Characteristics of water, energy and food network in Guangdong province

With highly concentrated population and industries, Guangdong province is critically dependent on water-energy-food (WEF) resources; contradiction between supply and demand of resources is increasingly prominent． It is of great practical significance to rationally allocate WEF resources and realize sustainable utilization of resources． Complex network method was used in this study to construct a WEF resource network model of Guangdong in 2007, 2012 and 2017． Network topology was explored, key nodes and critical paths of the network were discovered． WEF resource networks was found to show small-world attribute: the energy network had the strongest small-world attribute, the water resource network had the weakest small-world attribute． The regulation of key nodes and key edges will have a great influence on WEF resource networks． Key nodes such as agriculture, food and tobacco industry, chemical product industry, electricity/heat production and supply industry, construction industry, communication equipment, computer and other electronic equipment manufacturing industry had relatively high strength, their resource regulation played a significant role in multiple saving of WEF resources． The electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing industry, construction industry, communication equipment, computer and other electronic equipment manufacturing industry had hub positions in the WEF resource network, their resource saving effect could be quickly transmitted to the whole network． Agriculture→food and tobacco industry, agriculture→textile industry, food and tobacco→accommodation and catering industry frequently appeared in the critical paths of WEF resource network． Changing their resources circulation flow could significantly change the critical path or even the circulation flow of the whole WEF resource network．