Urban water resource utilization efficiency in China

The efficient use of water resources directly affects environmental, social, and economic development; therefore, it has a significant impact on urban populations. A slacks-based measure for data envelopment analysis (SBM-DEA) has been widely used in energy efficiency and environmental efficiency analyses in recent years. Based on this model, data from 316 cities were examined and a category method was employed involving three different sorting techniques to empirically evaluate the efficiency of urban water resource utilization in China between 2000 and 2012. The overall efficiency (OE) of urban water resource utilization in China was initially low, but has improved over the past decade. The scale efficiency (SE) was higher than the pure technological efficiency (PTE); PTE is a major determining factor of OE, and has had an increasingly significant effect. The efficiency of water resource utilization varied according to the region, urban scale, and economic function. The OE score for the eastern China was higher than for the rest of the region, and the OE score for the western China was higher than for the central China. The OE score for urban water resource utilization has improved with urban expansion, except in the case of small cities. The SE showed an inverted 'U-shaped' trend with increasing urban expansion. The OE of urban water utilization in comprehensive functional cities was greater than in economic specialization cities, and was greater in heavy industry specialization cities than in other specialization cities. This study contributes to the field of urban water resource management by examining variations in efficiency with urban scale.