Sense of Place and Perceived Impacts in the Rural Industrialized Nexus: Insights for Sustainability Pathways.

As representative of the water-energy-food nexus, fossil fuel development and industrial agriculture are rural industries that continue to expand and increasingly occur in the same areas. Being a top agricultural export county and the fossil fuel capital of California while ranking among the worst in the US for industrial pollution, Kern County is a poster child of rural nexus development and, thus, an essential place for initiating sustainability transitions. Such transitions rely on policy support and the adoption of methods by individuals and communities who may disagree with such changes. While sense of place and impact perceptions are recognized as playing critical roles in sustainability management, they have yet to be utilized in nexus research. A survey (N = 256) of the perceived impacts of nexus industries with place meaning and place attachment as possible drivers for perceptions was conducted in nexus industry pollution exposure risk zones. Factor analysis and bivariate correlations showed that place meaning and place attachment are drivers for perceptions while also being drivers for concern for changes in nexus industries. While perceptions of impacts indicated contested place meanings, participants strongly perceive the economy and environment as being in decline. To build support for sustainability policy, directing funds from Kern County's renewable energy industry to local sectors of society, implementation of regenerative agriculture, cooperative management, and nurturing place meaning as aligned with nature's restorative quality are important paths forward. These nexus management foci could strengthen place attachment, build trust in government, and repair environmental alienation.

Stress-testing development pathways under a changing climate: water-energy-food security in the lake Malawi-Shire river system.

Malawi depends on Lake Malawi outflows into the Shire River for its water, energy and food (WEF) security. We explore future WEF security risks under the combined impacts of climate change and ambitious development pathways for water use expansion. We drive a bespoke water resources model developed with stakeholder inputs, with 29 bias-corrected climate model projections, alongside stakeholder elicited development pathways, and examine impacts on stakeholder-elicited WEF sector performance metrics. Using scenario analysis, we stress-test the system, explore uncertainties, assess trade-offs between satisfying WEF metrics, and explore whether planned regulation of outflows could help satisfy metrics. While uncertainty from potential future rainfall change generates a wide range of outcomes (including no lake outflow and higher frequency of major downstream floods), we find that potential irrigation expansion in the Lake Malawi catchments could enhance the risk of very low lake levels and risk to Shire River hydropower and irrigation infrastructure performance. Improved regulation of lake outflows through the upgraded barrage does offer some risk mitigation, but trade-offs emerge between lake level management and downstream WEF sector requirements. These results highlight the need to balance Malawi's socio-economic development ambitions across sectors and within a lake-river system, alongside enhanced climate resilience. This article is part of the theme issue 'Developing resilient energy systems'.

A nexus approach engaging water rights transfer for addressing water scarcity in energy and food production under uncertainty.

Water rights transfer is significantly required for alleviating the ever-intensive water crisis, particularly for arid watersheds with abundant farmland and fossil fuels. However, focusing solely on the re-allocation of water rights and disregarding agricultural water saving potential imperil the security of Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus. Furthermore, randomness in water availability leads to water shortage risks and subsequent impact on the whole system. In this study, a risk-based optimization model (RWEF) was proposed to promote inter-sectoral water rights transfer through encouraging energy sector to invest in agricultural water-saving works and get paid back in water rights. Chance-constrained programming is incorporated to analyze the trade-offs between system benefits and water-shortage risks. The developed model was applied to the Inner Mongolia section of the Yellow River Basin, China to verify its effectiveness, considering different development levels of food and energy industries. Results indicated that 488 million m3 of water could be transformed from agriculture to energy, without compromising agricultural production. The main recipients of transferred water rights would be traditional coal-based industries, while it would be difficult for thermal power and most modern coal chemical industries to participate. The construction of water-saving works would help safeguard agricultural production under risks. Compared against two alternative models without water rights transfer mechanism, the average benefit acquired from RWEF under varied water-shortage risks would be at least 68% higher. Particularly, when confronted with extreme water-shortage risk and increased production demands, RWEF would still be able to support agricultural and energy production, while the alternative models being incapable.

A systematic approach for assessing water, energy and food security during the COVID-19 pandemic: case study of Mexico.

