scarce
areas, the trade-offs between the climate change mitigation benefits and the increased pressure on water resources of CCS
should be weighed. We conclude that CCS should be preferentially deployed at those facilities least impacted by water scarcity.
... In a second time, calibration was carried out on a monthly timescale considering average monthly data (1990)(1991)(1992)(1993)(1994) in average monthly discharge rates. Results of the calibration (period 1990-1994) and validation (1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004) (Rosa et al., 2018,b;Rosa & D'Odorico, 2019). ...
Since the turn of the century, rubber plantations have been expanding their footprint across Southeast Asia in response to an increasing global demand for rubber products. Between 2000 and 2014, the area cultivated with rubber more than doubled. It is not clear how this major change in the agricultural landscape of Southeast Asia, the main area of rubber production in the world, is affecting land use patterns and water resources in the region. Here we use maps of rubber plantations and other croplands in conjunction with a hydrological model and remote sensing analyses to assess land use patterns and water resources affected by natural rubber plantations. Water requirements of rubber trees are comparable to those of forests but by far exceed those of the other predominant crops and shrubland vegetation in the region with the effect of potentially increasing water scarcity when rubber plantations replace these crops. The expansion of rubber plantations accounts for a 38 km3/y increase in green water consumption, thereby exacerbating the monthly water scarcity, with an additional 2.4 million people and more than 0.6 Mha facing water scarcity in the driest months as a result of the increase in rubber production. Monthly runoff substantially decreases (by up to 25%) in 14% of the basins where rubber was planted. These results highlight the existence of major land use and hydrological impacts of agricultural development in Southeast Asia that affect the local environment and rural communities, calling for a more sustainable management of the limited land and water resources. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
... Research centered on water-energy interactions has considered the water balance and the implications of the water footprint in unconventional oil and gas extraction. The exacerbation of current water scarcity due to water consumption for unconventional oil and gas extraction will likely lead to competition with other water uses in LAC countries [48]. Most of these research efforts have focused on characterizing the WEF Nexus, and have shown that the conceptualization and implementation of the Nexus in LAC requires the evaluation of specific traits at the regional level in order to provide solutions for water shortages observed in highly vulnerable basins. ...
To attain sustainable development in Latin America and the Caribbean, where there is a strong dependence on commodity and food price development, priority attention towards energy, water, and food security is critical. In this literature and data analysis, we examined the baseline and trends of resource security based on the Water-Energy-Food Nexus concept. A performance index was developed to evaluate the progress in water, energy, and food security of the region, and a nexus-based index was developed to evaluate the inter-linkages of these resources. Finally, critical issues and challenges for sustainable development were addressed. Results showed that an unprecedented amount of infrastructure is needed to address increasing energy consumption. Emphasis should be placed on gradually replacing high carbon-sources that produce electricity with low carbon-energy systems and clean power production. Results also showed that water scarcity, given unequal distributions of rainfall, will be aggravated by changing climate conditions; improvements in water governance as well as water and sanitation provisions are needed. The region is a net exporter of food, at the expense of water availability and greenhouse gas emissions, and suffers from structural constraints. It is important to foster novel agricultural practices and sustainable food systems.
... However, the WF considers local conditions and a global average has not been validated for decision-making in specific contexts of geographical location, climate, technology and varieties of cultivars. In response to this limitation, many authors (Marston et al., 2018;Rosa and D'Odorico, 2019;Rushforth and Ruddell, 2018;Symeonidou and Vagiona, 2019;Xu and Wu, 2018) have highlighted the importance of the specific quantification of water use in different spatial resolutions. ...
Agriculture is the most water-intensive productive activity and soy represents one of the main global sources of food. Currently, Brazil is the world’s largest exporter of soybeans and the expansion of areas destined for this cultivation has been occurring in an accelerated and consistent manner, especially in the northern regions of the Brazilian savannah (Cerrado). This study was to analyze the spatial and temporal dynamics of the Water Footprint (WF) of soybean production in the Cerrado agricultural frontier of the North and Northeast of Brazil, from 1999 to 2018. Using the CROPWAT 8.0 model crop evapotranspiration in order to calculate green water footprint (GrWF), gray water footprint (GWF), relative water footprint (RWF) and absolute water footprint (AWF) on a municipal, micro-regional and regional scale. The European Union tolerance for glyphosate in drinking water was used for the calculation of GWF. The statistical techniques of time series, spatial autocorrelation and Local Space Association Indicators (LISA) were applied. The annual average RWF was estimated at 3018 ± 82 m³/t, GrWF at 1379 ± 101 m³/t, GWF at 1446 ± 113 m³/t and AWF at 2.38 km³. GWF and AWF showed an upward trend due and only six high RWF clusters and two high AWF clusters were identified. 57 municipalities with high WF were scattered in the microregions near the Cerrado transition with Caatinga and the Amazon. The WF of soybean production in the recent agricultural expansion areas of the Cerrado region presents great temporal and spatial variability between municipalities and microregions and the identification of their clusters can help in decision making about resource allocation for sustainable projects such as Low Agriculture. Carbon.
... We identified areas of unsustainable irrigation water consumption as those where local renewable blue water resources are less than local total water blue consumption (WC > WA). This methodology to evaluate water sustainability has been extensively validated in studies aiming at analyzing the influence of energy and agricultural production on water resources (Rosa et al 2018a, 2018b, Rosa and D'Odorico 2019. Renewable blue water availability (30 × 30 arcminute resolution, or ∼50 km at the Equator) was assessed following Mekonnen and Hoekstra (2016) and was calculated as the difference between blue water flows generated in that grid cell and environmental flow requirements. ...
Recent studies have highlighted the reliance of global food production on unsustainable irrigation practices, which deplete freshwater stocks and environmental flows, and consequently impair aquatic ecosystems. Unsustainable irrigation is driven by domestic and international demand for agricultural products. Research on the environmental consequences of trade has often concentrated on the global displacement of pollution and land use, while the effect of trade on water sustainability and the drying of over-depleted watercourses has seldom been recognized and quantified. Here we evaluate unsustainable irrigation water consumption (UWC) associated with global crop production and determine the share of UWC embedded in international trade. We find that, while about 52% of global irrigation is unsustainable, 15% of it is virtually exported, with an average 18% increase between year 2000 and 2015. About 60% of global virtual transfers of UWC are driven by exports of cotton, sugar cane, fruits, and vegetables. One third of UWC in Mexico, Spain, Turkmenistan, South Africa, Morocco, and Australia is associated with demand from the export markets. The globalization of water through trade contributes to running rivers dry, an environmental externality commonly overlooked by trade policies. By identifying the producing and consuming countries that are responsible for unsustainable irrigation embedded in virtual water trade, this study highlights trade links in which policies are needed to achieve sustainable water and food security goals in the coming decades.
... Mares (2013) cautions over 'environmental risks' such as water contamination and Chávez-Rodríguez et al. (2017) mention the importance of avoiding 'hydrological stress.' In distinction to our findings in the UK, frames in Argentina focus more on trade-offs with irrigation and agriculture (Rosa and D'Odorico, 2019). Frames in Argentina are also much more concerned about 'political risk' and economic 'turbulence', given the country has a less certain political and regulatory environment than other shale gas regimes such as those in Europe (Waterworth and Bradshaw, 2018). ...
