Water, Energy, and Carbon

The Water-Energy-Carbon Group conducts research on water, energy and carbon (greenhouse gases) flows through our society at various scales – technology, household, suburb, utility, industry, city, region, production systems and economy. We contribute to the design of more efficient cities and systems through metabolic analysis and benchmarking to inform policy.

We measure and model how settlements and systems consume water and energy, the inter-connections (nexus) between them, and the influence on costs, greenhouse gases (GHG) and environmental footprints. This helps us understand system efficiency and susceptibility to resource depletion in light of future pressures such as population growth and climate change. Some of our research also extends into the resource efficiency and environmental impacts of production systems, such as food supply chains and bio-production.

The Water-Energy-Carbon Group group, led by Professor Steven Kenway, conducts research and teaching regarding water, energy and greenhouse gas flows influenced by water in cities.

The group contributes to the design of more efficient cities and systems through metabolic analysis and benchmarking to inform policy. They measure and model how settlements and systems consume water and energy. By understanding and simulating the cause-and-effect impacts of changes to water systems on energy, and vice-versa, the group identifies how future pressures such as population growth and climate change will influence resources consumption together with strategies for combined efficiency - for example in the development of water security strategies. By studying water and energy together we can guide integrated water and energy planning, strategy, and policy to avoid unintended burden-shifting. The tools the group uses and builds include material flow analysis (MFA), water balance analysis, urban metabolism, environmental life cycle assessment (LCA), environmentally-extended input-output (IO) analysis, and spatially-linked data analysis (GIS).

​The group is highly engaged with industry. This includes research with the Victorian Water Sector, Water Research Foundation (USA), and United States Utilities and government agencies, Asian Development Bank, CRC Water Sensitive Cities and their partners, and others.

Group Contact

Professor Steven Kenway
Professor Australian Centre for Water and Environmental Biotechnology
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology 
s.kenway@uq.edu.au,  +61 7 336 54170

Contact us

If you would like to know more about past projects in the area, please contact us.