Xie, Y. and Song, Y., 2020. Spatiotemporal analysis of urban water use efficiency of the Yangtze River Economic Zone in China: Based on undesirable super-efficiency EBM-DEA model. In: Yang, Y.; Mi, C.; Zhao, L., and Lam, S. (eds.), Global Topics and New Trends in Coastal Research: Port, Coastal and Ocean Engineering. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 103, pp. 458–463. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

Water is an important social and economic resource for the sustainable development of mankind. This paper measures water use efficiency (WUE) of 106 cities in Yangtze River Economic Zone (YREZ) of China during 2006-2017 based on undesirable super-efficiency EBM-DEA model which takes sewage and social output into consideration. The results show that: (1) On average, WUE (technical efficiency, TE) of the YREZ does not reach efficient level, of which the west performs best among the three regions. Furthermore, pure technical efficiency (PTE) in the middle and west as well as scale efficiency (SE) in the east is constraint factor of their WUE respectively. (2) WUE in most cities is found above 0.4, and in a few cities is found efficient. (3) It must be noted that all capital cities' technical efficiency are revealed to be restrained by their SE. (4) Whether on overall level or regional level, WUE has been decreasing over time except for 2017, but the annual decreasing rate is becoming smaller and smaller and even convert to increasing rate in 2017. (5) The change of WUE mainly depends on efficiency change, and the deceasing of it should be attributed to technology regress. (6) More attention should be paid to the east whose total decreasing rate is largest and annual decreasing rate fluctuates greatest over time. These findings may provide a scientific basis for further studies on city level WUE and practical water resource management in the YREZ.