Environmental Efficiency Evaluation Research Articles

Environmental management efficiency evaluation based on indicator information integration and DEA-Malmquist index

Aim: Completeness of indicator information is an important problem that needs to be further studied in environmental management efficiency evaluation (EMEE). However, this problem has not attracted sufficient attention in existing studies and there is lack of the total factor productivity analysis, which is an effective method to evaluate the environmental management efficiency change that has been applied in different fields. Methods: A novel EMEE model is proposed based on indicator information integration and DEA-Malmquist index, in which the kernel of the indicator information integration is the evidential reasoning approach with an indicator weight calculation. Results: The DEA-Malmquist index is introduced to evaluate the efficiency of environmental management and also analyzes its efficiency change based on the integrated indicator information. A case study of 30 provinces (except Tibet) in mainland China from 2005-2017 is provided to illustrate the analysis of regional efficiency distribution, efficiency change and improvement strategy of environmental management. Conclusion: The proposed model can provide a reference for the improving regional environmental protection

Evaluation of environmental and economic efficiency of transportation in China based on SBM model

In recent years, the rapid development of transportation industry brings economic benefits, at the same time, the problem of environmental pollution is becoming more and more serious. The emission of CO2 intensifies the trend of global warming. How to measure the development of environment and economy is a huge challenge for us. This paper proposes a data envelopment analysis (DEA) method based on slacks-based measure (SBM) to evaluate the environmental and economic performance of the transportation industry from 2015 to 2017. According to the economic region, 30 provinces in China are divided into northeast, east, central and western regions for efficiency analysis. The model can determine the low efficiency decision units and finally put forward improvement suggestions for the low efficiency areas.

Retraction Note: Evaluation of regional environmental economic efficiency based on GIS big data and improved neural network

Retraction Note: Evaluation of regional environmental economic efficiency based on GIS big data and improved neural network

Comparative evaluation of environmental efficiency of the municipal solid waste treatment scenarios for St. Petersburg region with the life cycle assessment method

The research focuses on complex comparative evaluation of environmental efficiency of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) treatment scenarios that can be implemented in St. Petersburg and Leningradskaya oblast’. Three scenarios were modelled that technically and economically meet the regional needs. The scenarios imply the following systems: 1) sorting, Mechanical-Biological Treatment (MBT), landfilling; 2) sorting, MBT, Waste-to-Energy (WTE), landfilling; 3) sorting, MBT, Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) for cement industry, landfilling. In comparison, the “zero” scenario implying landfilling untreated waste was modelled. A Life Cycle Assessment based approach was proposed, which allows comparing scenarios through converting heterogeneous impact categories to a single monetary index. The highest damage reduction (by 60-70% in comparison with the “zero” scenario) was shown in the complex scenarios, including both MBT and energy recovery. 40, 42 and 47% of the total damage in scenarios 1, 2, 3 accordingly is associated with MBT product landfilling. The results show that the main benefit of complex treatment cannot be fully realized without separate collection of food waste. In this situation the most environmentally soundable scenario comprises recyclables separation and subsequent WTE treatment of all the rest with the exception of some non-combustibles.

Environmental Efficiency Evaluation of China's Power Industry Based on the Two-Stage Network Slack-Based Measure Model.

How to achieve the continuous improvement of the environmental performance level of the power industry within the requirements of clean and low-carbon energy development is the fundamental requirement and inevitable choice for the construction of ecological civilization and sustainable development. From the perspective of environmental protection, based on the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method and the internal mechanism of power system production and supply, the power industry environmental efficiency evaluation index system was constructed, and the two-stage Network Slack-based Measure (NSBM) model considering undesired output was used to calculate China’s 30 provinces and municipalities from 1998 to 2019. The environmental efficiency is divided into two links: power generation efficiency and transmission and distribution efficiency. The study found that, within the research interval, the overall environmental efficiency of China’s 30 provinces is low, and the differences between provinces and cities are large, but they have gradually developed in a better direction after 2015. The power generation efficiency of the first link in most provinces and municipalities is higher than the transmission and distribution efficiency of the second link, and the low transmission and distribution efficiency is an important reason for the low comprehensive level of environmental efficiency. The overall evolution trend of environmental efficiency in the six regions of China is roughly the same, but the regional differences are obvious, showing a trend of “high in the southeast and low in the northwest”. The economic and natural resource differences in different provinces and cities in each region have led to varying degrees of redundancy in five aspects, including investment in power assets, installed power generation capacity, and length of transmission lines, which seriously affect the environmental efficiency of the power industry. This research attempts to open the “black box” of the environmental efficiency conversion process of the power industry, which can provide directions and strategic suggestions for the improvement of the efficiency of the power industry in China.

