The 2030 goal for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) gives rise to challenging questions stemming from the inherent interconnections and potential competition between primary resources. ‘Economic Growth’ and ‘Clean Water and Sanitation’ are intimately related SDGs. Access to quality water is critical to growth, but as economies and populations grow, so does their demand for water. As pressures on water systems increase, existing and proposed economic activities are subject to growing water related stresses, such as service disruptions, droughts, floods, and contamination. Growth is dependent upon investment in critical resources to mitigate water related risks and for sustainable water allocation. Highly interdependent water, energy, and food systems are reflected in SDGs, raising questions about how to achieve the security goal for water without sacrificing that for food; and giving rise to questions of how to quantify the interconnections and assess the possible trade-offs for sustainable pathways into the future. This commentary addresses these complex and critical challenges to achieving the interconnected goals at different scales and in light of scarce or incompatible data, and the many stakeholders involved. It offers thoughts on holistic approaches to complement the SDGs and facilitate science-based decision making, monitoring, assessment and cooperation. The paper reflects on World Water Week 2016, reviews global risks and societies’ perceptions of those risks. Defining ‘resource nexus’, the paper shares examples that illustrate the concept and calls for efforts to reduce inter-dependencies and increase synergies between the primary resources through technology, policy, and adaptations to human consumption and conservation behaviors. The paradigm shift proposed, while critically needed, is not possible without the resource nexus platform.

2030年实施可持续发展目标的目标提出了挑战性的问题，这些问题源于主要资源之间的内在联系和潜在竞争。“经济增长”和“清洁水与卫生”是与SDG密切相关的。获得优质水对增长至关重要，但是随着经济和人口的增长，对水的需求也随之增长。随着水系统压力的增加，现有和拟议的经济活动将面临与水有关的压力，例如服务中断，干旱，洪水和污染。增长取决于对关键资源的投资，以减轻与水有关的风险并实现可持续的水分配。可持续发展目标反映了高度相互依存的水，能源和粮食系统，这引发了关于如何在不牺牲粮食安全的前提下实现水资源安全目标的问题；并引发了有关如何量化互连并评估未来可持续途径的可能取舍的问题。这篇评论解决了在不同规模和数据稀缺或不兼容的情况下实现相互关联的目标所面临的这些复杂而关键的挑战，涉及的利益攸关方也很多。它提供了有关整体方法的思想，以补充可持续发展目标，并促进基于科学的决策，监测，评估和合作。该论文回顾了2016年世界水周，回顾了全球风险以及社会对这些风险的看法。在定义“资源联系”时，本文分享了一些示例，这些示例说明了这一概念，并呼吁通过技术，政策以及对人类消费和保护行为的适应来减少相互依赖和增加主要资源之间的协同作用。提出的范式转换虽然十分必要，但没有资源联系平台是不可能的。