Department of Mathematics for Economics, University of Valencia, 46010 Valencia, Spain.
Departamento de Ingeniería Hidráulica y Ambiental, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, 4860 Santiago, Chile.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Mar 10;18(6):2831. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18062831.
Analyzing costs and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions could be of great importance for the water utilities to supply water services in a healthy and sustainable manner. In this study, we measured the eco-efficiency of several water utilities in England and Wales by incorporating GHG as an undesirable output. For the first time, we evaluated the eco-efficiency of the water production process using robust cross-efficiency data envelopment analysis (DEA) techniques. The further use of clustering and regression techniques allowed us to better understand the drivers of eco-efficiency. The results showed that the mean eco-efficiency of the water sector was 0.748, which indicates that costs and GHG emissions could be reduced by 25.2% to generate the same level of output. Large water companies with high energy costs and levels of GHG emissions belonged to the less eco-efficient group. Environmental factors related to density, topography, and treatment complexity further impacted eco-efficiency. Finally, we linked our results to the regulatory cycle and discuss some policy implications.
分析成本和温室气体（GHG）排放对于供水企业以健康和可持续的方式供水可能非常重要。在这项研究中，我们通过将 GHG 作为不良产出纳入其中，衡量了英格兰和威尔士的几家供水企业的生态效率。我们首次使用稳健的交叉效率数据包络分析（DEA）技术评估了水生产过程的生态效率。聚类和回归技术的进一步应用使我们能够更好地了解生态效率的驱动因素。结果表明，水行业的平均生态效率为 0.748，这表明可以降低 25.2%的成本和 GHG 排放，以产生相同水平的产出。能源成本高和 GHG 排放水平高的大型水务公司属于效率较低的群体。与密度、地形和处理复杂性相关的环境因素进一步影响了生态效率。最后，我们将研究结果与监管周期联系起来，并讨论了一些政策含义。
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