WIRA: A platform for Water-centered Integrated Resource Assessment in Canada

水是加拿大经济的核心，因为它是多个经济部门的基本资源，也是娱乐活动和生态系统健康的基础。因此，可持续水资源管理对加拿大的社会经济安全至关重要。综合水资源管理（IWRM）是一种基于水资源可得性的水资源分配决策。然而，水资源综合管理在实施和对决策者的影响方面都是有限的。IWRM的使用和影响有限的两个主要原因是：(i) IWRM需要应用于河流流域，这与制定决策和政策的行政边界无关；（ii） IWRM隐含的假设是，水的可用性是水分配和分配决策的单一驱动力，然而，在由生产最大化活动驱动的经济中，社会对水、能源和食物（WEF）有多种需求。世界经济论坛的需求要求对世界经济论坛资源进行综合和同步的评估和管理（世界经济论坛联系），因此，首要问题是如何在现实和全面的背景下重新构建和解决水资源管理问题，以满足对世界经济论坛综合资源的社会需求。本研究计划的长期目标是发展以水为中心的综合资源评估（WIRA），使其成为加拿大综合资源评估的一个现实的、可被决策者采用的平台。虽然WIRA的范围是全国性的，但它最初将作为一个基于省或地区的工具开发，模拟水、能源和粮食的生产和消费，将自然系统与社会发展和基础设施相结合。WIRA最终将与全球食品和能源贸易模型相结合，将进口和出口纳入加拿大资源使用的评估。未来五年（2019-2024）的具体短期目标是：(i)为萨斯喀彻温省开发一个需求驱动的综合世界经济论坛联系模型。世界经济论坛- sask将成为WIRA平台的核心，在那里，三个部门之间的所有相互关系和反馈将首次在加拿大被感知和量化。随后，WEF-Sask将扩展到加拿大草原省份（阿尔伯塔省、萨斯喀彻温省、马尼托巴省）作为一个单元（WEF-Prairie）；开发一种工具，评估和量化加拿大能源部门的水足迹，该模型与全球能源贸易模型相结合，以评估加拿大以能源形式的水的出口和进口。本研究将有助于评估世界经济论坛网络的可持续性和利用效率，以及对经济和环境的影响。所提出的研究的主要创新方面是(i)将加拿大世界经济论坛模型与全球食品和能源贸易联系起来，以及（ii）成为一个现实的、明确整合的资源需求驱动模型。

Water is central to the Canadian economy as it is a fundamental resource for multiple economic sectors, as well as for recreational activities and ecosystem health. Therefore, sustainable water resource management is important for Canadian socioeconomic security. Integrated water resources management (IWRM) has been proposed for making decisions on water allocation to different users based on the availability of water resources. However, IWRM is limited in terms of both implementation and influence on policy makers. The two main reasons for its limited use and influence are (i) the need for IWRM to be applied to a river basin, which is irrelevant to administrative boundaries where decisions and policies are made and (ii) the implicit assumption in IWRM that water availability is the single driving force for water allocation and distribution decisions, yet society has multiple needs for water, energy, and food (WEF) in an economy driven by production maximization activities. The WEF needs dictate an integrated and simultaneous assessment and management of WEF resources (the WEF nexus) and, thus, the overarching question is how to reframe and solve the water resource management problem in a realistic and comprehensive context that addresses the societal needs for integrated WEF resources. The long-term objective of this research program is to develop water-centered integrated resource assessment (WIRA) as a realistic, and adoptable by policy makers, platform for integrated resource assessment in Canada. Although national in scope, WIRA will be initially developed as a province- or territory- based tool that simulates water, energy, and food production and consumption, integrating natural systems with societal development and infrastructure. WIRA will eventually be coupled with global food and energy trade models to include imports and exports into the assessment of Canadian resource use. Specific short-term objectives for the next five years (2019-2024) are: (i) To develop an integrated demand-driven WEF nexus model for the province of Saskatchewan. WEF-Sask will be the nucleus of the WIRA platform, where all of the inter-relationships and feedbacks among the three sectors will be perceived and quantified for the first time in Canada. Subsequently, WEF-Sask will be expanded to cover the Canadian Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba) as one unit (WEF-Prairie); and (ii) To develop a tool to assess and quantify the water footprint of the energy sector in Canada with the model interfacing with global models of energy trade to assess Canada's exports and imports of water in the form of energy. This research will help evaluate the sustainability and use efficiency of WEF nexus, along with impacts on the economy and environment. The main innovative aspects of the proposed research are (i) linking the Canadian WEF model to the global food and energy trade, and (ii) being a realistic, explicitly integrated resource demand-driven model.