*Article* **Analysis and Regulation of the Harmonious Relationship among Water, Energy, and Food in Nine Provinces along the Yellow River**

**Jiawei Li <sup>1</sup> , Junxia Ma 1,2,\* , Lei Yu 1,2,3 and Qiting Zuo 1,2,3**


**Abstract:** China has proposed "ecological conservation and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin" to a major national strategy, which puts forward higher requirements for water, energy, and food along the Yellow River (TYR). However, the water–energy–food nexus (WEF) system in TYR basin is very complicated. Based on the theory and method of harmonious regulation, this paper puts forward a new WEF harmony framework (WEFH) to study the harmonious balance of WEF in TYR. WEFH cannot only evaluate the harmonious balance of WEF, but also identify the main influencing factors, and further study the harmonious regulation of WEF. For the key steps of regulation and control, we provide a variety of methods to choose from in this framework. In practice, we apply this framework to the regulation of WEF in the nine provinces along TYR. The results show that during 2005–2018, the harmony degree of WEF in the nine provinces along TYR is between 0.29 and 0.58. The harmony degree of WEF has improved over time, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. Among them, per capita water resources, hydropower generation ratio, carbon emissions, and another 12 indicators have great influence on the harmony of WEF. We have established eight control schemes for nine of these indicators. In eight control schemes, most areas have reached a moderate level of harmony degree. These results show that the framework proposed in this paper is helpful to the comprehensive management of regional WEF and provides a viable scheme for the optimization of WEF.

**Keywords:** water–energy–food; harmony equilibrium; harmonious regulation; the Yellow River