Operational and environmental efficiency of U.S. oil and gas companies towards energy transition policies: A comparative empirical analysis

AbstractGlobal warming and climate change have been critical global issues in recent years. The evaluation of environmental and operational efficiency would be an important first step towards sustainable development. Renewable energies are playing an increasingly important role in the energy sector. Following energy transition policies, oil and gas companies are gradually transforming into energy companies. First, this article measures the operational and environmental efficiency of 45 U.S. oil and gas companies over the period 2000–2018. Second, this research aims to assess the effect of renewable energies on the two types of efficiency. Two methods are used in this research: the true fixed‐ model applied for measuring the efficiency scores and evaluate the inefficiency determinants, and the system generalised method of moments approach to verify the effect of energy and environmental policy on both the types of efficiencies and to test the robustness of our results. The results reveal that the overall average operational efficiency (desirable output) of the U.S. oil and gas companies is 76% for a period of 19 years, while the overall average level of CO2 emissions efficiency (undesirable output) of the oil and gas companies is 79%. The results highlight that U.S. oil and gas companies have begun to transition to low CO2 emission in recent years. Furthermore, the biofuel, hydroelectric power, wind power and solar energy contribute to promote the environmental efficiency of oil and gas companies.

Renewable energies and operational and environmental efficiencies of the US oil and gas companies: A True Fixed Effect model

Energy economics and environment protection are important issues in a modern society that aspires to aim at sustainable development. The evaluation of environmental and operational efficiency would be an important first step towards sustainable development. Renewable energies, especially hydroelectricity, geothermal, solar and wind, are playing an increasingly important role in the energy sector. Therefore, oil & gas companies are progressively transforming into energy companies following an energy transition policy. This raises the question whether the renewable energies promote the environmental and operational efficiency of petroleum companies. First, this paper examines two types of efficiency measures – operational and environmental – for 45 US oil & gas companies during the period 2000–2018 using on the true fixed effect (TFE) model. Second, this research aims to study the effect of renewable energies on both types of efficiency. The results reveal that the overall average operational efficiency (desirable output) of the US oil & gas companies is 76% for a period of 19 years, while the overall average level of CO2 emissions efficiency (undesirable output) of the oil & gas companies is 79%. The results highlight that US oil & gas companies have begun to transition to low CO2 emission in recent years. Furthermore, the renewable energies and biomass energies contribute to destroying the operational efficiency and to promote the environmental efficiency of oil & gas companies.

Environmental Efficiency Evaluation in the Top Asian Economies: An Application of DEA

Sustainable development has become a global catchphrase in the recent development age. This leads to the growth of various methodologies in evaluating environmental efficiency, such as the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method. The purpose of this study is to propose an extended DEA model, i.e., the undesirable output model, in measuring the relative eco-efficiency scores across nations. The study collected the data of inputs, namely bad outputs and good outputs of the top 20 Asian economies in the period of 2005–2019, and then estimated the environmental efficiency of each country and classified them. The results have shown that there are four nations having higher average environmental efficiency than others. Japan is a good example of sustainable development that simultaneously balances economic development and environmental protection. The study has also discussed possible solutions for improvement to the group of nations with low environmental efficiency. Contributing to applying a novelty extended DEA model, this work recommends a more precise model, taking the weight of outputs into account for further studies.

Environmentally and Socially Oriented Investments on Sustainable Development of Rural Areas

Theoretical, methodological, scientific, methodical and applied principles of managing environmentally and socially oriented investments in sustainable development of rural areas have been developed and substantiated in the article. The model of investment process of ecologically and socially oriented economy has been developed. The analysis of corresponding existing models of investment process enabled to specify the management model, which corresponds to the environmentally and socially oriented economics. The block scheme of the system of analyzing and evaluating the efficiency of investment processes of sustainable rural development has been made. The determined methodological provisions and specified concepts enabled to ground the system of complex analyzing and assessing the effectiveness of investment processes in sustainable development of rural areas, including the evaluation of economic, social and environmental efficiency of investment projects. The mechanism of sustainable rural development, comprising consolidated elements and connections, has been grounded. The ecological aspects of investment policy as a component of the economic mechanism of sustainable rural development have been systematized. It has been determined that attracting investments in environmentally and socially oriented investment projects and programs has to be based on strengthening the ecological aspects of investment policy as part of stimulating sub-system of the economic mechanism of sustainable rural development.

Does haze pollution affect public health in China from the perspective of environmental efficiency?

This study attempts to introduce haze pollution into the environmental efficiency evaluation framework and measures PM2.5 environmental efficiency in China during 2001–2017 based on the slack-based measure (SBM)-undesirable model. The results show that the PM2.5 environmental efficiency value is 0.707 in China with a trend of slow decline over time, and there is regional diversity in PM2.5 environmental efficiency, with eastern, central and western values of 0.912, 0.554 and 0.601, respectively. Furthermore, this study examines the impact of PM2.5 environmental efficiency (EFF) on public health. The empirical findings indicate that EFF has a significant positive impact on public health. That is, if EFF is increased by 1%, respiratory disease mortality per 10,000 persons will be decreased by 2% provided that all other variables remain unchanged. In addition, medical technical personal in healthcare institutions per 1000 persons (RYS), population density (POP) and urbanization level (CITY) play an active role in promoting the level of public health. However, healthcare expenditure as a percentage of the per capita disposable income of rural households (NC), health expenditure as a percentage of GDP in fiscal expenditure (GJK) and the per capita tobacco expenditure of urban households (YC) all hinder the improvement of public health. Finally, the paper fails to observe a significant relationship between healthcare expenditure as a percentage of per capita disposable income of urban households (CZ), the enrolment rate of school-age children (EDU) and public health. Finally, this paper provides policy recommendations on controlling haze pollution, developing an efficient economy and improving public health in the future.

Research on the site selection of watershed public facilities as multi-use detention basin: an environmental efficiency perspective.

With the climate change and the acceleration of urbanization, urban flood disaster is becoming increasingly frequent, leading to more severe impact than in the past. The traditional disaster alleviation strategies have gradually expanded to non-engineering disaster reduction strategies. As urban public property, public facility is more available than private land, making it the preferred strategy of site selection for urban land flood diversion. However, due to the limited government finance, how to select public facilities as the multi-use detention basin to maximize the disaster reduction and external benefits is an issue that needs to be considered before planning and decision-making. This study builds an operable decision model of site selection of urban public facilities as multi-use detention basin from the perspective of environmental efficiency. The decision model analyzes the expected costs and benefits of the multi-use detention basin based on data envelopment analysis (DEA) and cross-efficiency analysis, so as to establish the optimal combination of alternative schemes of site selection. It further compares with the traditional detention basin considering only disaster reduction efficiency to summarize how to improve the strategy of selecting multi-use detention basin site within the watershed in the future. This paper uses the watershed of Dajiaxi as a case study, and finds that (I) there is a certain trade-off relationship between the optimized schemes established from the perspective of environmental efficiency and disaster reduction efficiency evaluation. The scheme with the highest disaster reduction efficiency does not necessarily increase the external benefit significantly; (II) for the inefficient schemes, the difference between the site selection schemes and the ideal efficiency value can be measured through slack variable analysis.

