Coupling Efficiency Assessment of Food–Energy–Water (FEW) Nexus Based on Urban Resource Consumption towards Economic Development: The Case of Shenzhen Megacity, China

Chaofan Xian (), Shuo Yang, Yupeng Fan, Haotong Wu and Cheng Gong
Additional contact information
Chaofan Xian: State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China
Shuo Yang: Hengshui Ruifeng Composite Materials Corporation, Hengshui 053100, China
Yupeng Fan: Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Haotong Wu: China Qiyuan Engineering Corporation, Xi’an 710018, China
Cheng Gong: State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China

Land, 2022, vol. 11, issue 10, 1-25

Abstract: The population aggregation and economic development caused by urbanization significantly influence the efficiency of urban resource consumption. However, the coupling interactions between crucial resource consumptions such as food, energy and water (FEW) and urbanization processes within highly urbanized areas has not been well-studied. In this study, we constructed an assessment framework for the coupling efficiency measurement of FEW resource consumptions in 10 administrative districts across Shenzhen megacity during 2012–2020, based on the data envelopment analysis (DEA). This study demonstrated that, from the perspective of the FEW nexus, increasing efficiencies in the energy consumption of most districts improved the municipal FEW efficiency, while more than half of the districts did not achieve water resource efficiencies throughout the period. Concerning regional economic development, 80% of the districts improved coupling FEW efficiencies by 2020, the average values of which were higher for Yantian, Nanshan, Luohu and Dapeng, and lower for Baoan, Longgang and Guangming, with a downtrend only being observed in Guangming. Overall, the value of the coupling FEW efficiency of Shenzhen megacity rose by 35% from 2012 to 2020. Correlation analysis showed that synergistic effects of efficient resource consumption occurred in most districts, and economic urbanization was the main driving factor of regional FEW efficiencies within Shenzhen megacity. This study provides instructive insights into the status of urban resource consumption and suggests that the coordination of FEW management should be further improved by fiscal intervention to maintain economic development with the limited resources available, which would have valuable implications for synergistic FEW governance in megacities in China and elsewhere.

Keywords: resource consumption; food–energy–water nexus; coupling efficiency; economic development; Shenzhen (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/11/10/1783/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/11/10/1783/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:11:y:2022:i:10:p:1783-:d:941055

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().