Dynamic Centrality in a Resource Management Network: The Case of Water in Los Angeles

Water management in California is highly complex, with over a thousand agencies responsible for supplying water to cities and farms. In Los Angeles alone, over one-hundred agencies buy, sell, and resell water in a hierarchical... [ view full abstract ]

Water management in California is highly complex, with over a thousand agencies responsible for supplying water to cities and farms. In Los Angeles alone, over one-hundred agencies buy, sell, and resell water in a hierarchical network of agencies that spans municipal utilities, investor-owned utilities, non-profits, and special government districts. The structure of this organizational network, and its interactions with natural resources and engineered infrastructure, is codified in laws, regulations, and agreements. Yet, the actual volume of flows between agencies changes from year to year. Understanding how agency interactions, exemplified by resource flows, change across periods of drought and rain can inform better institutional agreements to manage future water scarcity. We present an analysis using network theory and an existing network flow model of integrated water management in L.A. County to investigate how agency interactions change during drought. In particular, we quantify key network theory metrics of the water management network, weighted by flows, across modeled scenarios of varying demand and imported water supply to show how these metrics vary across the landscape of modeled outcomes. The study extends on urban metabolic and systems analysis quantifications of water flows in L.A. by describing the concept dynamic centrality in resource management, or how relationships within networks of institutions change based on resource availability and use. The concept can be applied to a variety of urban and environmental resource management situations.