Eco-Efficiency Analysis of Industrial Systems in the Songhua River Basin: A Decomposition Model Approach

Fuyou Guo, Kevin Lo and Lianjun Tong
Additional contact information
Fuyou Guo: Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130102, China
Kevin Lo: Department of Geography, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong 999077, Hong Kong, China
Lianjun Tong: Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130102, China

Sustainability, 2016, vol. 8, issue 12, 1-19

Abstract: Eco-efficiency is an important sustainable development and circular economy construct that conceptualizes the relationship between industrial output, resource utilization, and environmental impacts. This paper conducts an eco-efficiency analysis for basin industrial systems using the decomposition model approach. Using data on 10 cities in China’s Songhua River basin, we illustrate the evolutionary characteristics and influencing factors of industrial systems’ eco-efficiency. The results indicate that cities in upstream and midstream areas focus on improving resource efficiency, whereas cities in downstream areas focus on improving terminal control efficiency. The results also show that the government plays an increasingly important role in promoting eco-efficiency and that significant differences in the influencing factors exist among the upstream area, midstream area, and downstream area. Our results offer deeper insights into the eco-efficiency of industrial systems and give further hints on how policy-making can help achieve sustainable development, balancing between economic activities and environmental protection.

Keywords: industrial system; environmental impact; spatiotemporal difference; eco-efficiency; Songhua River basin; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/12/1271/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/12/1271/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:8:y:2016:i:12:p:1271-:d:84516

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().