Simulation study on the different policies of Jiangsu Province for a dynamic balance of water resources under the water-energy-food nexus

Abstract

In order to promote the efficient use of resources and the sustainable development of the economy in Jiangsu Province, it is particularly important to ease the contradiction between water supply and demand on the basis of realizing the coordinated development of the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus. With the aim of a dynamic balance of water resources, this paper used system dynamics (SD) to build a WEF nexus SD model that focused on studying the specific supply-and-demand mechanism of water resources in each subsystem. Then, Jiangsu Province was taken as an example to perform simulation research on the regional water dynamic balance to explore effective policies for increasing water supply and decreasing water demand. The results showed that the imbalance of water resources will remain severe in the next few years. To relieve the imbalance, it will be helpful to promote the energy utilization of straw, improve the irrigation efficiency, adjust the crop planting structure, and require residents to strictly follow the water quota. An important advancement in this study is the simulation of the water resources supply-and-demand mechanism in each subsystem from the perspective of the WEF nexus.