How contested sources of energy such as shale gas are perceived in frontier countries considering their development is incredibly important to national and international climate policies. The UK shale development case is of particular interest currently as the Government attempts to position the UK as a pioneer of European, safe, sustainable shale gas development. We conduct a mixed-methods analysis of the UK policy debate on shale gas development involving 30 stakeholder interviews and 1557 political documents. This empirical focus extends the existing literature by identifying the use of frames in and through the institutions and practices of formal UK politics. We identify nine key frames and their associated storylines, analyse their use over time, and compare these findings with other national case studies. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given most UK Governments within our timeframe have supported shale development, pro-shale development frames dominate in the policy debate; however, we also find a high level of anti-shale development frame use, suggesting a deep and ongoing framing contest in national formal political sites. We find in particular a more prominent focus on land-use issues and impacts on the landscape than other UK studies or other national contexts. Conceptually, the study puts forward an integrative approach to the related concepts of frames and storylines, as well as arguments concerning the impotence of storylines in anticipatory political debate and the polyvalence of framing strategies. Questions about governance are raised by the general lack of consensus over the framing of shale development within formal political sites, let alone amongst the broader public; and by the lack of a coherent response from the Government to criticisms of its approach. Finally, we reflect on the apparent lack of evidence for Hajer’s ‘communicative miracle’ in our case, and speculate as to whether the lack of broad-based resonance of the ‘bridge’ storyline signals trouble for the positive-sum thinking of ecological modernisation.
... In 2005, virtual water transfers associated with food aid (Jackson et al 2015), accounted for only 0.5% of the water footprint of all food trade. Water is also required to produce electricity (Macknick et al 2012, Meldrum et al 2013 as well as to extract and process minerals (Northey et al 2016) and both conventional (Mielke et al 2010 and unconventional fossil fuels (Nicot and Scanlon 2012, Rosa et al 2017, Rosa et al 2018b, Rosa and D'Odorico, 2019. ...
The increasing global demand for farmland products is placing unprecedented pressure on the global agricultural system and its water resources. Many regions of the world, that are affected by a chronic water scarcity relative to their population, strongly depend on the import of agricultural commodities and associated embodied (or virtual) water. The globalization of water through virtual water trade (VWT) is leading to a displacement of water use and a disconnection between human populations and the water resources they rely on. Despite the recognized importance of these phenomena in reshaping the patterns of water dependence through teleconnections between consumers and producers, their effect on global and regional water resources has just started to be quantified. This review investigates the global spatiotemporal dynamics, drivers, and impacts of VWT through an integrated analysis of surface water, groundwater, and root-zone soil moisture consumption for agricultural production; it evaluates how virtual water flows compare to the major 'physical water fluxes' in the Earth System; and provides a new reconceptualization of the hydrologic cycle to account also for the role of water redistribution by the hidden 'virtual water cycle'.
... The injected water can cause formation damage, such as clay swelling, water blockage, and precipitation of fine grains and chemicals (Fu et al., 2019). Also, the colossal water consumed by hydraulic fracturing can cause ecological problems for the water-scarcity area (Rosa and D'Odorico, 2019). For instance, the estimated water usage (from 2018 to 2020) for hydraulic fracturing operations in Changning play is about 10% of the annual runoff of the Changning river (Wu et al., 2019). ...
Electromagnetic (EM) heating has been proposed to recover heavy oil due to its great environmental friendliness. Previous studies focused on investigating the feasibility and enhancing the oil recovery of such non-aqueous method. However, the effect of EM heating on the variations of formation rock properties is still elusive. Detailed experiments/measurements are required to understand the effect of EM heating on changing the petrophysical properties of formation rocks.
A commercial microwave oven is used to conduct the EM heating experiments. Different types of formation rocks (shale, Berea-sandstone, tight sandstone, and Indiana-carbonate) are investigated. Various techniques, including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), N2 adsorption/desorption, and X-Ray fluorescence (XRF), are used to characterize the properties of shale samples before/after experiments. The porosity and permeability measurement are performed to Berea sandstone, tight sandstone, and Indiana carbonate. An infrared thermometer is used to measure the samples’ surface temperatures. Furthermore, oven-heating experiments are conducted to distinguish the effects of conductive-heating and EM heating on the property changes of rock-samples.
Results show that different types of rocks exhibit different responses to EM heating; shale samples exhibit a higher temperature compared with sandstone and carbonate because of the better EM energy absorbance of clays and pyrite. The shale samples are crumbled into pieces or fractured after EM heating, while the sandstone and carbonate samples remain almost unchanged after EM heating. The SEM results reveal that EM heating causes tensile failure, shrinkage of clay, and release of volatile organic content to the shale sample. The N2 adsorption/desorption measurements demonstrate that the pore volume significantly increases due to clay shrinkage, while part of the pore can be blocked by the converted bituminous kerogen after EM heating. EM heating has almost no effect on Berea sandstone and Indiana carbonate due to the transparency of quartz and calcite to EM waves. However, the EM heating can fracture the tight sandstone that is saturated with water because of the rapid rise of pore pressure under EM heating.
Soil salinization is a global phenomenon that affects large tracts of arid farmland worldwide. It contributes to the loss of soil fertility, declining yields, and – in the most severe cases – land unsuitability for cultivation. Irrigation water applications are both the main cause of and the solution to, anthropogenic (or ‘secondary’) salinization because salt typically enters the soil column as dissolved in irrigation water and leaves it through excess water applications (e.g., leaching). Excess leaching, which places additional water costs in areas affected by water scarcity, can be achieved with different irrigation techniques and practices. Here, by complementing a process-based crop water model with a salt balance of the shallow soil, we investigate the tradeoff between root zone salinization and water conservation to limit withdrawals from the water source. We evaluate how such a tradeoff is achieved under different irrigation technology and excess leaching practices. Considering as a case study the cultivation of tomatoes in Egypt, we find that drip and furrow irrigation allows for better control of salt accumulation, thus preventing crop exposure to salt stress. Drip irrigation achieves this goal with minimal water applications because it maintains the soil wetter. Thus, the (rare) rainfall events find more suitable conditions to drain the excess moisture. Conversely, by using more irrigation water (and ‘less efficiently’), furrow irrigation allows for higher rates of soil drainage and salt leaching. The irrigation schedule typically adopted with sprinkler irrigation allows for soil drying, thus limiting the ability of rainfall events to drain the soil and leach its salts. Collectively, these results highlight the key role of irrigation technology and practices in the management of secondary salinity in dryland agriculture. Specifically, there is a tradeoff between minimizing water use and preventing salt accumulation in the root zone. Drip irrigation exhibits the co-benefit of achieving both goals, while furrow irrigation limits soil salinity at the cost of requiring greater volumes of applied irrigation water.
درحالیکه آب اضافی قابلتوجهی برای حمایت از تولید غذا و انرژی در آینده مورد نیاز خواهد بود، مشخص نیست که آیا آبهای تجدیدپذیر محلی برای تأمین پایدار مصرف آب کافی است یا خیر. همچنین مشخص نیست که پروژههای انرژی جدید نیازمند آب، مانند استخراج غیرمتعارف نفت و گاز از طریق شکست هیدرولیکی، در چه مناطقی و تا چه اندازه ممکن است کمبود آب را ایجاد یا تشدید کنند و درنتیجه رقابتی را برای منابع کمیاب آب محلی ایجاد نمایند. در این فصل، ذخایر جهانی شیل واقع در مناطق کمآب را تجزیه و تحلیل میکنیم. برای این ذخایر غیرمتعارف نفت و گاز، ما اثرات بالقوهای را که شکست هیدرولیکی ممکن است بر زمینهای زراعی آبی داشته باشد، بررسی میکنیم. ما حجم آب آبیاری را که میتوان به فعالیت سودآورتر استخراج نفت و گاز اختصاص داد و همچنین حجم حاصل از محصولات زراعی آبی را که ممکن است درنتیجه آن از بین برود، محاسبه میکنیم. ما همچنین خطرات اجتماعی و زیستمحیطی را برای جمعیت محلی تجزیه و تحلیل میکنیم و بررسی خواهیم کرد که چگونه این کاهش در تولید مواد غذایی ممکن است اتکا به واردات مواد غذایی را افزایش داده و درنتیجه امنیت غذایی و معیشت مردم محلی را به خطر بیندازد.
