PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY ›› 2018, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (7): 901-911.doi: 10.18306/dlkxjz.2018.07.004

• Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Temporal and spatial evolution of green efficiency of water resources in China and its convergence analysis

Caizhi SUN1,2(), Qifei MA2, Liangshi ZHAO1   

  1. 1. Center for Studies of Marine Economy and Sustainable Development, Dalian 116029, Liaoning, China
    2. College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian 116029, Liaoning, China
  • Received:2017-11-11 Revised:2018-01-04 Online:2018-07-28 Published:2018-07-28
  • Supported by:
    Key Project of National Social Science Foundation of China, No.16AJY009

Abstract:

Using the slacks-based measure (SBM) model, this study analyzed the temporal and spatial differences of green efficiency of water resources and the shift of spatial center of gravity in China by constructing the meta-frontier and group-frontier functions, and convergence tests of the green efficiency total factor productivity (TFP) of the frontier water resources of the group-frontier. The result shows that the technology gap ratio in the eastern region is as high as 1 and only 0.404 and 0.551 in the central and western regions, and verifies that the green efficiency of water resources in the frontier of the group is more reasonable and can reflect the green efficiency of the water resources, and proved the necessity of zoning research on the green efficiency of water resources. The green efficiency of water resources in different regions of China has a large technological gap relative to the different technological frontiers, and the average green efficiency of water resources in many areas is lower than the national average. The green efficiency of water resources in China is generally low and there is still much room for improvement. In the early stage of the study period, the green efficiency of water resources in the eastern part of China increased continuously, while the central and western regions experienced declines. In the later period, imbalance is observed in the east-west and north-south directions. Green efficiency of water resources in the mainland of China as a whole and the central and western regions exhibited TFP σ convergence, indicating that the overall green efficiency of water resources TFP difference will disappear automatically with the passage of time. At the national level and in the eastern, central, and western regions, absolute β convergence and conditional β convergence are significant, indicating that the green efficiency of regional water resources TFP differences will convergence to a steady state with the passage of time.

Key words: slacks-based measure (SBM) model, group-frontier, green efficiency of water resources, center of gravity-standard deviation ellipse, convergence, China