Spatiotemporal Characteristics and Influencing Factors of Water Resources’ Green Utilization Efficiency in China: Based on the EBM Model with Undesirable Outputs and SDM Model

Abstract

A shortage of water resources is a global issue of common concern. The contribution of the article mainly includes the following two parts. First is the study of water resources’ green utilization efficiency (WRGUE) in 30 provincial administrative units of China from 2009 to 2019 by adopting the epsilon-based measure (EBM) model with undesirable outputs, which can yield a more accurate and reasonable assessment result. In addition, the spatial Durbin model was applied to analyze the driving factors of the WRGUE, which considers the spatial effects. The results are as follows: (1) The discrepancy of the WRGUE in different regions of China is conspicuous, with the highest in East China, followed by the central and the western region, while the Northeast is the lowest. A general decrease trend from China’s southeast coastal area to the northwest inland is presented. (2) Global spatial autocorrelation analysis shows a significant positive spatial autocorrelation in the WRGUE of the 30 sample provinces. However, the local spatial autocorrelation analysis shows that the WRGUE in China presents stronger spatial homogeneity than heterogeneity. (3) The levels of technology advancement, economic development, and the Opening-up policy implementation serve as positive factors influencing the WRGUE in China. On the contrary, the urbanization level has a significant negative impact on the WRGUE. The results of this paper may have great value for sustainable water resource utilization.