Assessing the security of the water-energy-food nexus is a topic of great importance, which allows determining the situation of each resource to implement actions for sustainable management of these resources in today's society. For this reason, a systematic procedure is proposed to evaluate the synergies of the water-energy-food nexus in a large region that is divided into subregions that allow considering their interactions. The new procedure considers the availability, accessibility and regional interdependence of resources while annexing economic and social aspects. A composite index called the WEF Global Index is developed, which involves the WEF nexus index and has nine indicators that evaluate the availability, accessibility and regional interdependence of each resource in the water-energy-food nexus. This new index considers the Gross Domestic Product per capita and the involved population. As a case study, the 32 states of Mexico were considered to assess the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy and the security of the water-energy-food nexus at the state level. For this, the composite index was evaluated in the years 2019 and 2020. The results show that from 2019 to 2020, the value of the global index increased in 13 states, in 21 states the security index of the WEF nexus increased, and in 9 states the GDP per capita index increased. On the other hand, the results indicate that in 11 states there was no improvement in the nexus security index due to the increase in water demand, which considerably affected the water availability indicator. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10668-022-02671-2.

Assessment of the water-energy-food nexus under spatial and social complexities: A case study of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao.

Water, energy, and food resources are indispensable and irreplaceable resources for the survival and development of human society. This study systematically assessed the three resources system in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao based on constructed direct and nexus-oriented, multi-regional input-output, and ecological network analysis models. Various network analysis (e.g., control, utility, hierarchy, and robustness) was adopted to identify the critical factors of inter-regional resources trade from a perspective of supply-demand. The results indicated that Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao have complex control linkages in the three resources trade network, and Guangdong is the key to improving the three resources network structure. The three resources network existed highly competition and exploitation in the three regions. Industrial development is unbalanced and competitive for the three resources. The wholeness water-energy-food trade network of the three regions stayed in a positive environment, but the positive effect level was relatively weak. The three resources network robustness in the three regions is at a medium level. Hong Kong and Macao's water-energy-food network systems have a high vulnerability, and the lowest system robustness was food-related energy in Hong Kong. Finally, we provide some measures to help the sustainable development of the water-energy-food resource system in the three regions, such as cross-regional coordinated management, integration industries development, seawater toilets-flushing, sea rice, and renewable energy.

The nexus of water-energy-food in China's tourism industry.

The tourism industry contributes significantly to the growth of the global economy and is considered to be strongly associated with a large amounts of water and energy consumption. In this study, the tourism water footprint (TWF) and the tourism energy footprint (TEF) of 138 sectors were investigated to examine the water-energy-food (W-E-F) nexus in the Chinese tourism industry from 2012 to 2017 by developing the water- and energy-based environmentally extended input-output analysis with the tourism satellite account. This study revealed that the W-E-F supply groups consumed total 15,556 million m3 of water and 4,964 million tce of energy to support the Chinese tourism industry. The largest contributor to the total TWF is the indirect water use from the food supply group (65%), while the largest proportion of total TEF is contributed by the direct energy use from 11 tourism direct sectors (63%), most especially the air transport sector. A much larger growth of the tourism industry was observed in 2017 compared to that of 2012. The structure decomposition analysis revealed that the growth of the overall water and energy consumption of China tourism is mainly driven by the growth of the total tourism expenditure, i.e. the scale effect. It is the same case for the food supply group associated with the Chinese tourism industry. In contrast, the contribution of the changes to the tourism expenditure composition is relatively low. Furthermore, the growth in water and energy consumption can be offset effectively by reducing the water and energy use coefficient and adjusting the economic production structure of tourism and its associated food supply group. In sum, the food supply and air transport sectors play a crucial role in the water-energy-food nexus of the tourism industry. Therefore, in the future, focus should be placed on improving the water and energy use efficiency of these sectors as well as enhancing their production structures.

Four Cultural Narratives for Managing Social-ecological Complexity in Public Natural Resource Management.

Public Natural Resource Management (NRM) agencies operate in complex social-ecological domains. These complexities proliferate unpredictably therefore investigating and supporting the ability of public agencies to respond effectively is increasingly important. However, understanding how public NRM agencies innovate and restructure to negotiate the range of particular complexities they face is an under researched field. One particular conceptualisation of the social-ecological complexities facing NRM agencies that is of growing influence is the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus. Yet, as a tool to frame and understand those complexities it has limitations. Specifically, it overlooks how NRMs respond institutionally to these social-ecological complexities in the context of economic and organisational challenges-thus creating a gap in the literature. Current debates in public administration can be brought to bear here. Using an organisational cultures approach, this paper reports on a case study with a national NRM agency to investigate how they are attempting to transform institutionally to respond to complexity in challenging times. The research involved 12 elite interviews with senior leaders from Natural Resources Wales, (NRW) and investigated how cultural narratives are being explicitly and implicitly constructed and mobilised to this end. The research identified four distinct and sequential cultural narratives: collaboration, communication, trust, and empowerment where each narrative supported the delivery of different dimensions of NRW's social-ecological complexity mandate. Counter to the current managerialist approaches in public administration, these results suggest that the empowerment of expert bureaucrats is important in responding effectively to complexity.

