Water and energy futures for Melbourne: implications of
land use, water use, and water supply strategy
S. J. Kenway, G. M. Turner, S. Cook and T. Baynes
ABSTRACT
This paper quantifies the effect of three policy levels on the water and energy futures of Melbourne,
Australia. During a time of severe water shortages attributed to climate change, water strategies
lacked consideration of energy consequences. Modeling, guided by urban metabolism theory,
demonstrated that a compact urban form, reduced water consumption by 90 GL/a, compared with a
sprawling city, and had greater water conservation impact than simulated demand management
measures. Household water conservation, coupled with increased use of solar hot water systems,
reduced grid energy use by some 30 PJ/a. Desalination, tripled water supply energy demand, growing
to a total of 4.5 PJ/a, by 2045. While the increase is less than 1% of total Melbourne urban energy use,
it contributes to a substantial increase in the energy bill for urban water provision. Importantly, the
energy impact could be offset through demand management measures. Recommendations for the
combined management of water and energy include improving energy characterization of the urban
water cycle; impact-evaluation of regional plans; using total urban water and energy balances in
analysis to provide context; and developing reporting mechanisms and indicators to help improve
baseline data across the water and energy systems.
S. J. Kenway (corresponding author)
The University of Queensland,
Advanced Water Management Centre,
Gehrmann Building,
Research Road,
St Lucia, Brisbane,
Australia
E-mail: s.kenway@uq.edu.au
G. M. Turner
CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences,
Clunies Ross St,
Black Mountain, Canberra, ACT, 2601,
Australia
S. Cook
CSIRO Land and Water,
Highett, Melbourne 3190,
Australia
T. Baynes
CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences,
14 Julius Ave North Ryde, NSW 2113,
Australia
Key words | energy, future cities, land use, urban metabolism, water
INTRODUCTION
Between 2002 and 2009, many Australian cities faced an
extended period of below average rainfall leading to cri-
tically low water storage levels. Future projections of
climate change suggest exacerbated severity of dry
periods (Howe et al. ; Jones & Durack ), with
up to a 25% reduction in catchment inflows for some
cities (WSAA ). Australian cities have responded to
this period of water stress by developing strategic water
plans that have the purpose of providing water security
in the face of uncertain rainfall and inflows, and
increasing demand being driven by population growth
(Rijke et al. ). Strategic water plans were
underpinned by the adoption of rainfall independent
water sources, most significantly desalination of seawater
by reverse osmosis, together with a focus on water
efficiency measures and demand reduction (Donald &
Seeger ).
However, the development of water plans gave rela-
tively little consideration to the energy implications of
adaption strategies. Australia had not ratified the Kyoto Pro-
tocol at the time and had no firm long-term greenhouse gas
mitigation target. It was not easy, or even possible, to see
how the actions of ‘solving’ one problem in the system
(such as water), could lead to influences elsewhere (such
as energy). The influence of longer-term processes such as
land use planning or urban form were even further from
the discussion, as was the energy implications of water con-
servation. Since 2007, the rapid anticipated growth of
energy demand for urban water provision in Australia, due
to adoption of rainfall independent water sources, has
become increasingly clear (Kenway et al. b; Chanan
et al. ; Hall et al. ). It has been identified that as
water and energy are intrinsically connected, there is need
to develop complementary long-term strategies for water
163 © IWA Publishing 2014 Journal of Water and Climate Change | 05.2 | 2014
doi: 10.2166/wcc.2013.188
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