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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Yang Yang, Yaping Wang and Xuan Zhang
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DOI:10.17265/2162-5263/2026.01.002
Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China
This study aims to explore how the Wei River Basin can enhance the efficiency of horizontal ecological compensation to promote high-quality and sustainable development in the Yellow River Basin. To achieve this, a four-stage DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) method was employed to evaluate the efficiency of ecological compensation in six prefecture-level cities within the Wei River Basin from 2001 to 2022. In addition, the K-prototype clustering analysis method was integrated to assess the regional differences in ECE (ecological compensation efficiency). The findings indicate: (1) the ecological compensation efficiency in the upstream areas of the Wei River Basin is significantly higher than in the downstream regions; (2) the influence of factors such as the proportion of the tertiary industry, population density and residents’ disposable income on the efficiency of ecological compensation is significant; (3) after excluding environmental factors, the overall ecological compensation efficiency showed a significant improvement. Based on these insights, it is recommended that the provinces of Shaanxi and Gansu further establish a robust compensation fund operation mechanism, build a cross-regional ecological compensation upstream-downstream coordination system, and strengthen inter-basin economic cooperation mechanisms to promote dual-driven development through technological advancement and scale benefits, thereby advancing ecological protection and sustainable development in the Wei River Basin.
Wei River Basin, ecological compensation, efficiency evaluation, four-stage DEA.
Yang Yang, Yaping Wang and Xuan Zhang.The Efficiency Evaluation of Horizontal Ecological Compensation in the Wei River Basin of China Based on the Four-Stage DEA.Journal of Environmental Science and Engineering B 15 (2026) 16-30
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