Abstract:
Abstract: Shortage and matching dislocation of water resources and energy can pose a serious risk to the growth rate of food production. Particularly, water, energy and food are the indispensable resources in the human life and development. In this study, the Lorentz curve and Gini coefficient were used to evaluate the matching degree between the water-grain and energy-grain in the Yellow River Basin. Cobb-Douglas function was also applied for the grain growth damping model, in order to calculate the restriction degree of water resources and energy on the grain production. The results show that: 1) The Gini index of water resources and energy to the grain decreased first and then increased, the matching degree of which was more reasonable in the lower reaches of the Yellow River than that of the upper and middle reaches. In 2019, the Gini index values of water resources to grain in the Yellow River and the upper, middle and lower reaches were 0.365, 0.379, 0.336, and 0.122, respectively, while the Gini index values of energy to grain were 0.194, 0.218, 0.206, and 0.118, respectively, indicating the high matching in the lower reaches. The water resources and energy in the upper and middle reaches were generally matched with the grain. 2) The damping coefficient of water resources to grain production was fluctuated greatly, where the variation range of damping coefficient was 0.005~0.032. Besides, the damping effect of water resources on the grain growth basically presented a six-year cycle with a decrease-increase-decrease situation. By contrast, there was a steady increase in the damping effect of energy on the grain, the energy damping coefficient increased rapidly after 2015. Under the constraints of water resources and energy in 2019, the annual grain output growth was reduced by 0.76%, and 5.28%, respectively, compared with the previous year. 3) There was a certain degree of agglomeration in the damping effect of water resources and energy. The damping coefficient of water resources presented the pattern of small in the West and large in the East. A medium and high constraint state was obtained in the energy damping effect, which was concentrated in the eastern and lower reaches of the upper reaches, whereas, the low constraint state was concentrated in the middle reaches of the Yellow River. In addition, there was the typical spatial agglomeration in the damping coefficient of water resources and energy. The H(High)-H(High) agglomeration area of water resources damping effect was mainly distributed in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, whereas, the L(Low)-L(Low) agglomeration area of energy damping effect was distributed in the northern part of the middle reaches. The finding can provide a strong reference for the stable growth of grain and the effective allocation of resources in the Yellow River Basin.