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

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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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.