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Water–Energy–Food: Water Efficient Utilization and Optimal Management Targeting at Water Adaptability Concept

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Water Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2023) | Viewed by 7427

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Yong Zhao

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Guest Editor

China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing, China
Interests: climate change; water cycle simulation; water–energy–food nexus; water allocation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Xuerui Gao

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Guest Editor

Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, China
Interests: water saving; hydrological model; water–energy–food nexus; water footprint

Dr. Guohua He

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Guest Editor

China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing, China
Interests: ecohydrology; water–energy–food nexus; water footprint; water resources management

Dr. Shuyu Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China
Interests: climate change; extreme precipitation; hydrological modelling; water resources management

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This is a call for papers for the Special Issue “Water–Energy–Food: Water Efficient Utilization and Optimal Management Targeting at Water Adaptability Concept”, which has been established in order to enhance water, energy, and food security in water-scarce regions and empower decision makers to proactively address the challenges of climate change and water crises induced by rapid population expansion and economic development.

Water, energy, and food are strategic support elements for the sustainable development of domestic economies, as well as being important resources for human survival, economic development, and social progress. With the continuously increasing size of the population and the economy, the challenge of maitaining an adequate supply of water, food, and energy to meet the demand is growing. In the water–food–energy nexus, water is the core element, the demand for which is expected to increase by 50% and 18% in developing and developed coutries, respectively, by 2025. In order to solve the problem of regional water resource use and coordinate food and energy production, the main objectives of realizing sustainable development in water-scarce regions are developing optimization methods for regional energy–agricultural structures and developing water resource regulation technology using the concept of water-appropriation. Therefore, the expectations of this Special Issue include: 1) the exploration of water-saving technology, modeling, regulation and management, and other methods; 2) the investigation of the characteristics of the water–food–energy nexus and their correlation and response; 3) the modeling of the water–energy–food nexus and its evolution; and 4) the development of a low-consumption, high-efficiency, fair, and reliable system for an optimized regional energy–food structure and water resource allocation technology. The objectives of this Special Issue are to provide a scientific support for enhancing the resilience of the water–energy–food nexus in water-scarce areas and maintaining the sustainable and high-quality development of regional ecologies and economies.

Potential topics for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

Current and future challenges of the water–energy–food nexus;
Innovative methods for water footprint assessment of energy–food production and consumption;
Virtual water flow embedded in the water–energy–food nexus;
The influence of climate change and human activities on the water–energy–food nexus;
Nexus research: concepts, techniques, models, and policies;
Optimal structure of energy and food production based on water carrying capacity;
Water allocation in the complex system of energy–food–ecosystem;
Measures and strategies for common security of water, energy, food, and ecosystems;
Other related topics.

Prof. Dr. Yong Zhao
Dr. Xuerui Gao
Dr. Guohua He
Dr. Shuyu Zhang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

water–energy–food nexus
water security
climate change
human activity
water footprint
virtual water
multi-objective optimization
water allocation
water-scarce region

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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17 pages, 4019 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Estimating the Effects of Deficit Irrigation on Water Absorption and Utilization of Tomatoes Grown in Greenhouse with Hydrus-1D Model

by Xufeng Li, Juanjuan Ma, Xihuan Sun, Lijian Zheng, Ruixia Chen and Jianglong An

Sustainability 2023, 15(4), 3216; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15043216 - 09 Feb 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1026

Abstract

Quantitative analysis of tomato root water uptake and soil water utilization in the root zone under deficit irrigation is an important tool to improve agricultural water utilization efficiency. In this study, three different deficit irrigation levels were set at the flowering and fruit development stage (Stage I) and the fruit-ripening stage (Stage II), respectively. The Hydrus-1D model and field data were used to analyze the effects of deficit irrigation on tomato root growth, soil water uptake and utilization in the root zone. The results showed that deficit irrigation could reduce the total root length density of water-absorbed roots but increase the water-absorbed root length density of the underlying soil (30–60 cm). Moderate and severe water deficits at Stage II increased the water-absorbed root length density of the underlying soil by 0.10–6.26% and 2.12–11.71% compared with a mild water deficit. Considering tomato root growth, the Hydrus-1D model can improve the accuracy of soil moisture simulation. The main water absorption zone of tomato roots was 0–30 cm. Compared with full irrigation, the ratio of water absorption by the underlying root system (30–60 cm) to the total water absorption of the profile (0–60 cm) increased by 2.16–2.82% and 5.34–6.34% due to mild and moderate water deficits at Stage I. At Stage I and Stage II, a water deficit could reduce soil evaporation. T3 had the highest water use efficiency in two years, which was 24.07% (T9) and 20.47% (T8) higher than the lowest value, respectively. The optimal deficit irrigation scheme under this experiment condition is as follows: the soil water content was 70–90% θ_f (field capacity) at Stage I and was 40–60% θ_f at Stage II (T3). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water–Energy–Food: Water Efficient Utilization and Optimal Management Targeting at Water Adaptability Concept)

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15 pages, 4867 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Research on Water Rights Trading and Pricing Model between Agriculture and Energy Development in Ningxia, China

by Changhai Qin, Shan Jiang, Yong Zhao, Yongnan Zhu, Qingming Wang, Lizhen Wang, Junlin Qu and Ming Wang

Sustainability 2022, 14(23), 15748; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142315748 - 26 Nov 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1122