Hydraulic fracturing (HF) events consume high volumes of water over a short time. When groundwater is the source, the additional pumping by Rig/Frack Supply Wells (RFSW) may impose costs on owners of other sector wells (OSWs) by lowering the hydraulic head. The Carrizo‐Wilcox Aquifer in south Texas is the main source of water for HF of the Eagle Ford Shale Play (EFS). The objectives are to assess the impacts of groundwater pumping for HF supply on: 1) hydraulic heads in OSWs located nearby an RFSW; and 2) volumetric fluxes between layers of the regional aquifer system compared to a baseline model without the effect of RFSW pumping. The study area spans the footprint of the Eagle Ford Shale (EFS) Play in Texas and extends from 2011 to 2020. The pumping schedules of 2,500 RFSWs were estimated from reported pumped water volumes to supply 22,500 HF events. Median annual drawdowns in OSWs ranged from 0.2 to 6.6 m, whereas 95 th percentile annual drawdowns exceeded 20 m. The magnitudes of drawdown increased from 2011 to 2020. Of the four layers that comprise the Carrizo‐Wilcox Aquifer, the upper Wilcox was the most intensively pumped for HF supply. During the peak HF year of 2014, the net flux to the upper Wilcox was 292 Mm ³ compared to the baseline net flux for the same year of 278 Mm ³ – a relative gain of 14 Mm ³ . Pumping for HF supply has the potential to negatively impact nearby OSWs by capturing water from adjacent aquifer layers.
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Brazil has the 10th largest shale gas reservoir, and the Paraná sedimentary basin has a potential area for shale gas production in the western portion of the São Paulo state. Despite that, the knowledge about the impacts of fracking on the local water resources is still limited. This study presents a novel reproducible method to compute the risk of water scarcity in areas with restricted or no shale gas development. Using geospatial numerical simulations under five scenarios from 500 to 2500 wells, we find that the fracking-related risk of water scarcity in the São Paulo state is low. For the 2013–2019 period, the long-term average seasonal water availability is between 0.05 and 1 Gm³ per water resources management unit, whereas fracking water demand would hardly overcome 6 Mm³ y⁻¹. For instance, with 2500 wells, the fracking demand in Pontal do Paranapanema, the most prospective region for shale gas, would not overcome 3% of the yearly local water demand. The riskier areas are in Aguapeí and Baixo do Tietê water resources management units, during winter and autumn, and the most water-stressed area is São José dos Dourados. In regions and periods of low water availability, fracking operators can use adaptative strategies for shale gas production. In the context of imminent droughts, this research debates national energy security and casts doubt on the water efficiency and sustainability of the state's energy generation. At last, this research provides early insights to support shale gas and water policy, and future studies to further investigate relevant aspects to the Brazilian Water-Energy nexus.
En el año 2017, coincidiendo con la formación geológica Vaca Muerta –ubicada en las provincias argentinas de Mendoza, Neuquén, Río Negro y La Pampa–, comenzó a utilizarse en la provincia de Mendoza la técnica de fracking para la explotación de hidrocarburos no convencionales. En Mendoza, las resistencias a la megaminería basadas en la defensa del agua, un bien escaso y muy preciado, han sido de las más exitosas y trascendentes a nivel nacional. Sin embargo, el fracking tuvo una rápida autorización acompañada por la flexibilización de la legislación ambiental y un duro cuestionamiento a las voces críticas por parte del gobierno provincial. Ante este panorama, en el presente trabajo analizaremos cómo, a diferencia de lo acontecido en torno a la minería a gran escala, en el caso del fracking la protección del agua fue descuidada y la oposición social criminalizada. Por su parte, movimientos socioambientales y otros actores sociales, especialmente del sector científico-académico, han colocado en el debate público la situación de “mega-sequía” que atraviesa la provincia, la escasa evaluación de los riesgos y la incertidumbre generada por estas falencias. Una incertidumbre que se incrementa por el inicio de nuevas actividades extractivas que generan controversias y contradicciones con las políticas de cambio climático y con los objetivos de avanzar hacia una transición energética.
Water, energy and food are vital resources for human well-being, poverty reduction, and sustainable development. The study of each of the resources mentioned presents its own individual complexity and when considering the interrelationships between them, this becomes more complex. The interconnection of these resources is known as the Water-Energy-Food Nexus (WEF Nexus), and represents a framework that captures the interrelationships, synergies and trade-offs between the demand for water, energy and food in the context of threats, emerging constraints and development sustainable in particular regions or systems. Water, energy and food are limited but critical resources for human and natural systems and are being depleted at a faster rate than the planet can replenish. The WEF Nexus has become an essential approach to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) mainly SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) and SDG 7 (Clean and Affordable Energy). This work presents an exhaustive and systematic review of the literature on the WEF Nexus in the 2008-2020 period, addressing the articles published in journals, conferences and technical reports where the case studies carried out, the proposed methodologies and the types of
data are analyzed that are required in the different models. This will achieve a clear view of the current global level regarding the WEF Nexus. As a complementary contribution, a methodological proposal is presented for the beginning of the Nexus WEF study for countries
with emerging economies witha multi-criteria approach, taking the Republic of Paraguay as a case study.
Electromagnetic radiation has been proposed to non-aqueously stimulate shale formations, which can generate fractures and enhance the porosity of the matrix. The proposed method consumes electricity and thereby possesses significant advantages for sustainable and environmental hydrocarbon production. In this study, we investigate the pore structure variations of marine shale during electromagnetic radiation. First, the prepared marine shale samples are exposed to electromagnetic radiation for different times; an infrared thermometer monitors the temperatures. Then, the nitrogen adsorption/desorption technique is applied to examine the evolutions of the pore structure. Next, a scanning electron microscope is adopted to reveal the morphology and identify newly developed pores. Lastly, fractal analyses are performed to quantify pore structure variations. The sample exhibits quick temperature rises, whose temperature reaches about 300 °C after 5 min of electromagnetic radiation. The elevated temperature causes clay dehydration, thermal expansion, and organic matter decomposition, leading to significant changes in pore structures. The nitrogen adsorption/desorption characteristics demonstrate enhancements in pore spaces, including volume, size, and surface area. Fractal analyses show that the pores become rougher and exhibit less heterogeneity after electromagnetic radiation. The obtained results demonstrate a great potential of using electromagnetic radiation to enhance the porosity of shale rocks.
Irrigated agriculture is essential to satisfying the globally increasing demand for food and bio-based products. Yet, in water scarce regions, water-use for irrigation aggravates the competition for the use of water for other purposes, such as energy production, drinking water and sanitation. Solutions for sustainable food production through irrigated agriculture require a systemic approach to assess benefits and trade-offs across sectors. Here, the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus has become an important concept in natural resource management. It has been conceptualized to analyze linkages and trade-offs between the three sectors, across temporal and spatial scales. However, the concept has so far mainly been conceptual, with little empirical evidence or proof of concept in real world cases. The objective of this paper was to take stock of the rapidly advancing literature on the WEF nexus in irrigated agriculture, and to analyze how the concept was actually implemented in research studies, and how the nexus between water, food and energy was actually dealt with. The study period ranges from 2011 to 2019, and includes 194 articles. Results showed that the WEF nexus is indeed very relevant in irrigated agriculture, and the respective literature makes up one third of all WEF nexus papers. Modeling and empirical research have caught up with conceptual synthesis studies during the last four years, thereby indicating that the WEF nexus concept is indeed increasingly operationalized. However, most studies addressed the WEF nexus from a perspective of either socioeconomic, technological or environmental categories, and they place one of the dimensions of water, food or energy into the foreground. To address sustainable development, there is a need to fully integrate across research disciplines and thematic dimensions. Such studies are only starting to emerge. These findings are an important evidence-base for future WEF nexus research on irrigated agriculture, in support of sustainable solutions for water scarce regions, especially in settings undergoing transformations.
