Structural and regional variations of natural resource production in China based on exergy

•We provide an overall accounting of natural resource production in China 2000–2011.•The quantity, structure and main regions of resource production are analyzed.•We found many features and the reasons behind these features.

In the present article, natural resource production in China during 2000–2011 was investigated on the basis of exergy as a unified indicator to demonstrate the structural and regional variation of this country's resource supply. Using exergy, different types of resources may be added and compared. The major natural resources produced in China were divided into five categories: energy resources, agricultural products, forest products, fishery and rangeland products and mineral products. After calculating the exergy content of each resource, the total quantity and structure of resource production as well as its variations were analyzed at the country and province levels. Subsequently, cluster analysis was used to classify 30 provinces on the basis of their characteristics in resource production. These results showed that the total amount of China's resource production had increased. The main resource-producing provinces had changed from the eastern regions to the western regions and from the southern regions to the northern regions. For most types of resources, the main resource-producing provinces had changed significantly.