Temporal Characteristics and Spatial Homogeneity of Virtual Water Trade: A Complex Network Analysis

Xinghua Fan, Xuxia Li, Jiuli Yin () and Jiaochen Liang
Additional contact information
Xinghua Fan: Jiangsu University
Xuxia Li: Jiangsu University
Jiuli Yin: Jiangsu University
Jiaochen Liang: California State University

Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), 2019, vol. 33, issue 4, No 15, 1467-1480

Abstract: Abstract International trade of commodities causes an international water flow in virtual form. This study focuses on the virtual water flow related to international crop trade. We build complex networks of virtual water trade (Virtual Water Trade Networks, VWTNs hereafter) with annual data of trade and its virtual water content from 1986 to 2013 among all countries. By analyzing the temporal characteristics and spatial homogeneity of the VWTNs, we find that trade networks display a feature of scale-free. This suggests those core export and import countries play dominant roles in international virtual water flows. However, the structure of the VWTN becomes more heterogeneous with time, indicating that virtual water trade has been getting more globalized. By spatially recoding the trade volumes and using detrended fluctuation analysis, this study finds that geographical distance becomes less binding in international virtual water trades. Other important findings from our VWTNs analysis include that virtual water trade patterns remain relative stable within trading groups and that geopolitical, political, and economic environments can significantly influence world virtual water trade flows. This study provides an understanding of the international water trade and its relationship with the macro social and economical conditions at the global scale. Its method thus can be applied to analyze the temporal and spatial dynamics of other networks with directed trade flow.

Keywords: Virtual water; International trade network; Complex network; Agriculture trade; Spatial relativity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11269-019-2199-2 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:waterr:v:33:y:2019:i:4:d:10.1007_s11269-019-2199-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11269

DOI: 10.1007/s11269-019-2199-2

Access Statistics for this article

Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA) is currently edited by G. Tsakiris

More articles in Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA) from Springer, European Water Resources Association (EWRA)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().