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Evaluation of regional environmental economic efficiency based on GIS big data and improved neural network

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Evaluation of regional environmental economic efficiency based on GIS big data and improved neural network

Environmental Efficiency Evaluation of the Xiangjiang River Basin: A DEA Cross-Efficiency Approach With Social Network

Cross-efficiency in data envelopment analysis is widely used for performance evaluation of decision-making units (DMUs), but it neglects the reference relationship between each pair of DMUs. In order to address the problem, this paper introduces the concept of social network to clearly describe the reference relationship between DMUs and then a fully ranking can be made. A novel cross-efficiency approach is developed by integrating social network analysis in this study. Firstly, we propose a pairwise comparison model based on cross-efficiency evaluation to identify the superiority and inferiority between any pair of DMUs. Secondly, based on pairwise comparison, we build a non-weighted directed social network where a direction generates from one DMU to another DMU if the former one references the latter one. Each edge in the unweighted social network captures the learning procedure from worse-performance DMU to better-performance DMU. Comparing with traditional cross-efficiency approaches, our proposed approach considers the reference relationship among DMUs rather than only cross-efficiency scores. Thus, the importance of each DMU in the network can be measured by its centrality. Finally, the proposed approach is employed to environmental efficiency evaluation of the cities along the Xiangjiang River Basin, then, some beneficial universal policies have been summarized.

Evaluation and Development of Environmental and Health Efficiency: Case of V4 Countries

Evaluation and Development of Environmental and Health Efficiency: Case of V4 Countries

The spatial convergence and drivers of environmental efficiency under haze constraints - Evidence from China

Haze has seriously threatened the ecological environment and public health, so researching environmental efficiency under haze constraints is significant in managing pollution and evaluating the balance between economic development and environmental health. Based on the panel data of China's 99 cities during 2005–2017, this paper uses α-convergence and β-convergence models to analyze the spatial convergence of environmental efficiency under haze constraints and its drivers in China,specifically in Eastern China, Central China, and Western China.The main results are as follows: (1) The trend of environmental efficiency under haze constraints in these regions evidently follows a dumbbell curve. In recent years, it has been growing slowly in Eastern China, Central China, and Western China, and the environmental efficiency in the Eastern China is the highest, the Central China is the second, and the Western China is the lowest; (2) it demonstrates both α-convergence and β-convergence in Central China, Western China, and Eastern China, and the speed of convergence is the fastest in the Central China, the second in the Western China and the slowest in the Eastern China; there is a “catch-up effect” in cities from less environmentally efficient regions to more efficient regions; and (3) Industrial structure and degree of trade dependence have a significantly negative correlation; characteristics of the region and dependence on foreign investment have significantly positive correlations with the environmental efficiency of Eastern China and Central China; environmental regulations and economic scale limit the improvement of environmental efficiency of Central China and Western China; and technological innovation significantly impacts Eastern China only. Although the paper refers to the specific evidence of China, with haze as a new indicator in the comprehensive evaluation of environmental efficiency can be extended to other developing countries as well as to other pollutants such as land pollution and waste water. The understanding of drivers of environmental efficiency under haze constraints in China provides international policy-makers with valuable reference for formulating effective measures to balance the dilemma between economic development and environmental health.

Evaluation of Environmental Efficiency in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region Based on DEA

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is a new category explored in operations research, management, applied mathematics, and finance. Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development has become the focus of current national society. In this paper, a total of 13 cities above the prefecture level in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region are selected as sample units for decision-making. The total population at the end of the year, regional fixed asset investment, industrial dust emissions, industrial wastewater emissions, and industrial sulfur dioxide emissions were selected as input indicators. The actual GDP is used as the output indicator. Two linear programming models included in the DEA method are adopted: Model and The model, through the collection, screening and use of a large amount of data, uses Matlab programming to calculate the comprehensive technical efficiency, pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency of 13 cities, and evaluates and analyzes the effectiveness of the three efficiency values to correctly judge Beijing and Tianjin.

Better resource utilization: A new DEA bi-objective resource reallocation approach considering environmental efficiency improvement

This study addresses the resource reallocation problem by proposing a data envelopment analysis (DEA) bi-objective approach that considers the environmental efficiency improvement of organizations (i.e., decision making units, DMUs). First, we introduce environmental efficiency evaluation models with and without the consideration of resource reallocation. Second, we prove that all the DMUs can be environmentally efficient after resource reallocation using a common-weight evaluation mechanism and build the resource reallocation possibility set. Third, a bi-objective resource reallocation model is proposed which considers both output target realizability and the match between the new reallocated resource of a DMU and the DMU’s pre-performance and operation size. Further, a trade-off model is adopted to solve the bi-objective model to obtain the final resource reallocation result. The proposed approach guarantees that all the DMUs are environmentally efficient after resource reallocation while maintaining the non-resource inputs at their current levels. It also contributes by considering both the DMUs’ ability of achieving the output targets and each DMU’s pre-performance which is an important indicator that reflects each DMU’s ability to transform input resources into output products. Finally, the proposed approach is applied for a case study of Chinese regional land transportation systems based on data of the year 2016.

