Clarifying the water-energy linkage relationship and optimizing the water-energy consumption structure are the primary ways to achieve "carbon peak and carbon neutrality". A regional resource-economic input-output model was constructed to calculate the water and energy consumption of the the three provinces of northeast china based on 2017.In addition, it analyzes the resource circulation of the department by spreading the spatial transfer changes of the virtual water-energy footprint. On this basis, multi-source data are coupled to build an ecological network analysis model of water-energy system, so as to explore the coupling characteristics of water-energy network. The results show:(1) in 2017, the total consumption of water resources in the the three provinces of northeast china was 56.197 billion m³, the total implied water of energy was 3.048 billion m³, and the implied energy consumption of water resources was 6.9925 million tce, energy consumption was 405.7995 million tce, the virtual water footprint was 47.413 billion m³ and the virtual energy footprint was 546.686 million tce.(2) The change of virtual water footprint is as follows:The largest input path of Liaoning province was food manufacturing and tobacco processing industry-agriculture, while the input path of Jilin province and Heilongjiang Province was opposite; The largest circulation sectors in the change of virtual energy sector are construction industry-tertiary industry/metal smelting and products industry, selection industry-chemical industry.(3) The cycle rate of water-energy network is lower than 40%, competition relation is the mainstream relation in utility matrix relation of water resource-energy network; Among the three provinces, Jilin province has the best cooperation in water-energy network, its ecological network is in a more stable state; After the water-energy network coupling, the symbiosis index of virtual resource network in each province increases in different degrees, which has a significantly positive effect on each economic sector; compared with virtual resource network, the control degree of water resource network among different departments is weakened to varying degrees, and the dependence degree is generally deepened. In the aspect of energy network, the interdepartmental control ability is strong on the whole, and the dependence degree is weakening on the whole. The results can provide a reference for the management department to make scientific and rational decisions on water and energy use.