Evaluating Agricultural Sustainability Based on theWater–Energy–Food Nexus in the ChenmengquanIrrigation District of China

 Agriculture is one of the largest consumers of water and energy. This paper evaluated
the agricultural sustainability of the Chenmengquan irrigation district of China based on the
water–energy–food nexus. One objective weighting method and one subjective weighting method
were integrated, based on game theory, and a matter–element model was constructed to evaluate
agricultural sustainability for the research region. The sensitivity of each index to the evaluation class
was also analyzed. The results showed that agricultural sustainability was moderate in 2006–2012
and high in 2012–2015. The indexes, which represent water-use efficiency and yield per unit area
of crops, had higher sensitivities in the context of the present case study. The results also indicated
that agricultural sustainability had a comparatively positive trend between 2012 and 2015, and that
pesticide utilization was the most important issue for agricultural sustainability. The approach
of using the combination of a weighting method, based upon game theory, and the use of the
matter–element model provides a guide for the evaluation of agricultural sustainability