Quantified CO2-related indicators for green building rating systems in China

Buildings’ CO2-related indicators are essential in checking negative effects of global warming on the environment. They are required in Green Building Rating Systems (GBRS) to promote low-carbon development. Most of Asian GBRS consider CO2-related evaluations. In China, Assessment Standard for Green Buildings (ASGB) includes CO2-related indicators; however, the standard lacks the necessary specification for quantisation and compulsory requirements for evaluation. There is a lack of research regarding its updated version, ASGB-2019. The objective of this paper is to propose a framework of CO2-related indicators in ASGB-2019, compared with Comprehensive Assessment System for Built Environment Efficiency (CASBEE) and Green Building Evaluation Manual (EEWH). CO2-related indicators were compared in terms of structure, weights, evaluation and calculation methods. CO2-related indicators cover the first and second level indexes and are included in direct and indirect evaluation in all three GBRS. While scopes of CO2-related indicators are different among these three GBRS, weights from large to small are EEWH, CASBEE and ASGB. CASBEE and EEWH would give more importance to CO2-related calculation than ASGB. The proposed framework will guide CO2-related evaluations in ASGB-2019 by combining qualitative and quantitative methods. For ASGB-2019, the scope of CO2-related indicators should be broadened to include the Required and Encouragement indicators, the weights could be around 50% for broad scope and 16% for narrow scope. The CO2 emissions calculation should be an indispensable indicator.

China’s Provincial Environmental Efficiency Evaluation and Influencing Factors of the Mining Industry Considering Technology Heterogeneity

The mining industry has promoted the process of industrialization in China, and the current consumer demand for mineral products is still very large. Since the development of mineral resources has caused serious environmental pollution and waste of resources, the country has raised the development of green mining to a strategic level. Based on China’s provincial data over the 2007–2016 period, this paper measured environmental efficiency (EE) of China’s mining industry (CMI) using Meta-frontier slacks-based measure (SBM) method and reveals the root causes of environmental inefficiency (EI). Then, a panel Tobit regression model was established to discuss the differential impact of relevant factors on the meta-frontier environmental efficiency (MFEE) of CMI in the regional heterogeneity perspective. The results show that: (1) The MFEE of CMI exhibits low score and there is significant regional heterogeneity, with the highest in Eastern China, followed by Central China, and Western China. (2) The technology gap ratio (TGR) in the three regions shows that Eastern China ranks the highest, followed by Central China, and Western China. TGI is the main contributor to the EI of CMI. (3) the overall MFEE of CMI, the MFEE of CMI in Eastern, Central and Western area are negatively related to the environmental regulation intensity, are positively related to the resource utilization rate, respectively. The economic development level, innovative ability, education level, industrial structure and state-owned capital proportion differently effect on China’s overall EE of the mining industry and the EE of the mining industry in different regions of China, respectively.

China's regional environmental efficiency evaluation: a dynamic analysis with biennial Malmquist productivity index based on common weights.

China's economy in the past 10years has developed rapidly and achieved great success, but at the same time, environmental problems have been deteriorating, seriously hindering the country's regional sustainable development. This paper proposes a common-weights DEA model based on "the priority of choosing common weights" to assess the environmental performance of 30 provinces from 2006 to 2015 and analyzes regional development in combination with China's economic division. This paper also introduces the biennial Malmquist Productivity Index (BMPI) to study environmental productivity levels during the 11th and 12th Five Year Plans (FYP) from a time series perspective. The results present a large gap in regional environmental efficiency, mainly manifested by the fact that the eastern and northeastern regions' environmental condition is obviously better than that of the central and western regions. BMPI analysis indicates that the overall environmental performances during the 11th and 12th FYPs did not improve significantly, with a clear imbalance in the western region, implying that its development potential is huge. On this basis, we offer some suggestions for improving the environmental performance of different regions.