Petroleum fuels are often used as source of energy for aviation transport and the key issue with this is that it is not sustainable. The aviation industry is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions throughout the world, and altogether produces approximately 2% of all anthropogenic CO2 emissions. According to predictions, air traffic is set to double over the next two decades, which will undoubtedly increase fuel requirement and in turn, increase CO2 emissions. What’ more, the cost of fossil fuel fluctuate ever more as the days go on. For this reason, implementing and industrializing innovative types of fuel from renewable sources is crucial, with biomass being a key source of interest. Many industrial commitments and collaborations have
been created as a means of identifying alternative manners of creating bio aviation fuels. Moreover, this jet fuel has to be in accordance with ASTM International specifications and must be a complete replacement for petroleum jet fuel. The present research will assess and analyse the current technologies being use to produce renewable jet fuels, and these are classified as alcohols-to-jet, oil-to-jet, syngas-to-jet, and sugar-to-jet methods. The key issues associated with every technology pathway outlined, such as issues pertaining to the theoretical process design, process economics and life-cycle evaluation of greenhouse gas emissions will be explored. Despite the feedstock price, availability and energy efficiency of the process serving as key obstacles in producing renewable energy, jet fuel created through biomass may be able to serve as an alternative source to traditional jet fuel in order to address commercial and military demand.
Water is a major factor limiting crop production in many regions around the world. Irrigation can greatly enhance crop yields, but the local availability and timing of freshwater resources constrains the ability of humanity to increase food production. Innovations in irrigation infrastructure have allowed humanity to utilize previously inaccessible water resources, enhancing water withdrawals for agriculture while increasing pressure on environmental flows and other human uses. While substantial additional water will be required to support future food production, it is not clear whether and where freshwater availability is sufficient to sustainably close the yield gap in cultivated lands. The extent to which irrigation can be expanded within presently rainfed cropland without depleting environmental flows remains poorly understood. Here we perform a spatially explicit biophysical assessment of global consumptive water use for crop production under current and maximum attainable yield scenarios assuming current cropping practices. We then compare these present and anticipated water consumptions to local water availability to examine potential changes in water scarcity. We find that global water consumption for irrigation could sustainably increase by 48% (408 km3 H2O y-1) – expanding irrigation to 26% of currently rainfed cultivated lands (2.67×106 km2) and producing 37% (3.38×1015 kcal y-1) more calories, enough to feed an additional 2.8 billion people. If current unsustainable blue water consumption (336 km3 y-1) and production (1.19×1015 kcal y-1) practices were eliminated, a sustainable irrigation expansion and intensification would still enable a 24% increase in calorie (2.19×1015 kcal y-1) production. Collectively, these results show that the sustainable expansion and intensification of irrigation in selected croplands could contribute substantially to achieving food security and environmental goals in tandem in the coming decades.
Water availability is a major factor constraining humanity's ability to meet the future food and energy needs of a growing and increasingly affluent human population. Water plays an important role in the production of energy, including renewable energy sources and the extraction of unconventional fossil fuels that are expected to become important players in future energy security. The emergent competition for water between the food and energy systems is increasingly recognized in the concept of the “food‐energy‐water nexus.” The nexus between food and water is made even more complex by the globalization of agriculture and rapid growth in food trade, which results in a massive virtual transfer of water among regions and plays an important role in the food and water security of some regions. This review explores multiple components of the food‐energy‐water nexus and highlights possible approaches that could be used to meet food and energy security with the limited renewable water resources of the planet. Despite clear tensions inherent in meeting the growing and changing demand for food and energy in the 21st century, the inherent linkages among food, water, and energy systems can offer an opportunity for synergistic strategies aimed at resilient food, water, and energy security, such as the circular economy.
Shale deposits are globally abundant and widespread. Extraction of shale oil and shale gas is generally performed through water‐intensive hydraulic fracturing. Despite recent work on its environmental impacts, it remains unclear where and to what extent shale resource extraction could compete with other water needs. Here we consider the global distribution of known shale deposits suitable for oil and gas extraction and develop a water balance model to quantify their impacts on local water availability for other human uses and ecosystem functions. We find that 31‐44% of the world's shale deposits are located areas where water‐stress would either emerge or be exacerbated as a result of shale oil or gas extraction; 20% of shale deposits are in areas affected by groundwater depletion and 30% in irrigated land. In these regions shale oil and shale gas production would likely compete for local water resources with agriculture, environmental flows, and other water needs. By adopting a hydrologic perspective that considers water availability and demand together, decision makers and local communities can better understand the water and food security implications of shale resource development
Oil is China’s second-largest energy source, so it is essential to understand the country’s greenhouse gas emissions from crude-oil production. Chinese crude supply is sourced from numerous major global petroleum producers. Here, we use a per-barrel well-to-refinery life-cycle analysis model with data derived from hundreds of public and commercial sources to model the Chinese crude mix and the upstream carbon intensities and energetic productivity of China’s crude supply. We generate a carbon-denominated supply curve representing Chinese crude-oil supply from 146 oilfields in 20 countries. The selected fields are estimated to emit between ~1.5 and 46.9 g CO2eq MJ⁻¹ of oil, with volume-weighted average emissions of 8.4 g CO2eq MJ⁻¹. These estimates are higher than some existing databases, illustrating the importance of bottom-up models to support life-cycle analysis databases. This study provides quantitative insight into China’s energy policy and the economic and environmental implications of China’s oil consumption.
Constrained oil supply has given way to abundance at a time when strong action on climate change is wavering. Recent innovation has pushed US oil production to all-time heights and driven oil prices lower. At the same time, attention to climate policy is wavering due to geopolitical upheaval. Nevertheless, climate-wise choices in the oil sector remain a priority, given oil's large role in modern economies. Here we use a set of open-source models along with a detailed dataset comprising 75 global crude oils (~25% of global production) to estimate the effects of carbon intensity and oil demand on decadal scale oil-sector emissions. We find that oil resources are abundant relative to all projections of 21st century demand, due to large light-tight oil (LTO) and heavy oil/bitumen (HOB) resources. We then investigate the 'barrel forward' emissions from producing, refining, and consuming all products from a barrel of crude. These oil resources have diverse life-cycle-greenhouse gas (LC-GHG) emissions impacts, and median per-barrel emissions for unconventional resources vary significantly. Median HOB life cycle emissions are 1.5 times those of median LTO emissions, exceeding them by 200 kgCO2eq./bbl. We show that reducing oil LC-GHGs is a mitigation opportunity worth 10–50 gigatonnes CO2 eq. cumulatively by 2050. We discuss means to reduce oil sector LC-GHGs. Results point to the need for policymakers to address both oil supply and oil demand when considering options to reduce LC-GHGs.
The United States is the largest producer of goods and services in the world. Rainfall, surface water supplies, and groundwater aquifers represent a fundamental input to economic production. Despite the importance of water resources to economic activity, we do not have consistent information on water use for specific locations and economic sectors. A national, spatially-detailed database of water use by sector would provide insight into US utilization and dependence on water resources for economic production. To this end, we calculate the water footprint of over 500 food, energy, mining, services, and manufacturing industries and goods produced in the US. To do this, we employ a data intensive approach that integrates water footprint and input-output techniques into a novel methodological framework. This approach enables us to present the most detailed and comprehensive water footprint analysis of any country to date. This study broadly contributes to our understanding of water in the US economy, enables supply chain managers to assess direct and indirect water dependencies, and provides opportunities to reduce water use through benchmarking. In fact, we find that 94% of US industries could reduce their total water footprint more by sourcing from more water-efficient suppliers in their supply chain than they could by converting their own operations to be more water-efficient.
