Access to food, water, and good air quality is indispensable for human life, as reflected in various United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); however, pursuing food security may pose threats to water security and/or air quality. An important case is northwest India including the Punjab and Haryana states, which is the ‘breadbasket’ of India with a significantly increasing paddy rice area. The rapid expansion of rice farming has stressed groundwater resources and impacted air quality. Satellite observations have the potential to provide data for better decisions on food security, water storage, and air pollution, which would be vital for regional sustainable development. Based on observations from multiple satellites from 2001 to 2018, we found that paddy rice expansion (+22%) increased groundwater depletion (−1.50 cm/yr), residue burning (+500%), and air pollution (+29%, PM2.5) in the breadbasket of India. Moreover, satellite observations showed changes in these interactions after the enactment of a groundwater protection policy in 2009, which decelerated groundwater depletion (−1.20 cm/yr) due to delayed rice planting and harvest dates (∼15d); the latter elevated air pollution in November (+29%, PM2.5). Our finding stresses the need to reconcile the trade-offs and consider the interactions among SDGs 2 (food), 3 (good health), 6 (clean water), and 11 (air quality in cities), in policy-making for sustainable development. An efficient crop residue ultilization and management system, bottom-up groundwater use regulations, and cropping system shift towards less water-consuming crops are critically required to resolve the trade-offs of the food-water–air quality nexus in the northern India. Our study also showcases remote sensing approaches and methods to support and aid the achievement of the SDGs and track their progreses to support regional sustainable development.

Pharmaceutical and food pollutants have threatened global health. Pharmacotherapy has left a positive impression in the field of health and life of people and animals. However, the many unresolved problems brought along with residues of pharmaceuticals in the environmental and food. Consumption of the world's freshwater resources, toxic chemicals, air pollution, plastic waste directly affects water and soil resources. Pesticides have a wide role in pollutants. Therefore, the determination of pesticides is significant to eliminate their negative effects on living things. Nowadays, there are many analytical methods available. However, new analysis methods are still being researched due to certain limitations of traditional methods. Electrochemical sensors have drawn attention because of their superior properties, such as short analysis time, affordability, high sensitivity, and selectivity. The development of new analytical strategies for assessing risks from pharmaceutical to food pollutants in water and soil sources is important for the measurement of different pollutants. Moreover, the 2D-carbon nanomaterials used in the development of electrochemical sensors are widely utilized to enlarge the surface area, increase porosity, and make easy immobilization. Graphene (graphene derivations) and carbon nanotubes integrated nanosensors are widely used for the determination of pesticides. 2D-carbon nanomaterials can be tailored according to the purpose of the study. The characterization and synthesis methods of 2D-carbon nanomaterials are widely explained. Furthermore, enzyme nanobiosensors, especially Acetylcholinesterase (AChE), are widely used to determine pesticides. The three main topics are focused on in this review: 2D-carbon nanomaterials, pesticides that threaten life, and the application of 2D-carbon nanomaterials-based electrochemical sensors. The various developed 2D-carbon nanomaterials-based electrochemical sensors were applied in pharmaceutical forms, fruits, tap/lake water, beverages, and soils sources. This work aims to indicate the recently published paper related to pesticide analysis and highlight the importance of 2D-nanomaterials on sensors.

Increased natural and anthropogenic stresses have threatened the Earth's ability to meet growing human demands of food, energy and water (FEW) in a sustainable way. Although much progress has been made in the provision of individual component of FEW, it remains unknown whether there is an optimized strategy to balance the FEW nexus as a whole, reduce air and water pollution, and mitigate climate change on national and global scales. Increasing FEW conflicts in the agroecosystems make it an urgent need to improve our understanding and quantification of how to balance resource investment and enhance resource use efficiencies in the FEW nexus. Therefore, we propose an integrated modeling system of the FEW nexus by coupling an ecosystem model, an economic model, and a regional climate model, aiming to mimic the interactions and feedbacks within the ecosystem–human–climate systems. The trade-offs between FEW benefit and economic cost in excess resource usage, environmental degradation, and climate consequences will be quantitatively assessed, which will serve as sustainability indicators for agricultural systems (including crop production, livestock and aquaculture). We anticipate that the development and implementation of such an integrated modeling platform across world's regions could build capabilities in understanding the agriculture-centered FEW nexus and guiding policy and land management decision making for a sustainable future.

Environmental sustainability agenda are generally compromised by energy, water, and food production resources, while in the recent waves of global financial crisis, it mediates to increase the intensity of air pollutants, which largely affected the less developing countries due to their ease of environmental regulation policies and lack of optimal utilization of economic resources. Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries are no exception that majorly hit by the recent global financial crisis, which affected the country’s natural environment through the channel of unsustainable energy-water-food production. The study employed panel random effect model that addresses the country-specific time-invariant shocks to examine the non-linear relationship between water-energy-food resources and air pollutants in a panel of 19 selected SSA countries, for a period of 2000–2014. The results confirmed the carbon-fossil-methane environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) that turned into inverted U-shaped relationships in a panel of selected SSA countries. Food resources largely affected greenhouse gas (GHG), methane (CH₄), and nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions while water resource decreases carbon dioxide (CO₂), fossil fuel, and CH₄ emissions in a region. Energy efficiency improves air quality indicators while industry value added increases CO₂ emissions, fossil fuel energy, and GHG emissions. Global financial crisis increases the risk of climate change across countries. The study concludes that although SSA countries strive hard to take some “good” initiatives to reduce environmental degradation in a form of improved water and energy sources, however, due to lack of optimal utilization of food resources and global financial constraints, it leads to “the bad” and “the ugly” sustainability reforms in a region.