Learning from integrated management approaches to implement the Nexus.

In the 1990s, the emergence of Integrated Management Approaches to water, land and waste established a widely accepted understanding on integration of environmental systems. Nexus Approaches try to often build on these. This paper assesses i) the intended goals and features of three Integrated Management Approaches (Integrated Natural Resources Management - INRM, Integrated Water Resources Management - IWRM and Integrated Solid Waste Management - ISWM) and two Nexus Approaches (Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus and Water-Soil-Waste (WSW) Nexus), and ii) how target systems and their integration are viewed in each of the Integrated Management Approaches. From this we assess commonalities and some lessons-learned for the Nexus. The method is based on a systematic literature review and a document analysis. From 1652 articles 52 peer reviewed papers were analysed. The results show that in terms of goals the Nexus Approaches are very similar to Integrated Management Approaches with the addition of clearly wanting to address governance and policy aspects e.g. in the WEF Nexus. Nexus Approaches try to move away from a single-resource centric view (e.g. WSW Nexus) and intend to go beyond resources towards sectors (e.g. WEF Nexus). It cannot be confirmed, that integration is clearly addressed in the analysed Integrated Management Approaches and what integration means is hardly defined. To provide some clarity for Nexus Approaches we propose a concept to describe integration by using "categories of integration" and the term "aspect" which includes systems, subsystems and other aspects alike.

Energising the WEF nexus to enhance sustainable development at local level.

The water-energy-food (WEF) nexus is increasingly recognised as a conceptual framework able to support the efficient implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Despite growing attention paid to the WEF nexus, the role that renewable energies can play in addressing trade-offs and realising synergies has received limited attention. Until now, the focus of WEF nexus discussions and applications has mainly been on national or global levels, macro-level drivers, material flows and large infrastructure developments. This overlooks the fact that major nexus challenges are faced at local level. Aiming to address these knowledge gaps, the authors conduct a systematic analysis of the linkages between small-scale energy projects in developing countries and the food and water aspects of development. The analysis is based on empirical data from continuous process and impact evaluations complemented by secondary data and relevant literature. The study provides initial insights into how to identify interconnections and the potential benefits of integrating the nexus pillars into local level projects in the global south. The study identifies the complex links which exist between sustainable energy projects and the food and water sectors and highlights that these needs are currently not systematically integrated into project design or project evaluation. A more systematic approach, integrating the water and food pillars into energy planning at local level in the global south, is recommended to avoid trade-offs and enhance the development outcomes and impacts of energy projects.

Developing meaningful water-energy-food-environment (WEFE) nexus indicators with stakeholders: An Upper White Nile case study.

The Upper White Nile (UWN) basin plays a critical role in supporting essential ecosystem services and the livelihoods of millions of people in East Africa. The basin has been exposed to tremendous environmental pressures following high population growth, urbanisation, and land use change, all of which are compounded by the threats posed by climate change and insufficient financial and human resources. The water-energy-food-environment (WEFE) nexus provides a framework to assess solution options towards sustainable development by minimising the trade-offs between water, energy, and food resources. However, the majority of existing WEFE nexus indicators and tools tend to be developed without consideration of practitioners at the local level, thus constraining the practical application within real-world contexts. To try to address this gap and operationalise the WEFE nexus, we examined how local stakeholders frame the most pressing WEFE nexus challenges within the UWN basin, how these can be represented as indicators, and how existing WEFE nexus modelling tools could address this. The findings highlight the importance of declining water quality and aquatic ecosystem health as a result of deforestation and increasing agricultural intensity, with stakeholders expressing concerns for the uncertain impacts from climate change. Furthermore, a review of current WEFE nexus modelling tools reveals how they tend to be insufficient in addressing the most pressing environmental challenges within the basin, with a significant gap regarding the inclusion of water quality and aquatic ecosystem indicators. Subsequently, these findings are combined in order to guide the development of WEFE nexus indicators that have the potential to spatially model the trade-offs within the WEFE nexus in the UWN basin under climate change scenarios. This work provides an example of how incorporating local stakeholder's values and concerns can contribute to the development of meaningful indicators, that are fit-for-purpose and respond to the actual local needs.

