The Relationship between Water Resources Use Efficiency and Scientific and Technological Innovation Level: Case Study of Yangtze River Basin in China

The Yangtze River Basin’s water resource utilization efficiency(WUE)and scientific and technological innovation level(STI)are closely connected,and the comprehension of these relationships will help to improve WUE and promote local economic growth and conservation of water.This study uses 19 provinces and regions along the Yangtze River’s mainstream from 2009 to 2019 as its research objects and uses a Vector Auto Regression(VAR)model to quantitatively evaluate the spatiotemporal evolution of the coupling coordination degree(CCD)between the two subsystems of WUE and STI.The findings show that:(1)Both the WUE and STI in the Yangtze River Basin showed an upward trend during the study period,but the STI effectively lagged behind the WUE;(2)The CCD of the two subsystems generally showed an upward trend,and the CCD of each province was improved to varying degrees,but the majority of regions did not develop a high-quality coordination stage;(3)The CCD of the two systems displayed apparent positive spatial autocorrelation in the spatial correlation pattern,and there were only two types:high-high(H-H)urbanization areas and low-low(L-L)urbanization areas;(4)The STI showed no obvious response to the impact of the WUE,while the WUE responded greatly to the STI,and both of them were highly dependent on themselves.Optimizing their interaction mechanisms should be the primary focus of high-quality development in the basin of the Yangtze River in the future.These results give the government an empirical basis to enhance the WUE and promote regional sustainable development.

Water resource utilization efficiency and spatial spillover effects in China

Based on provincial panel data of water footprint and grey water footprint, and with the help of data envelopment analysis model considering and without considering the unde- sirable output, this paper estimates the water resources utilization efficiency in China from 1997 to 2011. The spatial weighting matrix based on economy-spatial distance function is established to discuss spatial autocorrelation of water resources utilization efficiency. With the help of absolute/3-convergence model, this paper concludes that there exists/%convergence in the water resources utilization efficiency. Under the conditions of considering and without considering the undesirable output, it takes about 52.6 and 5.6 years respectively to achieve the extent of half of convergence. By mean of the spatial Durbin econometric model, this paper studies spatial spillover effects of the provincial water resources utilization efficiency in China. The results are as follows. 1） With considering and without considering the undesir- able output, there is significant spatial correlation in provincial water resource efficiency in China. 2） Under the two cases, the spatial autoregressive coefficients （p） are 0.278 and 0.507 respectively, at 1% significance level. There exist the spatial spillover effects of provin- cial water resources utilization efficiency. 3） With considering the undesirable output, these factors of the education funds, the transportation infrastructure, and the industrial and agri- cultural water consumption proportion have positive impacts. These factors of foreign direct investment, the industry value-added water consumption per ten thousand yuan, per capita water consumption, and the total precipitation have negative impacts. 4） Without considering the undesirable output, the factor of GDP per laborer has a greater positive significant influ- ence on the water resources utilization efficiency. However the facts of industry value-added water consumption in ten thousand yuan and the transportation infrastructure have no sig- nificant influence. 5） Regardless of undesirable output of water resources utilization efficiency the assessment of the present real water resources utilization in China will be distorted and policy-making will be misled. The water efficiency measure considering environmental factors （such as gray water footprint） is more reasonable.

Spatio-temporal analysis of urbanization and land and water resources efficiency of oasis cities in Tarim River Basin

This paper examines the spatial pattern of land and water resources as well as urbanization and their interactions in the Tarim River Basin, Xinjiang, China. In order to do so, we extract the data associated with efficiency of land and water resources and urbanization for the years of 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2008. Specifically the paper investigates the extent to which agglomeration of population and economic activities varies geographically and inter- plays with spatial pattern of resources efficiency through computation of Global Moran＇s I index, Getis-Ord Gi＊ index and a coordinated development model. The method used provides clear evidence that urbanization, land and water resources efficiency have shown uneven spatial pattern due to oasis distribution, climate, and initial phase of urban development. Some conclusions can be drawn as follows. （1） Agglomeration and dispersion of urbanization are not consistent with those of land and water resources efficiency. （2） Evolution of the hot and cold spots of urbanization, and land and water resources efficiency, in different trajecto- ries, indicate that there are no significant interactions between them. （3） The evidence that numbers of hot and cold spots of the three factors present varying structures reveals the dominance of unequal urban development in the study area. （4） Significant differences are also found between sub-river basins in terms of the three factors, which is a reflection of the complex physical geography of the area. （5） The degree of coordinated development of cities in the Tarim River Basin is generally low in part as a reflection of difference in spatial patterns of the three factors. It is also shown that the pattern of the degree of coordinated development is relatively stable compared with evolution of hot and cold spots of the three factors.