Evaluating Circular Water Economy Models at the Watershed Scale: A Carbon Emissions-Based Framework within the Water-Energy-Food- Ecosystem Nexus

Date

2025-06-04

Author

Yapan, Bilge İrem
Alp, Emre

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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The Porsuk Sub-basin is subject to intense urbanisation, agriculture, and industrial activities. These sectors exert considerable pressure on the basin’s water resources, threatening the availability of its already limited freshwater reserves due to increasing water stress. To address this issue in a more sustainable manner, various strategies have been proposed. Among them, the Circular Economy approach promoted by the EU Green Deal aims to retain resources in use for as long as possible, maximise their value, and enable their recovery, renewal, and reuse. There exists a strong interconnection between water, energy, food, and ecosystems, referred to as the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem (WEFE) Nexus. This concept underscores the interdependent nature of these components and recognises that interventions in one sector have direct implications for the others. Although the literature evaluates the benefits of circular systems using a variety of indicators, such indicators often fail to directly capture basin-specific characteristics. To address this limitation, the present study introduces a methodological framework for assessing circular water economy models within the WEFE Nexus, with an emphasis on sustainable water management at the basin scale. Within this framework, 52 alternative scenarios were developed, representing different configurations across agricultural, industrial, and urban sectors. The environmental performance of these scenarios was assessed using a climate related indicator: CO₂ emissions. Scenario outputs—such as volumes of reused water, treatment requirements, and alternative water sources—were quantified in terms of their associated CO₂ emissions to facilitate a consistent and meaningful comparison. This approach enables the identification of environmentally favourable circular water economy alternatives at the macro-basin scale, based on their emission-related impacts.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/118049

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Department of Environmental Engineering, Conference / Seminar