A new systematic design methodology has been developed for the simultaneous management of energy and water systems that also feature maximum re-use of water. A two-dimensional grid diagram is proposed to exploit different options within water systems and also enable reduced complexity of the energy and water network. Isothermal and non-isothermal stream mixing between water streams are introduced to create separate systems between hot and cold water streams in the energy composite curves and provide a design basis for a better structure with fewer units for the heat exchanger network. In addition to allowing re-use of water, issues about heat losses inside unit operations have also been incorporated in the simultaneous management of water and energy. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.