Quantifying the sustainability of water use systems: Calculating the balance between network efficiency and resilience

► The optimal network balance for the sub-basins of Hihe River has ascendency values ranging from 0.5970 to 0.7161. ► The value of aopt in water use systems is correlated negatively with environmental flow amount. ► For water use systems in the Haihe River Basin, the water use structure that is decided by socioeconomic structure and properties of environmental flow are essential factors to make the optimal balance fall at A > Φ.