Urban food-energy-water nexus in Guangzhou

The food-energy-water (FEW) nexus is fundamental for human survival．The 2011 World Economic Forum (WEF) listed “FEW risk clusters” for the first time as a set of three important risks that will affect global landscape in the next decade．Here an analytical method based on material and energy flows was used to identify nodes and paths in the three metabolic networks．Association between FEWs and related indicators were analyzed according to identified nodes and pathways．Total water consumption related to food production in Guangzhou in 2017 was found to be 12.19×10⁸ m³, energy-related water consumption was 22.91×10⁸ m³, energy consumption related to food production was 11.36×10⁴ tce, and energy consumption related to water was 21.27×10⁴ tce．It was found that resource consumption in Guangzhou gradually increased, resource index rapidly deteriorated, the level of resource self-sufficiency gradually decreased, impact on the environment showed a strengthening trend, the dependence and nexus between subsystems gradually strengthened．