Analyzing spatio-temporal changes and trade-offs/synergies of gross ecosystem product based on water-energy-food nexus.

The value of the ecosystem's ultimate goods and services for human welfare and long-term economic and social development is known as the gross ecosystem product (GEP). For the study of GEP accounting, the suggested water-energy-food (WEF) nexus offers a fresh viewpoint. This work aims to build a GEP accounting index system based on WEF, investigate its spatio-temporal evolution characteristics, and assess trade-offs and synergies between and within the water, energy, and food subsystems. Using the Three Gorges Reservoir area (TGRA) as an illustration, the findings revealed that, firstly, the comprehensive benefit of GEP based on WEF showed an upward trend in TGRA. Still, it was worth noting that the total production of the food ecosystem decreased. Secondly, the GEP based on WEF in five periods showed a spatial pattern of "high east and west, low middle." Thirdly, the Pearson correlation coefficient indicated that the GEP trade-off relationships based on WEF were dominant in TGRA, with the strongest trade-offs between AQV, SCV, APV, and LEV. In addition, in bivariate local spatial autocorrelation, the value of the six ecosystem service function relationships was dominated by the trade-off relationship, and the distribution of trade-offs and synergies showed significant heterogeneity at the county scale in the TGRA. Finally, hot spot analysis showed that the hot spots of the gross water and energy ecosystem products were scattered in the tail area of the study area. In contrast, the hot spots of the gross food ecosystem product were concentrated in the belly region. The findings of this study provided a basis for the scientific formulation of territorial spatial pattern optimization for water, energy, and agricultural resources in the TGRA and can more accurately reflect the status of the ecological environment and changes of WEF over time. Moreover, this paper also gives full play to the growth advantages of shipping and aquatic products, implements effective soil erosion prevention and control measures, and establishes water-saving mechanisms and other measures in terms of water resources. Subregional plans for industrial structure and strengthening of waste gas and wastewater treatment facilities regarding energy resources are developed. Implement the cultivated land protection system and promote the superiority of crop varieties and other measures in terms of food resources.

An integrated framework for improving green agricultural production sustainability in human-natural systems.

Water scarcity, land pollution, and global warming are serious challenges and crises facing the development of sustainable or green agriculture and need to be addressed using efficient and environmentally friendly management strategies. This paper proposed an integrated framework appropriate for agricultural green total factor productivity (AGTFP) assessment coupled with microscopic and mesoscopic perspectives under water-energy-food (WEF) nexus, which generated scientific and reasonable strategies for green and low-carbon agriculture from internal core factors and peripheral environmental impacts to improve green agricultural production sustainability. Taking the Lianshui irrigation district (LID) with three sub-areas as the object, internal core factors were explored by partial least squares regression (PLSR) and the external impact path through partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Results indicated that AGTFP in LID was the smallest (0.818) compared to the three sub-areas and was in a fluctuating state. Meanwhile, AGTFP which was calculated considering undesirable outputs, was closer to tangible productivity. Resource endowments and technical facilities will promote agricultural production, desirable outputs will stimulate green production, and undesirable outputs can inhibit green production. The external influence pathway was shown to be primary environment - > secondary environment - > economic aspects - > social aspects - > AGTFP. The innovative perspectives presented in this study can facilitate preferable decisions and avoid unintended consequences for human-natural systems.

A review of limitations and potentials of desalination as a sustainable source of water.

For centuries, desalination, in one way or another, has helped alleviate water scarcity. Over time, desalination has gone through an evolutionary process influenced largely by available contemporary technology. This improvement, for the most part, was reflected in the energy efficiency and, in turn, in terms of the cost-effectiveness of this practice. Thanks to such advancements, by the 1960s, the desalination industry experienced notable exponential growth, becoming a formidable option to supplement conventional water resources with a reliable non-conventional resource. That said, often, there are pressing associated issues, most notably environmental, socioeconomic, health, and relatively recently, agronomic concerns. Such reservations raise the question of whether desalination is indeed a sustainable solution to current water supply problems. This is exceptionally important to understand in light of the looming water and food crises. This paper, thus, tends to review these potential issues from the sustainability perspective. It is concluded that the aforementioned issues are indeed major concerns, but they can be mitigated by actions that consider the local context. These may be either prophylactic, proactive measures that require careful planning to tailor the situation to best fit a given region or reactive measures such as incorporating pre- (e.g., removing particles, debris, microorganisms, suspended solids, and silt from the intake water prior to the desalination process) and post-treatments (e.g., reintroducing calcium and magnesium ions to water to enhance its quality for irrigation purposes) to target specific shortcomings of desalination.

