Abstract
China’s water shortage problem is becoming increasingly severe. Improving water use efficiency is crucial to alleviating China’s water crisis. This paper evaluates the water use efficiency of 31 provinces and municipalities in China by using the data envelopment analysis (DEA) method. When the usual DEA model has too many indexes selected, it will cause the majority of the decision making units (DMUs) efficiency values be one, which leads to invalid evaluation results. Therefore, by using the entropy weight method, a new synthetic set of indexes is constructed based on the original indexes. The new synthetic set of indexes retains the full information of the original indexes, and the goal of simplifying the number of indexes is achieved. Simultaneously, by empowering the original indexes, the evaluation using synthetic indexes can also avoid the impact of industrial structure and labor division on water use efficiency. The results show that in China’s northeastern grain producing areas, water use efficiency is higher due to the high level of agricultural modernization. The provinces in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River have the lowest water use efficiency due to water pollution and water waste. In general, China’s overall water use efficiency is low, and there is still much room for improvement.
Highlights
With the impacts of climate change, China has become a country which frequently suffers from drought and severe water shortages
According to research conducted by the United States Geological Survey, the total water consumption in the US in 2015 was 445.3 billion cubic meters, and the per capita water consumption was 1387.23 cubic meters [4,5,6]
The analysis and evaluation of water use efficiency in 31 provinces and municipalities in China are crucial for understanding the current water shortage problem and the improvement of water use efficiency in China [14,15]
Summary
With the impacts of climate change, China has become a country which frequently suffers from drought and severe water shortages. As the world’s most populous country, and the second largest economy in the world, China consumes the largest amount of water [1,2,3]. In 2017, China’s total water consumption was 604.34 billion cubic meters, and the per capita water consumption was 435.91 cubic meters. According to research conducted by the United States Geological Survey, the total water consumption in the US in 2015 was 445.3 billion cubic meters, and the per capita water consumption was 1387.23 cubic meters [4,5,6]. The US water consumption in 2015 reached the lowest since 1970, and it continued to decline due to the improvement in water use efficiency. The analysis and evaluation of water use efficiency in 31 provinces and municipalities in China are crucial for understanding the current water shortage problem and the improvement of water use efficiency in China [14,15]
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