Water scarcity is a global concern that necessitates a global perspective, but it is also the product of multiple regional issues that require regional solutions. Water markets constitute a regionally applicable non-structural measure to counter water scarcity that has received the attention of academics and policy-makers, but there is no global view on their applicability. We present the global distribution of potential nations and states where water markets could be instituted in a legal sense, by investigating 296 water laws internationally, with special reference to a minimum set of key rules: legalization of water reallocation, the separation of water rights and landownership, and the modification of the cancellation rule for non-use. We also suggest two additional globally distributed prerequisites and policy implications: the predictability of the available water before irrigation periods and public control of groundwater pumping throughout its jurisdiction.
Data alone aren't the solution, but they bring people together
The Permian Basin is being transformed by the "shale revolution" from a major conventional play to the world's largest unconventional play, but water management is critical in this semiarid region. Here we explore evolving issues associated with produced water (PW) management and hydraulic fracturing water demands based on detailed well-by-well analyses. Our results show that although conventional wells produce ∼13 times more water than oil (PW to oil ratio, PWOR = 13), this produced water has been mostly injected back into pressure-depleted oil-producing reservoirs for enhanced oil recovery. Unconventional horizontal wells use large volumes of water for hydraulic fracturing that increased by a factor of ∼10-16 per well and ∼7-10 if normalized by lateral well length (2008-2015). Although unconventional wells have a much lower PWOR of 3 versus 13 from conventional wells, this PW cannot be reinjected into the shale reservoirs but is disposed into nonproducing geologic intervals that could result in overpressuring and induced seismicity. The potential for PW reuse from unconventional wells is high because PW volumes can support hydraulic fracturing water demand based on 2014 data. Reuse of PW with minimal treatment (clean brine) can partially mitigate PW injection concerns while reducing water demand for hydraulic fracturing.
Mexico's government enacted an energy reform in 2013 that aims to foster competitiveness and private investment throughout the energy sector value chain. As part of this reform, it is expected that extraction of oil and gas via hydraulic fracturing will increase in five shale basins (e.g. Burgos, Sabinas, Tampico, Tuxpan, and Veracruz). Because hydraulic fracturing is a water-intensive activity, it is relevant to assess the potential water availability for this activity in Mexico. This research aims to quantify the water availability for hydraulic fracturing in Mexico and identify its spatial distribution along the five shale basins. The methodology consisted of a multilayer geospatial analysis that overlays the water availability in the watersheds and aquifers with the different types of shale resources areas (e.g. oil and associated gas, wet gas and condensate, and dry gas) in the five shale basins. The aquifers and watersheds in Mexico are classified in four zones depending on average annual water availability. Three scenarios were examined based on different impact level on watersheds and aquifers from hydraulic fracturing. For the most conservative scenario analyzed, the results showed that the water available could be used to extract between 8.15 and 70.42 Quadrillion British thermal units (Quads) of energy in the typical 20–30 year lifetime of the hydraulic fracturing wells that could be supplied with the annual water availability overlaying the shale areas, with an average across estimates of around 18.05 Quads. However, geographic variation in water availability could represent a challenge for extracting the shale reserves. Most of the water available is located closer to the Gulf of Mexico, but the areas with the larger recoverable shale reserves coincide with less water availability in Northern Mexico. New water management techniques (such as recycling and re-use), more efficient fracturing methods, shifts in usage patterns, or other water sources need to be identified to allocate water for hydraulic fracturing without affecting current users (e.g. municipal, irrigation, industrial, and environmental flows).
Crude oil from oil sands will constitute a substantial share of future global oil demand. Oil sands deposits account for a third of globally proven oil reserves, underlie large natural forested areas, and have extraction methods requiring large volumes of freshwater. Yet little work has been done to quantify some of the main environmental impacts of oil sands operations. Here we examine forest loss and water use for the world's major oil sands deposits. We calculate actual and potential rates of water use and forest loss both in Canadian deposits, where oil sands extraction is already taking place, and in other major deposits worldwide. We estimated that their exploitation, given projected production trends, could result in 1.31km³yr⁻¹ of freshwater demand and 8700km² of forest loss. The expected escalation in oil sands extraction thus portends extensive environmental impacts.
Lakes are key components of biogeochemical and ecological processes, thus knowledge about their distribution, volume and residence time is crucial in understanding their properties and interactions within the Earth system. However, global information is scarce and inconsistent across spatial scales and regions. Here we develop a geo-statistical model to estimate the volume of global lakes with a surface area of at least 10 ha based on the surrounding terrain information. Our spatially resolved database shows 1.42 million individual polygons of natural lakes with a total surface area of 2.67 × 10⁶ km² (1.8% of global land area), a total shoreline length of 7.2 × 10⁶ km (about four times longer than the world's ocean coastline) and a total volume of 181.9 × 10³ km³ (0.8% of total global non-frozen terrestrial water stocks). We also compute mean and median hydraulic residence times for all lakes to be 1,834 days and 456 days, respectively.
The current approach to hydraulic fracturing requires large amounts of industrial hardware to be transported, installed and operated in temporary locations. A significant proportion of this equipment is comprised of the fleet of pumps required to provide the high pressures and flows necessary for well stimulation. Studies have shown that over 90% of the emissions of CO2 and other pollutants that occur during a hydraulic fracturing operation are associated with these pumps. Pollution and transport concerns are of paramount importance for the emerging hydraulic fracturing industry in Europe, and so it is timely to consider these factors when assessing the design of high pressure pumps for the European resources.
This paper gives an overview of the industrial plant required to carry out a hydraulic fracturing operation. This is followed by an analysis of the pump's design space that could result in improved pump efficiency. We find that reducing the plunger diameter and running the pump at higher speeds can increase the overall pump efficiency by up to 4.6%. Such changes to the pump's parameters would results in several environmental benefits beyond the obvious economic gains of lower fuel consumption. The paper concludes with a case study that quantifies these benefits.
Development of shale gas resources is expected to play an important role in China's projected transition to a low-carbon energy future. The question arises whether the availability of water could limit this development. The paper considers a range of scenarios to define the demand for water needed to accommodate China's projected shale gas production through 2020. Based on data from the gas field at Fuling, the first large-scale shale gas field in China, it is concluded that the water intensity for shale gas development in China (water demand per unit lateral length) is likely to exceed that in the US by about 50%. Fuling field would require a total of 39.9–132.9Mm3 of water to achieve full development of its shale gas, with well spacing assumed to vary between 300 and 1000m. To achieve the 2020 production goal set by Sinopec, the key Chinese developer, water consumption is projected to peak at 7.22Mm3 in 2018. Maximum water consumption would account for 1% and 3%, respectively, of the available water resource and annual water use in the Fuling district. To achieve China's nationwide shale gas production goal set for 2020, water consumption is projected to peak at 15.03Mm3 in 2019 in a high-use scenario. It is concluded that supplies of water are adequate to meet demand in Fuling and most projected shale plays in China, with the exception of localized regions in the Tarim and Jungger Basins.
Shale deposits exist in many parts of the world and contain relatively large amounts of natural gas and oil. Recent technological developments in the process of horizontal hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracturing or fracking) have suddenly made it economically feasible to extract natural gas from shale. While natural gas is a much cleaner burning fuel than coal, there are a number of significant threats to human health from the extraction process as currently practiced. There are immediate threats to health resulting from air pollution from volatile organic compounds, which contain carcinogens such as benzene and ethyl-benzene, and which have adverse neurologic and respiratory effects. Hydrogen sulfide, a component of natural gas, is a potent neuro- and respiratory toxin. In addition, levels of formaldehyde are elevated around fracking sites due to truck traffic and conversion of methane to formaldehyde by sunlight. There are major concerns about water contamination because the chemicals used can get into both ground and surface water. Much of the produced water (up to 40% of what is injected) comes back out of the gas well with significant radioactivity because radium in subsurface rock is relatively water soluble. There are significant long-term threats beyond cancer, including exacerbation of climate change due to the release of methane into the atmosphere, and increased earthquake activity due to disruption of subsurface tectonic plates. While fracking for natural gas has significant economic benefits, and while natural gas is theoretically a better fossil fuel as compared to coal and oil, current fracking practices pose significant adverse health effects to workers and near-by residents. The health of the public should not be compromized simply for the economic benefits to the industry.
