Multisector Dynamics: Energy-Water-Land Systems and the Role of Digital Technology, Computing, and AI Data Centers

Session ID#: 282901

Session Description:
Energy-water-land (EWL) systems manifest deeply interconnected complex dynamics that shape human-Earth systems across scales and are increasingly transformed by rapid technological change. This session focuses on how emerging and rapidly scaling technologies are reshaping these dynamics. Expansion of AI, data centers, and digital infrastructure is driving unprecedented demand for electricity, cooling water, land, chips, and critical minerals, while simultaneously transforming labor markets, urban systems, and investment flows. Understanding these transformations requires integrated frameworks that capture cross-sector feedbacks, teleconnections, forward-looking vulnerabilities, and deep uncertainties. We invite contributions, including but not limited to drivers of digital transformation; high-fidelity cross-sector digital and computing infrastructure (e.g., across hardware, workloads, sectoral footprints, siting, metrics, etc.); and impacts across economic, labor, material, and EWL sectors, among other aspects that illuminate how technology shapes risks, opportunities, and pathways across energy-water-land systems. Submissions on broader EWL system dynamics or on non-technological drivers of energy-water-land change are also welcome.
Co-Sponsor(s):
  • ED - Education
  • H - Hydrology
  • IN - Informatics
  • SY - Science and Society
Index Terms:

1630 Impacts of global change [GLOBAL CHANGE]
1655 Water cycles [GLOBAL CHANGE]
1878 Water/energy interactions [HYDROLOGY]
1920 Emerging informatics technologies [INFORMATICS]
Primary Convener:  Hassan Niazi, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Joint Global Change Research Institute, Richland, WA, United States
Conveners:  Thomas Bernard Wild, Joint Global Change Research Institute, College Park, United States, David L. McCollum, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, United States and Muhammad Awais, IIASA International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria