Spatial and temporal differentiation and influencing factors of industrial green water resources efficiency in the Yellow River Basin

Scientifically assessing the efficiency of industrial green water resources and identifying its driving factors is one of the important ways to resolve the contradiction between supply and demand of water resources, promote industrial green transformation, and enhance ecological protection and high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin. Based on the super efficiency EBM model of undesirable output, nine provinces (regions) in the Yellow River Basin were taken as the research object to calculate the industrial green water resources efficiency in the Yellow River Basin from 2010 to 2019. Secondly, GML index was used to analyze the dynamic change of industrial green water efficiency. Finally, the driving factors of industrial green water resources efficiency were explored through the geographical detector model. The results show that the overall mean value of industrial green water resources efficiency in the Yellow River Basin from 2010 to 2019 is only 0.585, which does not reach the effective state, shows a steady upward trend. There are obvious differences in the efficiency values among provinces, with Shaanxi province having the highest efficiency and Ningxia province having the lowest efficiency, and showing a pattern of “the east is greater than the west”. The improvement of GML index of industrial green water efficiency in the Yellow River Basin is driven by both the technical progress index and the technical efficiency index. Nature, society, economy and environment are the primary driving factors of industrial green water resources efficiency in the Yellow River Basin, and the level of scientific and technological innovation, industrial water intensity and population quality are the strongest secondary driving factors.