Over the past 5 years, parts of Oklahoma have experienced marked increases in the number of small- to moderate-sized earthquakes. In three study areas that encompass the vast majority of the recent seismicity, we show that the increases in seismicity follow 5- to 10-fold increases in the rates of saltwater disposal. Adjacent areas where there has been relatively little saltwater disposal have had comparatively few recent earthquakes. In the areas of seismic activity, the saltwater disposal principally comes from "produced" water, saline pore water that is coproduced with oil and then injected into deeper sedimentary formations. These formations appear to be in hydraulic communication with potentially active faults in crystalline basement, where nearly all the earthquakes are occurring. Although most of the recent earthquakes have posed little danger to the public, the possibility of triggering damaging earthquakes on potentially active basement faults cannot be discounted.
An unprecedented increase in earthquakes in the U.S. mid-continent began in 2009. Many of these earthquakes have been documented as induced by wastewater injection. We examine the relationship between wastewater injection and U.S. mid-continent seismicity using a newly assembled injection well database for the central and eastern United States. We find that the entire increase in earthquake rate is associated with fluid injection wells. High-rate injection wells (>300,000 barrels per month) are much more likely to be associated with earthquakes than lower-rate wells. At the scale of our study, a well's cumulative injected volume, monthly wellhead pressure, depth, and proximity to crystalline basement do not strongly correlate with earthquake association. Managing injection rates may be a useful tool to minimize the likelihood of induced earthquakes.
Copyright © 2015, American Association for the Advancement of Science.
There is increasing concern about water constraints limiting oil and gas production using hydraulic fracturing (HF) in shale plays, particularly in semiarid regions and during droughts. Here we evaluate HF vulnerability by comparing HF water demand with supply in the semiarid Texas Eagle Ford play, the largest shale oil producer globally. Current HF water demand (18 billion gallons, bgal; 68 billion liters, bL in 2013) equates to ∼16% of total water consumption in the play area. Projected HF water demand of ∼330 bgal with ∼62 000 additional wells over the next 20 years equates to ∼10% of historic groundwater depletion from regional irrigation. Estimated potential freshwater supplies include ∼1000 bgal over 20 yr from recharge and ∼10 000 bgal from aquifer storage, with land-owner lease agreements often stipulating purchase of freshwater. However, pumpage has resulted in excessive drawdown locally with estimated declines of ∼100–200 ft in ∼6% of the western play area since HF began in 2009–2013. Non-freshwater sources include initial flowback water, which is ≤5% of HF water demand, limiting reuse/recycling. Operators report shifting to brackish groundwater with estimated groundwater storage of 80 000 bgal. Comparison with other semiarid plays indicates increasing brackish groundwater and produced water use in the Permian Basin and large surface water inputs from the Missouri River in the Bakken play. The variety of water sources in semiarid regions, with projected HF water demand representing ∼3% of fresh and ∼1% of brackish water storage in the Eagle Ford footprint indicates that, with appropriate management, water availability should not physically limit future shale energy production.
The term ?environmental flows? describes the quantities, quality, and patterns of water flows required to sustain freshwater and estuarine ecosystems and the ecosystem services they provide. Environmental flows may be achieved in a number of different ways, most of which are based on either (1) limiting alterations from the natural flow baseline to maintain biodiversity and ecological integrity or (2) designing flow regimes to achieve specific ecological and ecosystem service outcomes. We argue that the former practice is more applicable to natural and semi-natural rivers where the primary objective and opportunity is ecological conservation. The latter ?designer? approach is better suited to modified and managed rivers where return to natural conditions is no longer feasible and the objective is to maximize natural capital as well as support economic growth, recreation, or cultural history. This permits elements of ecosystem design and adaptation to environmental change. In a future characterized by altered climates and intensive regulation, where hybrid and novel aquatic ecosystems predominate, the designer approach may be the only feasible option. This conclusion stems from a lack of natural ecosystems from which to draw analogs and the need to support broader socioeconomic benefits and valuable configurations of natural and social capital.
Existing water governance systems are proving to be quite ineffective in managing water scarcity, creating severe risk for many aspects of our societies and economies. Water markets are a relatively new and increasingly popular tool in the fight against growing water scarcity. They make a voluntary exchange possible between interested buyers and sellers of water rights. This paper presents direct evidence from seven water markets around the globe to document key economic and ecological challenges and achievements of water markets with respect to water scarcity. We specifically approach water markets as localized cap-and-trade systems, similar to those for carbon emissions. We examine whether water use remains within the set limits on use of water rights (i.e., under the cap), the degree to which water markets help protect the health of ecosystems and species, and whether (as predicted by economic theory) the explicit pricing of water is accompanied by improving efficiency, as less productive water users decide to sell water to more productive water users.
The energy system is in the early stages of a transition from conventionally produced oil to a variety of substitutes, bringing economic, strategic, and environmental risks. We argue that these three challenges are inherently interconnected, and that as we act to manage one we cannot avoid affecting our prospects in dealing with the others. We further argue that without appropriate policies, tradeoffs between these risks are likely to be made so as to allow increased environmental disruption in return for increased economic and energy security. Responsible solutions involve developing and deploying environmentally acceptable energy technologies (both supply and demand) rapidly enough to replace dwindling conventional oil production and meet growing demand for transportation while diversifying supply to improve energy security.
Food, energy, and water (FEW) are interdependent and must be examined as a coupled natural-human system. This perspective essay defines FEW systems and outlines key findings about them as a blueprint for future models to satisfy six key objectives. The first three focus on linking the FEW production and consumption to impacts on Earth cycles in a spatially specific manner in order to diagnose problems and identify potential solutions. The second three focus on describing the evolution of FEW systems to identify risks, thus empowering the FEW actors to better achieve the goals of resilience and sustainability. Four key findings about the FEW systems that guide future model development are (1) that they engage ecological, carbon, water, and nutrient cycles most powerfully among all human systems; (2) that they operate primarily at a mesoscale best captured by counties, districts, and cities; (3) that cities are hubs within the FEW system; and (4) that the FEW system forms a complex network.
Optimizing flow in dammed rivers
Hydropower dams radically alter river flow regimes, often with consequences for the functioning and productivity of the waters downstream. Where fisheries in large tropical river systems are affected, there can be knock-on effects on food security. For the Mekong River, Sabo et al. used a data-based time series modeling approach to estimate the features of the flow regime that optimize the fishery that is crucial to food security in Cambodia (see the Perspective by Poff and Olden). Fish futures can be maximized within a managed hydrologic system with careful prescription of flows. Such data-driven approaches can be used to link hydrology to ecology and food production and specify design principles that could help to deliver food security in other river systems.
Science , this issue p. eaao1053 ; see also p. 1252
As shale-gas compounds flood the market, chemists are working out the best ways to convert them into the ingredients of modern life.
Mexico's recent energy reform (2013) has provided the foundations for increased private participation in attempts to offset or reverse the country's continued decline in fossil fuel production. This country is currently on path to becoming a net energy importer by 2020. Conversely, in 2015, and for the first time in over 20 years, the United States (US) became a net oil exporter to Mexico. One of the strategies being pursued by Mexico to prevent an impending supply-demand energy imbalance is the development of shale resources using horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing techniques. Hence, an evaluation of the inherent risks associated with hydraulic fracturing is crucial for Mexico's energy planning and decision-making process. This paper draws lessons from the recent 'shale boom' in the US, and it analyzes and summarizes the environmental, social, economic, and community impacts that Mexico should be aware of as its nascent shale industry develops. The analysis seeks to inform mainly Mexican policy makers, but also academics, nongovernmental organizations, and the public in general, about the main concerns regarding hydraulic fracturing activities, and the importance of regulatory enforcement and community engagement in advancing sustainability. Furthermore, using the US as a case study, we argue that development of unconventional oil and gas resources in Mexico could lead to a short-term boom rather than to a dependable and sustainable long-term energy supply. Our analysis concludes with a set of recommendations for Mexico, featuring best practices that could be used to attenuate and address some of the impacts likely to emerge from shale oil and gas development.
