A Study on the Sustainable Development of Water, Energy, and Food in China

• Main Authors: Lei Jin, Yuanhua Chang, Xianwei Ju, Fei Xu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-09-01
• Series: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
• Subjects: water; energy; food; sustainable development; system dynamics
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/19/3688

It is of great significance to deal with the relationship between external factors and the water-energy-food internal system for China’s sustainable development. This paper takes China as the research object, uses the system dynamics method to construct a model for China’s water-energy-food system, and introduces the “two-child” policy and trade friction as the scenario parameters for simulation. The main results of scenario simulation can be summarized as the following three points. In terms of water, the trade friction will hinder China’s industrial water consumption into a low-consumption stage. In terms of energy, both the trade friction and the “two-child” policy, will not change the increasing trend of energy demand. In terms of food, if there is strong response to the “two-child” policy, there will be insufficient food inventory under the current capacity and import ratio. In short, this paper takes the sustainable development of water-energy-food as a starting point and puts forward policy suggestions on the comprehensive formulation of policies.