School of Economics, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, PR China.
School of Business Administration, Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, Hangzhou, PR China.
PLoS One. 2020 Apr 8;15(4):e0230963. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0230963. eCollection 2020.
Combining freshwater consumption and wastewater emissions into a unified analysis framework and utilizing the epsilon-based measure (EBM) model with the characteristics of radial model and non-radial model, this paper evaluates green water use efficiency (GWUE) of 11 provincial-regions in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) and investigates its spatiotemporal differences during the period 2005-2014, on basis of which the contribution rate of each input-specific green water use inefficiency in the overall green water use efficiency and the potential of freshwater-saving and wastewater emissions reduction are also calculated. The Theil index is used to explore the sources of the provincial gap of green water use inefficiency, and a random-effect panel Tobit model is applied to test the impact of the influencing factors of green water use inefficiency in the YREB. It is found that green water use inefficiency of the YREB is relatively low and regional differences is significant during the sample period, indicating a large potential of water-saving and water pollution reduction, and narrowing BGAP and WGAP of the Upstream is the key for improving green water use inefficiency in the YREB. The panel Tobit regression results show that economic development, technological innovation, water use structure, water resources endowment, environmental regulation and regional differences all play positive/negative effects on green water use inefficiency in the YREB, while these factors' influencing direction, degree and significance are significantly different. The conclusions of our study can provide considerably valuable information for the YREB to reserve water resources and reduce wastewater emissions.
将淡水资源消耗与废水排放纳入统一分析框架，利用具有径向模型和非径向模型特征的基于 ε 的测度 (EBM) 模型，本文评估了长江经济带 (YREB) 11 个省级行政区的绿水利用效率 (GWUE)，并考察了其 2005-2014 年期间的时空差异。在此基础上，还计算了各投入特定绿水利用无效在整体绿水利用效率中的贡献率，以及节约淡水资源和减少废水排放的潜力。Theil 指数用于探究绿水利用无效的省级差异来源，随机效应面板 Tobit 模型用于检验 YREB 中绿水利用无效的影响因素。研究结果表明，在样本期内，YREB 的绿水利用无效相对较低且区域差异显著，这表明节水和水污染减排潜力巨大，缩小上游地区的 BGAP 和 WGAP 是提高 YREB 绿水利用效率的关键。面板 Tobit 回归结果表明，经济发展、技术创新、用水结构、水资源禀赋、环境规制和区域差异对 YREB 的绿水利用无效均产生正向/负向影响，但其影响方向、程度和显著性存在显著差异。本研究的结论可为长江经济带节约水资源和减少废水排放提供有价值的信息。
