Spatial differences and influencing factors of regional agricultural water use efficiency in Heilongjiang Province, China

Abstract

Abstract Improving the water use efficiency in agriculture is an important way to solve the problem of water shortage in agricultural areas and to improve the efficiency of water resource utilization. An evaluation indicator system of regional agricultural water use efficiency was constructed using data from 13 cities in Heilongjiang Province from 2013 to 2015. In addition, the comprehensive ranking of agricultural water use efficiency in each year was obtained by using an iterative combination method to correct the evaluation of individual models, including the analytic hierarchy process), matter element model and projection pursuit model (PPM). The results showed that the agricultural water use efficiency in Heilongjiang Province exhibited some regional differences in the 3 years evaluated spatially. And then, factors that influenced agricultural water use efficiency were analysed according to various criteria, and the rankings of cities and strategies were proposed to improve the agricultural water use efficiency according to this analysis. The results of the present study will have important theoretical and practical significance for guiding the scientific and rational formulation of agricultural water use strategies and improving the efficiency of agricultural water use in Heilongjiang Province.