Spatio-temporal evolution characteristics and influencing factors of eco-efficiency in Dongting lake area

To reveal the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of eco-efficiency in Dongting lake area, and to explore its influencing factors, so as to provide a reference basis for the coordinated development of economic development and ecological environment.

Using resource consumption as an input indicator and economic development and environmental pollution as desired and non-desired outputs, the super-efficiency SBM model, exploratory spatial data analysis, standard deviation ellipse and geoprobe were used to analyze the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics and influencing factors of the eco-efficiency of the 17 county units in Dongting lake region from 2014 to 2023.

1) The temporal variation of eco-efficiency showed a rising trend year by year during the study period, in which the growth rate was faster in 2014-2019, slower in 2020-2022 due to the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, and recovered in 2023, showing a spatial distribution characterized by a higher level in the northwest and a lower level in the southeast; 2) The spatial correlation feature of eco-efficiency showed significant positive global spatial autocorrelation as a whole, with the strongest clustering in 2016, and four types of clustering existed in the local autocorrelation, namely, low-low, low-high, high-low and high-high. The spatial dispersion of eco-efficiency has basically stabilized in terms of spatio-temporal migration characteristics, with the center of gravity located in the central region of Dongting lake, and gradually moving to the positive west direction; 3) The level of economic development, industrial structure proportion, scientific and technological development, environmental governance capacity and urbanization level are important influence factors on the spatiotemporal evolution of eco-efficiency.

The overall eco-efficiency of the Dongting lake area is at a low level, and there are large regional differences. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen scientific and technological innovation, promote the application and promotion of environmental protection technology, accelerate the upgrading and transformation of industrial structure and improve the green productivity of enterprises, strengthen cross-regional cooperation, promote the coordination of economic growth and ecological protection, improve the efficiency of resource utilization, and promote synergistic regional development.