Water for Energy: Inconsistent Assessment Standards and Inability to Judge Properly

The water-energy nexus field is experiencing growing attention to assessing the impacts of energy generation on water resources. Numerous studies in recent years have used a range of metrics and methods for measuring and quantifying the water impacts of energy. This article argues that the field is suffering from a lack of consistency in the interpretation and application of different evaluation metrics due to competition for the development of the ‘correct’ evaluation method. The uncertainties caused by inconsistent analysis methods, assumptions, scales and boundaries make the available information confusing and hamper our abilities to understand comprehensively and judge properly. The article highlights some of the major caveats that need to be considered in using the results of the previous studies and applying the existing metrics for evaluating the impacts of energy production on water resources.