An analysis of the relationship between water-energy-food system and economic growth in China based on ecological footprint measurement

With the acceleration of urbanization, the demand for water, energy and food (WEF) keeps increasing. However, the infrastructure construction leads to a sharp decline of cultivated land, water area and forest land, so the importance of ecological space management should be recognized. Based on ecological footprint theory, this paper proposes the WEF footprint and first attempts to explicitly examine the relationship between economic growth and WEF footprint by investigating the existence of an Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). GLS regression and the LOWESS model are used to explore the economic growth and WEF footprint nexus in the eight economic zones and the three regions of China. The results indicate that besides the traditional EKC shapes, an M-shape exists, and the proportion of the M-shape curve (12.5%) is lower than the traditional EKC (87.5%). The results showed that the LOWESS model may be more conducive to reflect the real relationship between economic growth and WEF footprint. According to the analysis, the policy suggestions are put forward to promote the sustainable development of the water-energy-food system. In addition, the study can provide some ideas for solving the contradiction of land use.