Water lock-in within China’s economic industry based on the input–output method and social network analysis

As one of the countries with the most severe water resource problems, China faces enormous challenges in the intensive use of water resources. Rapid economic development has led to serious waste of water resources in the industry, resulting in path dependence on water-consuming technologies, namely the concept of ‘water lock-in’. This study aims to estimate the water lock-in effects in various industries in China from 1997 to 2017. To this end, a novel combination of the input–output analysis and social network analysis methods is used to calculate ‘integrated, intra-sectorial and inter-sectorial’ water lock-in, identify the complex water resource dependence relationship and explore the dynamic evolution process of the lock-in mechanism. The research results are as follows. (1) From 1997 to 2017, the integrated, intra-sectorial and inter-sectorial water lock-in coefficients decreased by 82.08%, 77.92% and 83.14%, respectively. (2) Non-metallic minerals and other mining products underwent the largest decline in water lock-in within the sectors, whereas coal, oil and gas extraction products underwent the most significant decline in water lock-in between the sectors. (3) Water lock-in conduction is most durable and obvious from S01 (agriculture, forestry, fishery products and services) to S06 (textiles). Policy recommendations are suggested to realise the water-unlocking path.