Coupling coordinated development of the food-energy-water nexus and its relationship with landscape ecological security in China from a regional perspective

Abstract

Closely related to each other, food, energy, and water (FEW) restrict regional sustainable development as three basic needs for human survival. It is of great significance but rare to evaluate the long-term coordinated development of the FEW nexus in developing countries facing dual pressures of resources and population. By selecting 24 indicators from supply, demand, and ecology dimensions to construct an evaluation system of FEW security, we evaluated and predicted the coupling coordinated development of the FEW nexus in China from a regional perspective from 2002 to 2022. Moreover, based on multi-temporal land use data, the correlation between regional landscape ecological risk index (LER) and coupling coordination degree of the FEW nexus (D) was first quantified and analyzed. Results indicate that the interconnections of FEW systems were extremely strong with the coupling degree exceeding 0.92 in China from 2002 to 2017. With a substantial increase of 58.28% in the integrated evaluation index of the FEW nexus, China’s D increased from 0.66 in 2002 to 0.83 in 2017 and would continue to increase over the next five years according to the predictions of damping trend exponential smoothing method. There were obvious regional differences in both the temporal variation characteristics and the average level of the FEW nexus in China, as the mean value of D was the lowest in the east (0.66) and the highest in the west (0.69). However, a significant negative correlation with both direct and indirect aspects between LER and D was found in all three regions (Spearman’s rho ≤  − 0.609). Accordingly, more attention to the regional difference in the FEW nexus, enhanced interdepartmental cooperation and improved efficiency in resource supply–demand, as well as stable economic development and controlled population pressures are suggested for the comprehensive management of FEW resources in China.

Keywords

Food-energy-water nexus / Comprehensive evaluation system / Coupling coordination degree / Landscape ecological security / Regional difference / China

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Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China(41625001)