event 09 mai 2018

Nexus in Asia // Water, Energy, and Food Security in the Asia Pacific Region

By Makoto Taniguchi, Naoki Masuhara and Kimberly Burnett. In this article, security measures of three resources; water, energy and food are analyzed for thirty two countries in the Asia Pacific region which are faced to Pacific Ocean, in terms of amounts of the resource, self-production, and diversity of sources of each resource. Diversity for all the three resources is also analyzed using surface water and groundwater for water sources; hydro power, geothermal power, solar, and biomass for energy; and cereals, vegetable, fruit, meat, and fish for food. The authors see high diversity of sources of water in the US and the Philippines, and a low diversity of sources of food in the US, Canada, and Indonesia. These security measures including water security show new hydrological insight for Asia-Pacific region.

Jason cooper 482298 unsplash
https://unsplash.com/photos/XEhchWQuWyM (C) Jason Cooper / Unsplash

Water, energy and food in the Asia Pacific region are discussed as various forms of security, in particular using self-sufficiency which is one of the SDGs autonomy indices, as well as diversity of sources for each resource. The Asia Pacific countries, with almost the half of world's income and population, are more self-sufficient in food production than the rest of the world, but less self-sufficient in energy production.The self-production ratio of food within the Asia Pacific region has been decreasing since the 1960s, though the ratio is still over 100%. On the other hand, the self-production energy rate within the Asia-Pacific region increased from 82% in the 1970s up to 95% in 2010.

There are many variations in the relationships between water, energy and food self-sufficiency and diversity. Positive relationships are found between water/energy self-sufficiency and diversity, which shows the similarity of the relationships, but not between food self-sufficiency and diversity. Self-sufficiency and the diversity of sources for these three fundamental resources, water, energy and food, are important and may be one of implications not only for each country but also for Asia Pacific region and global security and sustainability.

The paper is part of the special issue of the Journal of Hydrology.

Download

ScienceDirect website (open access)

Published

December 2015

In

Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies, Volume 11, June 2017, Pages 9-19

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