The Urban Water-Energy Nexus: Building Resilience for Global Change in the Urban Century

This research paper outlines the critical role of the water-energy nexus in urban planning, highlighting how urbanization, climate change, and economic globalization create pressures that require resilience-based management and further research into waste and resource recovery.

• Water and energy are identified as the central resources for urban planning when using a nexus framework, primarily due to their inherent resource attributes and the extensive infrastructure systems used for their distribution, transport, sourcing, and waste recovery.
• Urbanization influences the water-energy nexus through four specific drivers: the concentration of demographics and political/economic power, a dependency on infrastructure, the impact of global change forces, and distinct social vulnerabilities found in urban environments.
• Cities are under increasing pressure from economic globalization and climate change, necessitating the use of resilience as a guiding principle for urban management and planning across multiple scales to enhance adaptive capacity.
• Current gaps in urban water-energy nexus research and practice necessitate a more robust analysis of resource recovery and waste, particularly concerning the limits and opportunities for efficiency gains.

APA

Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (2025). The Urban Water-Energy Nexus: Building Resilience for Global Change in the Urban Century. https://iai.int/es/pub_acad/the-urban-water-energy-nexus-building-resilience-for-global-change-in-the-urban-century-book-chapter/

Chicago

Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research. The Urban Water-Energy Nexus: Building Resilience for Global Change in the Urban Century. 2025. https://iai.int/es/pub_acad/the-urban-water-energy-nexus-building-resilience-for-global-change-in-the-urban-century-book-chapter/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research |title=The Urban Water-Energy Nexus: Building Resilience for Global Change in the Urban Century |date=13 January 2025 |url=https://iai.int/es/pub_acad/the-urban-water-energy-nexus-building-resilience-for-global-change-in-the-urban-century-book-chapter/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{interamericaninstituteforglobalchangeresearch2025urban, author = {{Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research}}, title = {{The Urban Water-Energy Nexus: Building Resilience for Global Change in the Urban Century}}, institution = {Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research}, year = {2025}, month = jan, url = {https://iai.int/es/pub_acad/the-urban-water-energy-nexus-building-resilience-for-global-change-in-the-urban-century-book-chapter/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }