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The World Resource Institute estimates that Spain will become a severely water stressed region by 2030 in all of its future scenarios considered. Getting water to the south-eastern basins will become a top political concern of critical importance. The issue is not a new one and several strategies have been proposed in the past, the most famous being the Ebro-River basin transfer program and the AGUA program each supported by different governments. In addition to the need for physical water in the southern basins the situation is complicated further by the possibility of different energy pathways taken by Spain in meeting emission requirements and other EU regulations. This paper explores the different options for water security, while considering the impacts of climate change on temperature, water availability and power plant cooling needs as well as the impacts of different energy strategies such as the penetration of nuclear, biofuels and other renewable technologies into the energy mix. The water strategies considered include combinations of inter-basin transfers, desalination, groundwater pumping, rain-water harvesting, reuse as well as end user demand management in both the energy and water sectors. A fully integrated water-energy nexus model, SPATNEX, is used to analyze the coupled water-energy system. The model accounts for the complete life-cycle of both systems and is both spatially and temporally dis-aggregated. Optimal strategies for different scenarios are explored and a robust combination of the different options available are proposed to deal with a range of situations. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/draft

This paper describes GCAM-USA v5.3_water_dispatch, an open source model that represents key interactions across economic, energy, water, and land systems in a consistent global framework, with subnational detail in the United States. GCAM-USA divides the world into 31 geopolitical regions outside the United States (U.S.) and represents the U.S. economic and energy systems in 51 state-level regions (50 states plus the District of Columbia). The model also includes 235 water basins and 384 land-use regions; 23 of each fall at least partially within the United States. GCAM-USA offers a level of process and temporal resolution rare for models of its class and scope, including detailed subnational representation of U.S. water demands and supplies and sub-annual operations (day/night for each month) in the U.S. electric power sector. GCAM-USA can be used to explore how changes in socioeconomic drivers, technological progress, or policy impact demands for, and production of, energy, water, and crops at a subnational level in the United States, while maintaining consistency with broader national and international conditions. This paper describes GCAM-USA's structure, inputs, and outputs, with emphasis on new model features. Four illustrative scenarios encompassing varying socioeconomic and energy system futures are used to explore subnational changes in energy, water, and land-use outcomes. We conclude with information about how public users can access the model.