Optimization of Water Grid at Macroscopic Level Analyzing Water-Energy-Food Nexus Ramó n Gonza ́ lez-Bravo, † Mayra Sauceda-Valenzuela, ‡ Jü rgen Mahlknecht, † Eusiel Rubio-Castro, § and Jose ́ María Ponce-Ortega* ,‡ † Escuela de Ingeniería y Ciencias, Tecnoló gico de Monterrey, Av. Eugenio Garza Sada Sur No. 2501, Monterrey, Nuevo Leó n 64849, Mé xico ‡ Chemical Engineering Department, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolá s de Hidalgo, Francisco J. Mú jica S/N, Ciudad Universitaria, Edificio V1, Morelia, Michoacá n 58060, Mé xico § Chemical and Biological Sciences Department, Universidad Autonó ma de Sinaloa, Av. de las Amé ricas S/N, Culiacan, Sinaloa 80000, Mé xico ABSTRACT: Water, energy, and food are essential for human well-being and for sustainable development. Water is required in almost all types of electricity generation and it is highly con- sumed in food production. Cities, industry, and crop production have increased their needs for water, energy and land resources, and at the same time, they are facing problems associated with the environmental degradation and, in some regions, resource scarcity. This paper proposes a multiobjective optimization model for the design of a water distribution network from a water- energy-food nexus point of view. Additionally, crop production and cost relationships are integrated to account for the water and energy requirements in the agricultural sector. The economic objec- tive is the maximization of annual gross profit, which accounts for the water, energy and food production; the environmental objec- tive establishes the minimization of overall greenhouse gas emissions, and the social objective is the maximization of the number of jobs. In this paper, because the objectives are opposites, a multistakeholder assessment is proposed in order to analyze and quantify the relationship of the water-energy-food nexus to assess synergies that improve the decision-making process. The mathematical model was applied to a case study located in the Sonoran Desert in Mexico, in which, a series of scenarios were solved to illustrate the capabilities of the proposed optimization approach. The results show strong trade-offs between the considered objectives as well as the quantification of the water-energy-food nexus. KEYWORDS: Optimization, Water distribution, Water-energy-food nexus, Multistakeholders ■ INTRODUCTION Population growth, globalization, increased water, energy, and food needs all exert increasing pressures on natural resources. Current development requires to be met in a sustainable manner, without compromising the ecosystem services. Nowadays, the majority of the world regions suffers from some kind of scarcity and this situation will deteriorate on a larger scale in the future years. 1 The fulfillment of these demands will be a great challenge due to the accelerated growth of population, econo- mic development, urbanization and the effects of climate change. 2 In this sense, population and economic growth represent the main challenges to ensure enough water, energy, and food to meet the demand at the regional, national, and global levels. 3 Therefore, developing countries face a difficult challenge to meet the growing demands of food, water, and energy, which is aggra- vated by climate change seeking global development goals such as food security, availability of water supply, and sustainability in the use of energy for the entire population. 4 The water-energy-food concept is relatively new. It embodies the idea that the production and consumption chain of water, energy, and food resources are completely interrelated. 5,6 There are several sectors affected and related to this notion, such as industry, agriculture, and society. 7 For example, agriculture is the largest consumer of freshwater resources in the world and more than a quarter of the energy used worldwide on the produc- tion and supply of food. The complex links between these critical domains require an integrated approach to guarantee water, food security, sustainable agriculture, and energy production throughout the world. 8 The main purpose of the Water-Energy- Food nexus (WEF nexus) seeks to understand the links, depen- dencies, and compensations associated with each sector. 9 Hence, the WEF nexus is being promoted as a conceptual tool to Received: May 29, 2018 Revised: July 20, 2018 Published: August 10, 2018 Research Article pubs.acs.org/journal/ascecg Cite This: ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2018, 6, 12140-12152 © 2018 American Chemical Society 12140 DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.8b02484 ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2018, 6, 12140-12152 Downloaded via ITESM on September 26, 2018 at 20:52:49 (UTC). See https://pubs.acs.org/sharingguidelines for options on how to legitimately share published articles.