Ken Rubin Sun

Abstract Urban water supply systems are increasingly challenged by water scarcity, rising energy consumption, carbon emissions, and water pollution under rapid urbanization and climate change. Existing studies have mainly focused on optimizing individual objectives such as water allocation or energy efficiency, while limited attention has been paid to the coordinated optimization of the Water-Energy-Carbon-Pollution (WECP) nexus under uncertainty.

Erica is an educated, thirty-year old Swedish woman who works for a hi-tech firm in South Korea. Even though she lives far away from Sweden, she worries little about getting ill or how she’ll support herself when she retires. That’s because in addition to the social welfare protections she is entitled to as a Swede, she also receives health insurance, a pension, and paid sick leave from her workplace. Gimena’s experience stands in stark contrast.