A comprehensive evaluation of the security of the water-energy-food systems in China

Water-energy-food (WEF) are the indispensable resources for achieving sustainable social-economic development, poverty reduction, and human well-being. An appropriate WEF security evaluation may help inform China's sustainable resource production and consumption. This study selects 27 indicators representing pressure-state-response (PSR) dimensions to evaluate the WEF security of 30 provinces in mainland China from 2010 to 2019 using the entropy weight method and matter-element extension (MEE) model. The results indicate that the security of the water subsystem is mostly under high risk, and is relative severe in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Shanghai, Shandong, and Ningxia. Meanwhile, energy subsystem indicators like carbon emission and energy intensities have significantly improved. All food subsystem indicators have improved by varying degrees. Regionally, food security is high in the east, and low in the central and western regions. In terms of the performance of PSR dimensions, “Pressure” is the most optimistic, followed by “Response” and “State”. The “Response” in most provinces is getting better, which has promoted the overall improvement of WEF systems. Thus, while maintaining the subsystem with high security, the integrated system's security can be enhanced by addressing the shortcoming of other subsystems. This can help realise synergistic resource use and enhance their security.