Luzhou Vocational and Technical College, Luzhou, Sichuan Province, China.
PLoS One. 2021 May 4;16(5):e0251088. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0251088. eCollection 2021.
Located in the Eurasian continent's hinterland, Xinjiang is a typical arid and resource-developing region in China's northwest. Problems such as excessive resource consumption, environmental pollution, and ecological imbalance are becoming severe, which have become the bottleneck that further restricts Xinjiang's sustainable development. Due to its outstanding quantitative advantages, ecological efficiency has become a significant indicator and analytical tool for measuring the green economy and sustainable development. In this study, we analyzed ecological efficiency variation for Xinjiang's 14 prefectures between 2001 and 2015 using a super-efficient data envelopment model (DEA), Malmquist Index, and Tobit model. These analyses indicated that: (1) The overall ecological efficiency level of Xinjiang is low, and development among regions is unbalanced, out of sync, lacks sustainability. (2) From 2001 to 2015, Xinjiang's ecological efficiency showed a W-shaped rising trend and finally increased by 5.7%. It is due to the substantial improvement in environmental efficiency. (3) By analyzing the environmental efficiency and resource efficiency, 14 prefectures in Xinjiang consist of four development modes: low energy consumption and low emission, high energy consumption and low emission, low energy consumption and high emission, and high energy consumption and high emission. (4) Water resources are restricting factors of arid regions. In most prefectures, there exist excessive water resource investment, excessive COD, and NH3-N emissions. (5) By analyzing the Malmquist index, it shows that the technical progress index(TC) restricted ecological efficiency. In contrast, the technical efficiency index (EC) promoted ecological efficiency.(6)The ecological efficiency was positively correlated with the utilization of foreign capital, urbanization rate, and average education degree but negatively correlated with the marketization degree. The study has guidance and reference function for the sustainable development of Xinjiang-a vital corridor of the Silk Road Economic Belt, and also provides a reference to the research work of other arid resource-based regions.
位于亚欧大陆腹地的新疆，是中国西北典型的资源开发与生态脆弱并存区。资源消耗过度、环境污染和生态失衡等问题日益严重，已成为进一步制约新疆可持续发展的瓶颈。生态效率以其突出的数量优势，成为衡量绿色经济和可持续发展的重要指标和分析工具。本文运用超效率数据包络模型（DEA）、Malmquist 指数和 Tobit 模型，对 2001—2015 年新疆 14 个地州市的生态效率变动进行了分析。结果表明：①新疆整体生态效率水平低，区域发展不平衡，失调失续；②2001—2015 年新疆生态效率呈“W”型上升趋势，最终增长 5.7%，主要得益于环境效率的大幅提升；③通过对环境效率和资源效率的分析，新疆 14 个地州市可划分为低能耗低排放、高能耗低排放、低能耗高排放和高能耗高排放四种发展模式；④水资源是干旱区的制约因素，多数地州市存在水资源投入过度、COD 和 NH3-N 排放过量问题；⑤Malmquist 指数分析表明技术进步指数（TC）是制约生态效率的主要因素，而技术效率指数（EC）则促进了生态效率的提升；⑥生态效率与利用外资、城镇化率、平均受教育年限呈显著正相关，与市场化程度呈显著负相关。本研究对“丝绸之路经济带”核心区——新疆的可持续发展具有指导和借鉴意义，也为其他干旱资源型地区的研究工作提供参考。
