Two-Stage DEA Analysis of Water Resource Use Efficiency

Abstract

This paper presents an extended two-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) method for analyzing water resource use efficiency (WRUE) and related WRUE issues, which was developed by introducing regional water resource metabolic theory into the two-stage DEA method. It has the following advantages: (1) it has the ability to reflect the inner difference and connection of the regional water resource consumption process, which developed the corresponding physical model instead of making it a "black box"; (2) the built physical model for WRUE divided the main body of water resource consumption into social and economic subsystems, which can thus elaborate WRUE; (3) it can analyze not only WRUE but also related WRUE issues. The proposed method was applied to a real-case study in Gansu Province, China. Results show that decision makers can determine the comprehensive and accurate WRUE and negative factors of WRUE in Gansu Province. Moreover, the results offer recommendations for decision makers to plan for efficient use of water resources in different cities.

Water Use Efficiency and Its Influencing Factors in China: Based on the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)—Tobit Model

“…This method has also been used to calculate the water use efficiency in Canada [6], Kenya [7], the United States [8,9], Australia [10], Europe [11], and India [12][13][14]. Regarding studies on China, Ren et al [15] analyzed water use efficiency using a two-stage DEA method. Long and Pijanowski [16] measured Chinese water use efficiency from [2003][2004][2005][2006][2007][2008][2009][2010][2011][2012][2013].…”

An Evaluation of Irrigation Water Use Efficiency in Crop Production Using a Data Envelopment Analysis Approach: A Case of Louisiana, USA

“…Some of the studies evaluate allocative and irrigation water use efficiency at the province level, comprising economic subdivisions, social subsystems, and cities, using time series data. For example, Ren et al [17] analyze water resource use efficiency in Gansu Province, China using the DEA method and find that the water use efficiency of the socioeconomic system in that province has consistently increased from 2004 to 2013.…”

Effect of demographic structure on resource utilisation using term frequency–inverse document frequency algorithm – evidence from China

“…In addition, massive research objects are single and are not comprehensive or integrated, such as water resources, land resources, and mineral resources. As a result, the conclusions obtained are scattered, fragmented, and lack rigour [20, 21]. In terms of research methods, a large majority of articles are seldom analysed by the mainstream economic methods but are mainly concentrated on simulation models [22].…”