Arid zone ecosystems, integral to terrestrial systems, exhibit relatively low stability and are prone to influences from human activities and climate change. To elucidate the influence on the ecological environment of the arid zone by climate change and human activities, the paper takes normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) as an evaluation index of the ecosystem and uses trend analysis to evaluation of NDVI variation characteristics in the Shiyang River Basin (SRB) from 1990 to 2020. Simultaneously using methods such as partial correlation analysis and residual analysis to evaluate the impact of climate change and human activities on NDVI changes. This study yielded several key findings: (1) The NDVI in the SRB exhibits an increasing trend of 0.034/10a in the interannual variation. (2) The relation cooperatives between NDVI and the deviation of precipitation and temperature in the SRB range from −0.735 to 0.770 and −0.602 to 0.773, respectively. (3) The changes in land use and groundwater depth in the SRB have a certain impact on NDVI changes. (4) The proportion of areas with significant contributions (contribution rate greater than 60%) from climate change and human activities to NDVI change is 33.5% and 22.5%, respectively.

Water resources, energy, and food are important resources in China, which play an important role in the process of urban development and are important basic resources for sustainable urban development. This study applied water footprint theory to water–energy–food relations. The regional integration of the Jing-Jin-Ji region faced new challenges during urbanization, and unified measures were applied to quantify the urban water demands and energy and food competition in the Jing-Jin-Ji region from 2003 to 2017. The index was used to evaluate the intensity of the competition for water for food and energy. The results indicated that from 2003 to 2017, the water footprint of grain production in the Jing-Jin-Ji region decreased from 30.984 billion m³ to 21.36 billion m³, of which the blue water footprint decreased from 13.032 billion m³ to 9.854 billion m³. The water footprint of energy production increased from 578 million m³ to 1.175 billion m³. The competition relation between cities in the Jing-Jin-Ji region was obtained according to the competition index, and corresponding measures were identified according to different competition levels. This study provides valuable insights for policymakers in designing sustainable urban development strategies for cities facing similar challenges of water resource, energy, and food competition during rapid urbanization.