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.

Food and water are inextricably linked. With the increase of water consumption in irrigation and food growth, water shortage has become an urgent issue. Irrational cross-regional transfer of water embodied in food exacerbates water scarcity and restrict China's sustainable development. Given that, a Virtual Water-Food Nexus Model is developed to quantify the inter-provincial transfer of water embodied in food and to identify the complicated interactions between different provinces. In detail, Environmental Input-Output Analysis is applied to quantitatively estimate the inter-provincial water transfer embodied in food trades. Based on the network constructed by interrelated nature of nexus, the mutual interactions, control situation, and the dominant and weak pathways are examined through the combination of Ecological Network Analysis and Principal Component Analysis. Two new indictors water consumption intensity and water supply capacity are first performed to measure the role of each province from the supply and consume side respectively. It is revealed that interregional food transactions failed to realize water resources dispatching management. Many water-deficient regions suffered from massive virtual water losses through food exports, but water-rich areas still import large quantities of food containing virtual water. Results show that exploitation and competition dominate the ecological relationships between provinces. Agricultural GDP ratio is the indicator which most affect water consumption intensity and water supply capacity. Network-based research contributes more insights into the recognition of water management responsibilities across provinces and municipalities. These findings will provide a scientific support to adjust unreasonable allocation of water resources in China in an attempt to addressing the contradiction between food demand and water shortages.

Food, energy and water are important basic resources that affect the sustainable development of a region. The influence of food–energy–water (FEW) nexus on sustainable development has quickly become a frontier topic since the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were put forward. However, the overall context and core issues of the FEW nexus contributions to SDGs are still unclear. Using co-citation analysis, this paper aims to map the knowledge domains of FEW nexus research, disentangles its evolutionary context, and analyzes the core issues in its research, especially the progress of using quantitative simulation models to study the FEW nexus. We found that (1) studies within the FEW nexus focused on these following topics: correlation mechanisms, influencing factors, resource footprints, and sustainability management policies; (2) frontier of FEW studies have evolved from silo-oriented perspective on single resource system to nexus-oriented perspective on multiple systems; (3) quantitative research on the FEW nexus was primarily based on spatiotemporal evolution analysis, input–output analysis and scenario analysis; (4) the resource relationship among different sectors was synergies and tradeoffs within a region. In general, current research still focuses on empirical data, mostly qualitative and semiquantitative analyses, and there is a lack of research that can systematically reflect the temporal and spatial contribution of the FEW nexus to multiple SDGs. We believe that future research should focus more on how FEW nexus can provide mechanistic tools for achieving sustainable development.

Identifying the critical socioeconomic drivers of food-related scarce water uses at the provincial level is conducive to the formulation of region-specific policies. However, existing studies have not quantified the effects of regional socioeconomic factors on food-related scarce water uses in China. This study used the environmentally extended multi-regional input-output analysis and structural decomposition analysis to explore the socioeconomic determinants for the changing food-related scarce water uses in Chinese regions during 2007–2012. The results showed that the decrease of scarce water use intensity in the North Coast and Northwest (e.g., Hebei and Xinjiang) is the most effective way to reduce scarce water uses, contributing 11.5 and 11.4 billion tons of scarce water use reductions, respectively. It is also critical for Hebei, Shandong, Henan, and Xinjiang to focus on the improvement of local production structures. Moreover, reducing excessive food consumption and optimizing dietary patterns in developed coastal regions (e.g., Guangdong and Shanghai) can effectively reduce national water scarcity. For example, 4% reduction of the food consumption level in Guangdong would lead to 11% reduction of induced scarce water uses. Furthermore, it is essential to consider the interprovincial trade in food-water-related policy-making. The strengthening of interregional cooperation is also highlighted for sustainable food and water resource management in China.

As the most populous country over the world, China has great pressure on food and resources security. In this study, we set the national economy of China as a whole system, and apply supply chains analysis based on the input-output structures, to identify the food-water linkage, food-energy linkage, and the energy-water linkage in the system. The results show that agriculture and animal husbandry contribute most use of resource in supply chains. Animal husbandry sector, agriculture, slaughtering and processing of meat contribute large amount of embodied water consumption. While agriculture, other food sector and animal husbandry sector consumes most embodied primary energy, although the direct primary energy use by animal husbandry sector is not significant. Meanwhile, by importing or exporting resources, international trade impacts on the resources flow through input-output structures. When making polices, the interactions of various resources and international trade should be considered by applying food energy water nexus (FEWN) approach.

