Integrated energy-water-land (EWL) planning promotes synergies and avoids conflicts in ways that sector-specific planning approaches cannot. Many important decisions that influence emerging EWL nexus issues are implemented at regional (e.g., large river basin, electricity grid) and sub-regional (e.g., small river basin, irrigation district) scales. However, actual implementation of integrated planning at these scales has been limited. Simply collecting and visualizing data and interconnections across multiple sectors and sub-regions in a single modeling platform is a unique endeavor in many regions. This study introduces and applies a novel approach to linking together multiple sub-regions in a single platform to characterize and visualize EWL resource use, EWL system linkages within and among sub-regions, and the EWL nexus implications of future policies and investments. This integrated planning methodology is applied in the water-stressed Colorado River Basin in Argentina, which is facing increasing demands for agricultural and fossil fuel commodities. Guided by stakeholders, this study seeks to inform basin planning activities by characterizing and visualizing (1) the basin’s current state of EWL resources, (2) the linkages between sectors within and among basin sub-regions, and (3) the EWL nexus implications of planned future agricultural development activities. Results show that water scarcity, driven in part by human demands that have historically reached 60% of total surface water supply, poses a substantial constraint to economic development in the basin. The Colorado basin has the potential to serve as a testbed for crafting novel and generalizable sub-regional EWL planning approaches capable of informing the EWL planning dialogue globally.

能源-水-土地 (EWL) 综合规划以特定部门规划方法无法实现的方式促进协同作用并避免冲突。许多影响新出现的 EWL 关系问题的重要决策是在区域（例如，大流域、电网）和次区域（例如，小流域、灌区）尺度上实施的。然而，这些规模的综合规划的实际实施受到了限制。在单个建模平台中简单地收集和可视化跨多个部门和子区域的数据和互连是许多地区的一项独特努力。本研究介绍并应用了一种新方法，将单个平台中的多个子区域连接在一起，以表征和可视化 EWL 资源使用、子区域内和子区域之间的 EWL 系统链接，以及未来政策和投资的 EWL 关系影响。这种综合规划方法应用于阿根廷水资源紧张的科罗拉多河流域，该地区正面临对农业和化石燃料商品日益增长的需求。在利益相关者的指导下，本研究旨在通过表征和可视化 (1) 流域 EWL 资源的当前状态，(2) 流域子区域内部和之间部门之间的联系，以及 (3) EWL 关系的影响来为流域规划活动提供信息计划的未来农业发展活动。结果表明，部分由人类需求驱动的水资源短缺，在历史上已达到总地表水供应的 60%，严重制约了流域的经济发展。