Until the recent crude and gas price decrease in late 2015, development in the Vaca Muerta shale experienced profitable production through improved methods, efficiency, and economics control.
To combine public domain hydrocarbon production datasets with detailed proprietary drilling information, operators and service companies can use completion, logging, and well stimulation data. These data enable analysis of trends and improvements that occur during drilling, fracturing, and production of horizontal wells targeting both shale oil and gas in the Vaca Muerta and help provide economic, efficiency, and productivity improvements.
In recent years, more than 500 wells have been drilled in the Neuquén basin in the Vaca Muerta, the majority of which are located in the Loma Campana field. Other areas under development include El Orejano, La Amarga Chica, Aguada Pichana, Sierras Blancas, Cruz de Lorena, Bandurria, Aguada Federal, La Invernada, Bajo del Choique, and Puesto Silva Oeste. As of January 2016, Vaca Muerta monthly production of oil and gas was 6.7 million bbl and 13 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE), respectively, representing 12 and 5% of total Neuquén basin production.
A database was created including 47 records of horizontal stimulated wells that target the Vaca Muerta. Each register includes information related to location [well name, latitude, longitude, ground level, total depth (TD)]; production (operator, first oil date, effective time on, monthly oil, gas and water production); drilling (casing, liner, shoes, cementing); completion (directional survey, stages, clusters, perforations, plugs); fracturing [pump time, pressure, instantaneous shut-in pressure (ISIP), fracture gradient, horsepower, fluid type, injection rate, fluid volume, proppant type, proppant mesh, proppant mass, injection rate]; and production (cumulatives, rates, decline rate, recovery estimates, flow regime).
Several correlations and crossplots between variables were developed and analyzed to identify trends and establish normal and anomalous behavior. The validity of using early production to estimate longer periods was confirmed, enabling creation of a complementary series of production data with modeled forecasts and estimated ultimate recoveries.
Production data were then standardized by stages, horizontal length, proppant sacks (100 lbm) pumped, and fluids injected; after this, the records were sorted by productivity to determine average standardized production and typical completion and stimulation.
Observing these values over time highlights trends toward longer wells with more stages and smaller sized proppant. Simultaneously, a recent shift to shale gas objectives located slightly basinward is indicated by deeper wells, where less fluid and more horsepower were used during stimulation.
This study examined water quality, naturally-occurring radioactive materials (NORM), major ions, trace metals, and well flow data for water used and produced from start-up to operation of an oil and gas producing hydraulically-fractured well (horizontal) in the Denver-Julesburg (DJ) Basin in northeastern Colorado. Analysis was conducted on the groundwater used to make the fracturing fluid, the fracturing fluid itself, and nine flowback/produced water samples over 220 days of operation. The chemical oxygen demand of the wastewater produced during operation decreased from 8200 to 2500 mg/L, while the total dissolved solids (TDS) increased in this same period from 14,200 to roughly 19,000 mg/L. NORM, trace metals, and major ion levels were generally correlated with TDS, and were lower than other shale basins (e.g. Marcellus and Bakken). Although at lower levels, the salinity and its origin appear to be the result of a similar mechanism to that of other shale basins when comparing Cl/Br, Na/Br, and Mg/Br ratios. Volumes of returned wastewater were low, with only 3% of the volume injected (11 million liters) returning as flowback by day 15 and 30% returning by day 220. Low levels of TDS indicate a potentially treatment-amenable wastewater, but low volumes of flowback could limit onsite reuse in the DJ Basin. These results offer insight into the temporal water quality changes in the days and months following flowback, along with considerations and implications for water reuse in future hydraulic fracturing or for environmental discharge.
[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1875510016305996]
Highlights
1)
Formation-damage-free waterless fracturing technologies including CO2 energized oil, explosive and propellant, gelled LPG and alcohol, gas, liquid CO2, and cryogenic fracturing, are reviewed and compared.
2)
Laboratory experiments demonstrated that cryogenic stimulation with LN2 is capable of generating fractures in shale and sandstone blocks.
3)
Cryogenic fractures generated in reservoir rocks are characterized by pressure decay tests, acoustic measurements, and gas fracturing.
4)
Cryogenic stimulation can be implemented alone or with other fracturing technologies to cost-effectively enhance the hydrocarbon recovery of unconventional reservoirs by eliminating water-related issues.
The water footprint of oil production, including water used for hydraulic fracturing (HF) and flowback-produced (FP) water, is increasingly important in terms of HF water sourcing and FP water management. Here we evaluate trends in HF water use relative to supplies and FP water relative to disposal using well by well analysis in the Bakken Play. HF water use/well increased by ~6 times from 2005–2014, totaling 24.5×109 gallons (93×109 liters) for ~10,140 wells. Water supplies expanded to meet increased demand, including access of up to ~33×109 gal/yr (125×109 L/yr) from Lake Sakakawea, expanding pipeline infrastructure by 100s of miles, and allowing water transfers from irrigation. The projected inventory of ~60,000 future wells should require an additional ~11 times more HF water. Cumulative FP water has been managed by disposal into an increasing number (277 to 479) of salt water disposal wells. FP water is projected to increase by ~10 times during the play lifetime (~40 yr). Disposal of FP water into deeper geologic units should be considered because of reported overpressuring of parts of the Dakota Group. The long time series shows how policies have increased water supplies for HF and highlights potential issues related to FP water management.
In organic shales, hydraulic fracturing is an important parameter to optimize production of horizontal wells. For a lateral standalone, propped surface should be maximized to increase production (by increasing total proppant per well). While in the case of a pad, well spacing is an additional constrain for hydraulic fracture dimensions not to overlap with hydraulic fractures of neighboring offsets. Competition for production between laterals of a given pad should be minimized and is the result of both well spacing and hydraulic fracture design.
A numerical model coupling an explicit description of the hydraulic fracture geometry and reservoir simulation is proposed. Fracturing simulator accounts for material balance, geomechanics, interaction with natural fractures and stress shadowing within and in between fracturing stages.
Production interference is evaluated by comparing forecasted production of a lateral standalone (single well approach) against this same lateral while surrounded by offsets competing for production (multi well approach). Sensitivities are run assuming different completion and well spacing scenarios varying different parameters such as fluid and proppant volume, fracturing fluid type and staging.
Production interference between horizontal wells might reduce the final recovery of each individual well. However it provides an opportunity for simultaneous optimization of completion and well spacing to guide field development.
Hydraulic Fracture dimensions must match well spacing. Variation of fracture geometry along the lateral should be accounted for to evaluate well spacing and prevent the excessive growth of one single facture within a given stage. Completion design can be engineered by adjusting hydraulic fracture treatment volume, perforation cluster spacing or fracturing fluid viscosity to increase the overall consistency of the resulting fracture geometry and reduce effect of production interference between laterals of a given pad.
Novelty of the proposed methodology relies on the explicit description of the hydraulic fracturing geometry and direct coupling with reservoir simulation, not only for a single well, but considering a whole pad of horizontal wells as per a possible development of the Vaca Muerta shale.