Given the large amounts of water, land, and food embodied in the trade of goods and services, a key step in decoupling extensive resource consumption from the economic system is to understand the full impact of socioeconomic development on the water-land-food nexus. This study integrates input–output analysis, ecological network analysis, and Dempster–Shafer evidence theory into a supernetwork model to detect the water-land-food nexus among economic sectors with an aim to explore effective strategic paths for resource management and to facilitate the construction of a resource-saving society. Results show that most sectors of China are resource inefficient and that all resource systems are unsustainable as reflected in the low performance of their Finn's cycling index and system robustness. Meanwhile, results of flow networks analysis show an extremely uneven land resource allocation where more than 94% of the land used in China is classified as direct agricultural land. The water-land-food nexus can gain resource saving bonus via enhancing the robustness of economy. However, the co-benefits from the nexus are negligibly small for the resource utilization efficiency. The results also indicate that the relevant resource-saving policies on food and water are highly likely to gain resource co-benefits due to their similarities in sectoral importance. Correspondingly, a set of strategic measures, including adopting a tiered resource price, deepening industrial convergence of agriculture, enhancing agriculture-food nexus, and managing water or land use from the food consumer side, are designed to build a resource-saving society. The findings of this study can provide additional insights into the impacts of the economy on the water-land-food nexus, which is beneficial for achieving an efficient and coordinated management of resources.

Secure and efficient supply for the food, energy and water resources is essential for sustainable urban development. Due to the close interaction of food, energy and water systems, it is necessary to analyze food-energy-water nexus from an integrated perspective. Taking the Detroit Metropolitan Area as a case, this study first constructs a food-energy-water physical input-output model to quantify food, energy and water flows. Then, structural path analysis is adopted to identify critical supply chain paths driven by the final demand of key sectors. Quantitative results of food-energy-water flows show that major inputs of food and energy in the Detroit Metropolitan Area are from outside through imports, while water use is predominately extracted from local sources. Local consumption activities for the food, energy, and water systems are mainly concentrated downstream of the supply chain. Structural path analysis results show that intermediate processes use relatively large amounts of food, energy and water, and should be more concerned. Also, identifying sectors involving multiple systems, such as Food Processing, Domestic Consumption, Solid Waste Management, Wastewater Treatment, and Residual Processing, can promote co-benefit opportunities. This holistic view on urban FEW nexus presented in this study can facilitate better decisions and help avoid unintended consequences.

The rapid population growth in China has increased the demand for limited water, energy and food resources. Because the resource supply is constrained by future uncertainties such as climate change, it is necessary to examine the connections among water, energy and food resources from the perspective of the relevant final demands. Based on an input-output model and structural path analysis, this study aims to explore the hidden connections among water, energy and food resources by identifying important final demands and examine how these resources are embodied in upstream production and downstream consumption processes along the supply chain. The water-energy-food nexus approach in this research identifies where and how these resources intersect in economic sectors. By simultaneously considering the water, energy and food footprints, synergistic effects can be maximized among these resource systems. The results reveal that urban household consumption and fixed capital formation have large impacts on water-energy-food resources. Besides, agriculture, construction and service sectors have the largest water-energy-food footprints. For each resource, we rank the top-20 supply chain paths from the final demands to the upstream production sectors, and six critical supply chain paths are identified as important contributors to the consumption of all these resources. Compared with independent approach to manage water, energy and food resources, the nexus approach identifies the critical linkages of the water, energy and food systems and helps to formulate integrated policies to effectively manage these resources across sectors and actors. Synergistic strategies for conserving water, energy, and food resources can be achieved through avoiding unnecessary waste in end uses and improving resource use efficiency along critical supply chains. This research can help consumers, industries and the government make responsible consumption and production decisions to conserve water, energy and food resources.

The nexus approach is a promising method used to address issues regarding environmental dilemmas. However, effective consumption-based and production-based nexus governance strategies are not well understood. Using data envelopment analysis and China’s provincial data for 2017, this study analysed the input–output efficiency of the water-energy-food nexus by considering production-based intensity, consumption-based intensity, and the quantity index system. The results show that policies involving consumption-based intensity metrics can be more efficient, and the efficiency of both production-based intensity (0.482) and consumption-based intensity (0.682) are much higher than the efficiency of the quantity (0.378) index system. The results also indicate that province-specific consumption-based governance strategies are crucial for 30 provinces in China. Finally, three policy directions for nexus governance in China are proposed, namely, shifting policy attention from production-based governance to consumption-based governance, focusing intensity metrics on scale efficiency and aiming quantity metrics on pure technical efficiency, and localizing province-specific management strategies. This paper compares consumption-based and production-based nexus approaches, and the results indicate that a call for consumption-based approaches in future nexus modelling and governance is appropriate. This paper also has implications for China’s nexus governance.