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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Social-Ecological Urban Systems
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2024.1435331

Spatial and Temporal Changes of Urban Ecological Efficiency and Its Influential Factors in the Yellow River Basin

Provisionally accepted
Qianming ZHANG Qianming ZHANG 1jixia LI jixia LI 2*
  • 1 Chuxiong Normal University, Chuxiong, China
  • 2 Beijing Normal University, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The Yellow River Basin serves as a vital ecological shield for China, and enhancing the urban ecological efficiency (UEE) is essential for the region's ecological civilization and high-quality development. This research employs the slacks-based measure-data envelopment analysis (SBM-DEA), which incorporates undesirable outputs, and the Malmquist index to measure the UEE of 65 cities in the Yellow River basin from 2008 to 2017, described its spatio-temporal evolution characteristics, and utilizes its influencing factors using the Bootstrap truncated regression model. The main findings are as follows. ① The UEE in the Yellow River Basin has seen a steady, albeit low, increase from 2008 to 2017, with notable disparities existed in the upper, middle and lower reaches. Low pure technical efficiency is the main factor limiting the improvement of UEE in the Yellow River Basin. ② Cities with higher ecological efficiency in the Yellow River Basin generally exhibit a spatial distribution pattern of "lower reaches > middle reaches> upper reaches", and it shows that cities with growing UEE are continuously shifting to the middle and lower reaches. ③ Environmental regulation, scientific and educational investment, economic scale, and greening level significantly promote the improvement of UEE in the Yellow River Basin, but population density and industrial structure lead to a decline in UEE. However, this result is heterogeneous between the upper, middle, and lower reaches, such as environmental regulation hindering the growth of UEE in the upper reaches, scientific and educational investment hindering the improvement of UEE in the downstream areas, and industrial structure significantly enhancing UEE in the midstream areas. These findings offer valuable insights for policymakers aiming to address ecological challenges and promote sustainable development within the Yellow River Basin, highlighting the need for targeted strategies that consider regional differences and the unique characteristics of each reach.

    Keywords: Yellow River Basin, Urban ecological efficiency, Influencing factors, SBM-DEA model, Bootstrap

    Received: 20 May 2024; Accepted: 27 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 ZHANG and LI. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: jixia LI, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, Beijing Municipality, China

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