A new dual-lateral subsea well in the Aasgard Field (Haaland et al 1996) was recently completed with Multilateral Drilling Stimulation Technology (MDST) in one of the lateral legs. MDST was developed in a Joint Industry Project (JIP) with Fishbones AS, Statoil Petroleum AS, Eni Norge AS, Lundin Norway AS and Innovation Norway. The project was also supported by the Research Council of Norway. The technology stimulates wells by creating a large number of laterals from the wellbore into the formation. The laterals are drilled utilizing small diameter tubes with drill bits and turbines which are conveyed into the well as integral parts of an open hole liner. For the laterals' drilling process, drilling fluid is circulated for a few hours using the rig pumps. This circulation turns the turbines which drives the bits into the formation creating the laterals. MDST was qualified to Technology Readiness Level 4 (TRL4), Qualified for First Use, as part of the JIP. A total of 144 laterals were drilled from the mainbore to increase productivity from the tight sandstone formation. The target reservoir, named Upper Garn, is comprised of an undeveloped oil bearing tight sandstone with intermittent cemented stringers overlaying a developed gas formation. MDST was selected as the stimulation method with an objective to increase productivity without the risk for connecting the well with the gas formation. For the drilling and completion operations, a semi-submersible rig was used. The production results indicate that MDST increased productivity in this application.
Oil and natural gas development in the Bakken shale play of North Dakota has grown substantially since 2008. This study provides a comprehensive overview and analysis of water quantity and management impacts from this development by (1) estimating water demand for hydraulic fracturing in the Bakken from 2008 to 2012; (2) compiling volume estimates for maintenance water, or brine dilution water; (3) calculating water intensities normalized by the amount of oil produced, or estimated ultimate recovery (EUR); (4) estimating domestic water demand associated with the large oil services population; (5) analyzing the change in wastewater volumes from 2005 to 2012; and (6) examining existing water sources used to meet demand. Water use for hydraulic fracturing in the North Dakota Bakken grew 5-fold from 770 million gallons in 2008 to 4.3 billion gallons in 2012. First-year wastewater volumes grew in parallel, from an annual average of 1 135 000 gallons per well in 2008 to 2 905 000 gallons in 2012, exceeding the mean volume of water used in hydraulic fracturing and surpassing typical 4-year wastewater totals for the Barnett, Denver, and Marcellus basins. Surprisingly, domestic water demand from the temporary oilfield services population in the region may be comparable to the regional water demand from hydraulic fracturing activities. Existing groundwater resources are inadequate to meet the demand for hydraulic fracturing, but there appear to be adequate surface water resources, provided that access is available.
This paper demonstrates the potential of combining observed river discharge information with climate-driven water balance model (WBM) outputs to develop composite runoff fields. Such combined runoff fields simultaneously reflect the numerical accuracy of the discharge measurements and preserve the spatial and temporal distribution of simulated runoff. Selected gauging stations from the World Meteorological Organization Global Runoff Data Centre (GRDC) data archive were geographically coregistered to a gridded simulated topological network at 30′ (longitude × latitude) spatial resolution (STN-30p). Interstation regions between gauging stations along the STN-30p network were identified, and annual interstation runoff was calculated. The annual interstation runoff was compared with outputs from WBM calculations, which were performed using long-term mean monthly climate forcings (air temperature and precipitation). The simulated runoff for each cell was multiplied by the ratio of observed to simulated runoff of the corresponding interstation region from the GRDC data set to create spatially distributed runoff fields at 30′ resolution. The resulting composite runoff fields (UNH/GRDC Composite Runoff Fields V1.0) are released to the scientific community along with intermediate data sets, such as station attributes and long-term monthly regimes of the selected gauging stations, the simulated topological network (STN-30p), STN-30p derived attributes for the selected stations, and gridded fields of the interstation regions along STN-30p. These data sets represent high-resolution fields that are of value to a broad range of water-related research, including terrestrial modeling, climate-atmosphere interactions, and global water resource assessments.
Until now, up-to-date, comprehensive, spatial, national-scale data on hydraulic fracturing water volumes have been lacking. Water volumes used to hydraulically fracture over 263,859 oil and gas wells drilled between 2000 and 2014 were compiled and used to create the first U.S. map of hydraulic fracturing water use. Further analysis of these data shows that although 15,275 m3 and 19,425 m3 of water was used to hydraulically fracture individual horizontal oil and gas wells, respectively, in 2014, about 42 percent of wells were actually either vertical or directional, which required less than 2,600 m3 water per well. The highest average hydraulic fracturing water usage (10,000 − 36,620 m3 per well) in watersheds across the United States was correlated with shale gas areas (versus coalbed methane, tight oil, or tight gas) where the greatest proportion of hydraulically fractured wells were horizontally drilled, reflecting that the natural reservoir properties influence water use. This analysis also demonstrates that many oil and gas resources within a given basin are developed using a mix of horizontal, vertical and some directional wells, explaining why large volume hydraulic fracturing water usage is not widespread. This spatial variability in hydraulic fracturing water use relates to the potential for environmental impacts such as water availability, water quality, wastewater disposal, and possible wastewater injection-induced earthquakes. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Unconventional oil and natural gas extraction enabled by horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is driving an economic boom, with consequences described from "revolutionary" to "disastrous." Reality lies somewhere in between. Unconventional energy generates income and, done well, can reduce air pollution and even water use compared with other fossil fuels. Alternatively, it could slow the adoption of renewables and, done poorly, release toxic chemicals into water and air. Primary threats to water resources include surface spills, wastewater disposal, and drinking-water contamination through poor well integrity. An increase in volatile organic compounds and air toxics locally are potential health threats, but the switch from coal to natural gas for electricity generation will reduce sulfur, nitrogen, mercury, and particulate air pollution. Data gaps are particularly evident for human health studies, for the question of whether natural gas will displace coal compared with renewables, and for decadal-scale legacy issues of well leakage and plugging and abandonment practices. Critical topics for future research include data for (a) estimated ultimate recovery (EUR) of unconventional hydrocarbons, (b) the potential for further reductions of water requirements and chemical toxicity, (c) whether unconventional resource development alters the frequency of well integrity failures, (d) potential contamination of surface and ground waters from drilling and spills, (e) factors that could cause wastewater injection to generate large earthquakes, and (f) the consequences of greenhouse gases and air pollution on ecosystems and human health.
Technology Update
Efficient production in many fields requires reservoir stimulation. Some of the challenges with hydraulic fracture stimulation are reservoir-related, such as consistently stimulating all targeted intervals. The growth of hydraulic fractures in the vertical direction is difficult to predict, leading to the risk for entering unsought gas- or water-bearing formations. Operations can be complex, costly, and pose environmental challenges.
A new liner-based stimulation technology has been developed and field tested by Fishbones to be simple, efficient, and more controllable with less environmental impact. The method uses less fluid and reduces greatly the risk of groundwater contamination and the disposal of recovered stimulation fluid. Field experience has shown positive productivity response, with an 8.3 times increase in 30-day cumulative initial production (IP-30) in an existing well in a tight limestone formation. The productivity index was increased by 30 times.
The liner-based stimulation technology was originally developed for carbonate reservoirs, but is also applicable in coalbed methane and unconsolidated formations. Technology suitable for sandstones and other clastic formations is being developed.
Technology Description
The technology uses a liner sub that houses four small-diameter, high-strength tubes called needles, each with a jet nozzle on the end (Fig. 1). The sub is made up to a full-length casing joint and needle assemblies up to 40 ft long are assembled in the workshop before the sub is sent to the field.
The subs are run as integral parts of the liner in the open hole and are positioned across the formation where stimulation is desired. The needles are located inside the sub/liner joints while the sub is run in hole. The liner is hung off with a standard liner hanger.
In a carbonate formation, a basic hydrochloric acid (HCl) fluid system is pumped. The fluid jets out of the nozzles, and the formation ahead of the tubes is jetted away by a combination of erosion and acid chemical dissolution. Differential pressure across the liner drives the needles into the formation, and they penetrate the rock until fully extended. Typical jetting pressure is 3,000 psi.
All laterals are created simultaneo