Abstract

The contradiction between the supply and demand of water resources has become increasingly prominent, and water rights trading is an effective approach to increase the efficiency of water resource utilization and allocation so as to achieve sustainable use of water resources. Current transferring cost and price in China are both underestimated, taking into account the construction and maintenance fee of water conservation project and the irrigation risk compensation fee but ignoring the renovation and reconstruction fee of water conservation projects, and the compensation fee for farmers. This paper takes assignee rights, assignee capacity, and compensation to third parties into comprehensive considerations in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, where the contradictions between water, energy and food are most prominent in China. Tradable water use rights were analyzed based on a water transfer pricing model. The results show that there is an obvious negative correlation between shadow water price and water usage, and the shadow price of water resources is between 10.91 and 40.52 CNY/m³, which is an optimal solution under the constraint of water usage from 6.65 to 7.03 billion m³. The reasonable water transfer price is 10.91 CYN/m³, of which the earning of the agricultural assignor was 5.96 CNY/m³. This price guarantees the interests of the assignee and is also affordable to the assignee. This research provides a specific calculation method for the transfer pricing of water rights under non-market conditions, which is of important theoretically and has practical significance. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water–Energy–Food: Water Efficient Utilization and Optimal Management Targeting at Water Adaptability Concept)

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21 pages, 4945 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Machine Learning Method for the Risk Prediction of Casing Damage and Its Application in Waterflooding

by Jiqun Zhang, Li Wu, Deli Jia, Liming Wang, Junhua Chang, Xianing Li, Lining Cui and Bingbo Shi

Sustainability 2022, 14(22), 14733; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142214733 - 08 Nov 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1190

Abstract

During the development of oilfields, casings in long-term service tend to be damaged to different degrees, leading to poor development of the oilfields, ineffective water circulation, and wasted water resources. In this paper, we propose a data-based method for predicting casing failure risk at both well and well-layer granularity and illustrate the application of the method to GX Block in an eastern oilfield of China. We first quantify the main control factors of casing damage by adopting the F-test and mutual information, such as that of the completion days, oil rate, and wall thickness. We then select the top 30 factors to construct the probability prediction model separately using seven algorithms, namely the decision tree, random forest, AdaBoost, gradient boosting decision tree, XGBoost, LightGBM, and backpropagation neural network algorithms. In terms of five evaluation indicators, namely the accuracy, precision, recall, F1-score, and area under the curve, we find that the LightGBM algorithm yields the best results at both granularities. The accuracy of the prediction model based on the preferred algorithm reaches 87.29% and 92.45% at well and well-layer granularity, respectively. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water–Energy–Food: Water Efficient Utilization and Optimal Management Targeting at Water Adaptability Concept)

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15 pages, 17789 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Temporal Evolution of Physical Water Consumption and Virtual Water Flow in Beijing, China

by Hongwei Huang, Shan Jiang, Xuerui Gao, Yong Zhao, Lixing Lin, Jichao Wang and Xinxueqi Han

Sustainability 2022, 14(15), 9596; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14159596 - 04 Aug 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1349

Abstract

With the rapid development of the socio-economic system and the close connection of inter-regional trade, the physical water consumption in production and the virtual water flow associated with inter-regional trade are both have a significant impact on local water systems, especially in megacities. Beijing is the political, economic and cultural center of China, which is a megacity that has severe water scarcity. To evaluate the status-quo of local water consumption and propose the countermeasures, this study quantitatively analyzed the evolution trend of physical water consumption and the virtual water flow in Beijing. The results show that the total physical water consumption in Beijing decreased from 2.43 billion m³ (2002) to 1.98 billion m³ (2017), while the net virtual water input increased from 1.76 billion m³ (2002) to 3.09 billion m³ (2017), which was mainly embedded in agricultural and industrial products. This study also reveals the equal importance of physical water and virtual water in ensuring the regional water security and sustainable economic development. In view of poor water resource endowment, Beijing should conduct the coupled management of physical water and virtual water to alleviate the local water shortage, i.e., to receive more virtual water embedded in agricultural and industrial products, and allocate the limited local water resources to domestic use and high-benefit sectors. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water–Energy–Food: Water Efficient Utilization and Optimal Management Targeting at Water Adaptability Concept)

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Review

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22 pages, 2571 KiB

Open AccessReview

Recent Development of Smart Field Deployment for Mature Waterflood Reservoirs

by Deli Jia, Jiqun Zhang, Yanchun Li, Li Wu and Meixia Qiao

Sustainability 2023, 15(1), 784; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15010784 - 01 Jan 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2068

Abstract

In the petroleum industry, artificial intelligence has been applied in seismic and logging interpretation, accurate modeling, optimized drilling operations, well dynamics prediction, safety warning, etc. However, field-scale application and deployment remain a challenge due to the lack of sufficiently powerful algorithms for the integration of multi-granularity data in the time and space domain, for the construction of a deep-learning network able to represent the evolution of well and reservoir dynamics, and finally the lack of investment in surveillance data acquisition. This paper offers a concise review of smart field deployment for mature waterflood reservoirs, including the current status of data foundation construction, and the research progress for applied AI algorithms, as well as application scenarios and overall deployment. With respect to data, the domestic and international oil and gas industry has completed or at least started the large-scale construction and deployment of lake data. However, the data isolation phenomenon is serious in China. Preparation for the integration of new monitoring data for the overall research of reservoirs is insufficient. With respect to algorithms, data-based and model-based AI algorithms have been emerging recently, but the development of the overall proxy model for rapid prediction and automatic model calibration is still in the preliminary period. For application scenarios, relatively simple and independent applications related to geophysical interpretation and production engineering are continuing to emerge, while large-scale reservoir and field application require substantial investment in data acquisition, game-changing algorithms with cloud-based computing architecture, and top-down deployment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water–Energy–Food: Water Efficient Utilization and Optimal Management Targeting at Water Adaptability Concept)

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