System dynamics modelling to simulate regional water-energy-food nexus combined with the society-economy-environment system in Hunan Province, China.

Nexus approaches provide an efficient way to analyze the dynamic evolution of the water-energy-food nexus (WEFN), yet there is a need to close the science-policy divide by making simulation models more practically relevant. This study incorporates society, economy and environment systems (SEE) into the WEFN, simulating a broad environmental system. A system dynamics model is constructed to simulate and dynamically track the development of the WEF-SEE system in Hunan Province, China. The developed model is applied to assess WEF-SEE system trajectories from 2021 to 2035 against nine policy goals formulated by the Hunan Provincial Government. Baseline results suggest that Hunan Province will have a surplus of grain production and will be in a state of "self-sufficiency" in water resources. The energy security situation is not as optimistic, with imports being required to meet demand. The sustainable development of the WEF Nexus will be constrained by resource shortages. As the future development of Hunan Province outpaces environmental protection policies, water pollution and CO2 emissions and are expected to increase. Intra-system trade-offs and synergies under the impacts of different policies indicate that the implementation of an indicative policy has the intended impact within its particular subsystem, but may lead to trade-offs in other subsystems. Due to system interconnectedness, the simultaneous implementation of multiple policies may increase or hinder progress towards certain goals. For example, expanding planting area increases food production, but increase agricultural water demand and water pollutant discharge, counter to water security goal and environmental protection goals. Cross-system impacts must be considered when choosing policies. This study advances environmental system analysis and evaluation, and contributes to practical policy recommendations, providing useful insights for Hunan Province, especially considering potential trade-offs and synergies. Such information could lead to more effective, holistic environmental policy formulation.

Dynamic simulation of the water-energy-food nexus (WEFN) based on a new nexus in arid zone: A case study in Ningxia, China.

'Quantity-type' water shortages and 'quality-type' water shortages are important factors that constrain the security and coordinated development of regional water-energy-food nexus (WEFN) system, especially in arid areas where water is scarce. Therefore, it is of great significance to accurately identify the coupling and mutual feedback effects of the WEFN on different types of water resources demand. This information can be used to understand the regional WEFN and alleviate pressure on regional water resources. In this study, a new relationship diagram of the WEFN system was formed with the incorporation of the water footprint (WF), which can characterize a system's water demand, water source type, water pollution amount and pollution type. Based on this nexus, a WEFN system feedback model suitable for arid regions was established using the system dynamics approach. Taking Ningxia, China, as a case study, six future scenarios were designed, and the development trends of the WEFN system under different development scenarios were simulated to explore the impact of different policies on the WEFN. Finally, practical suggestions to promote the synergistic development of WEFN systems were proposed. The results indicate that the rational distinction between 'quantity-type' and 'quality-type' water resources can effectively alleviate the regional water stress and promote the coordinated development of water, energy and food. And the water security is the main factor that constrains the coordinated development of the WEFN system in Ningxia. Incorporating water environmental pollution policies into the water subsystem is necessary. Furthermore, the resource saving scenario and energy production restructuring adjustment scenario can effectively alleviate the energy security problems that has resulted from rapid economic development. In addition, Ningxia urgently needs to optimize its food production structure to address a continuous reduction in the food security index.

Assessment of sustainable agricultural development based on the water-energy-food nexus framework in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River, China.

Water, energy and food are inextricably linked in agricultural system. Social and environmental issues arising from socio-economic development pose new challenges for sustainable agricultural development. Achieving sustainable agriculture from the perspective of water, energy and food resource conservation is of critical importance to the national strategy for high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin in China. In this study, the mass productivity and economic productivity of water and energy in agricultural system were considered, and an integrated assessment index system for agricultural system based on the Water-Energy-Food Nexus (WEFN) was proposed in three dimensions: reliability, coordination and resilience. Based on these indicators, the agricultural water-energy-food nexus index (AWEFNI) and integrated risk index (IRI) were performed to assess the current status of agricultural development in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River. Results indicate that the AWEFNI in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River is increasing year by year, and the level of sustainable agricultural development is improving, but the overall level is lower. The AWEFNI values vary widely among provinces. The reliability of single subsystem in the study area accounts for more than 1/3 of the AWEFNI, with poor water endowment， rich food and energy resource endowments, the coordination of the AWEFN is weakening. The resilience of the third subsystem is gradually declining. The contradiction in water and energy supply and demand in Ningxia is the most prominent among the five provinces, and the level of AWEFN development is the lowest, so the regulation policies should be implemented as soon as possible to promote the synergistic development of AWEFN around the region.

The water-energy-food nexus: a systematic bibliometric analysis.

Adequate water, electricity, and food are essential for sustainable development. Regional conflicts intensified by global water, energy, and food shortages necessitate a rethinking of the security and interdependence of these resources. However, most earlier scholars concentrated on the subsystems of the water-energy-food nexus (WEF nexus), lacking holistic studies. Therefore, to understand the history and current state of research on the WEF nexus and predict future research directions, this study analyzed 1313 journal articles from the Web of Science database between 2007 and 2022 using the bibliometric analysis and Citespace software. The findings in this study indicate that (1) the progress of the WEF nexus research can be classified into three stages between 2007 and 2022: the early stage (2007-2010), the fast-developing stage (2011-2015), and the steady and in-depth stage (2016-2022). The WEF nexus has become a hot zone for academic research. (2) Map of the network of countries, institutions, and author collaborations implies tight academic collaboration among countries, institutions, and writers. (3) Climate change, integrated WEF nexus, sustainable development, and security are research hotspots in this field. Meanwhile, energy security, circular economy, and resource allocation are advanced subjects in this field. These key findings can provide managers and researchers with valuable information for decision-making.

Application of multi-objective genetic algorithm for optimal combination of resources to achieve sustainable agriculture based on the water-energy-food nexus framework.

Understanding the systemic approach and its potential for decision-making is important for resource management, especially in agriculture in which increasing food demands and environmental and social issues are the main challenges. Therefore, multiple-criteria decision-making methods have a vital role in the optimum combination of resources. Computational models are commonly used to assist resource management decision-making; however, while water-energy-food nexus (WEFN) are increasingly well modeled, the inclusion of social issues has lagged behind. This paper outlines a model based on a multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA) that conceptualizes and proceduralizes balancing the goals of sustainable agricultural development highlighting impacts and interactions between social variables and the WEFN index in agriculture. The model was developed using a bottom-up approach, informed through farmer interviews, and secondary data in the Miandarband plain, west Iran. The Compromise Programming (CP) method, which is widely used to solve MOGA models, was applied to optimization algorithms in three-dimensional spaces. The model represents field conditions and provides a tool for policymakers and sustainable resource management. The modeling framework applied to the study area for the comparison of WFEN, life cycle assessment (LCA), and social dimension in current and optimum cultivation patterns. The proposed optimal cultivation pattern in minimum CP will reduce water and energy consumption by 2.56 % and 12.71 % while reducing environmental impacts by 6.82 %, and it will improve the social status of farmers. Results suggest that changes in the basic elements of objective functions will lead to a balance between cultivation patterns that depends on policies and socio-economic conditions. Moreover, proposed cultivation patterns may be sustainable but their viability varies across the periods and also in different human ecologies. However, by analyzing the feedback of the model and interactions between different dimensions, this work highlights that policymakers can decide sustainable agriculture how should be occur by comparing different solutions.

Evaluating supply-demand matching of ecosystem services considering water-energy-food nexus and synergies/trade-offs in the Hangzhou of China.

The proposal of water-energy-food nexus provides a new perspective for the supply-demand matching assessment of ecosystem services (ESs). This study aims to evaluate quantitative and spatial matching of supply-demand of ESs considering water-energy-food nexus, and to analyze the synergies/trade-offs between ESs. By taking Hangzhou as a case study, the results showed that supply-demand matching degrees of ESs related to water-energy-food nexus in Hangzhou were all less than zero during the study period, indicating that the supply of ESs in Hangzhou could not meet the local demand. Among them, the gap between supply and demand of water yield gradually narrowed, while the gap between supply and demand of carbon storage/food production gradually widened. From the perspective of supply-demand spatial matching, water yield/food production was dominated by low-low spatial matching area, showing an expanding trend. Carbon storage was mainly characterized by high-low spatial mismatching area, presenting a stable trend. In addition, there were significant synergistic effects between ESs related to water-energy-food nexus. Therefore, this study proposed some supply-demand management policies of ESs from the perspective of water-energy-food nexus to promote the sustainable development of ecosystems and natural resources.