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Evaluating and improving water use efficiency is considered one of the main ways of tackling water shortage challenges in water-scarce cities. A useful indicator for evaluating industrial water use efficiency is the relative water use efficiency (RWUE). In this paper, an industrial RWUE evaluation scheme is proposed based on data envelopment analysis (DEA) theory. In this scheme, the RWUE is divided into overall efficiency (OE), pure technical efficiency (PTE), and scale efficiency (SE). In order to help decision-makers specify the focal industry of efficiency improvement, direct water use is distinguished from indirect water use. By employing this industrial RWUE evaluation scheme, this research calculated the industrial RWUEs for 25 representative industries of Beijing (1990-2010). Results show that the OE, PTE, and SE of Beijing have improved significantly. In the primary industry, the scale adjustment fundamentally lifted OE. For the secondary industries, there still exists much room for water use efficiency improvement in technical innovation. Some emerging tertiary industries replaced traditional tertiary industries as the most efficient water users. This study serves as a valuable reference for the implementation of the Strictest Administration of Water Resources (SAWR) of China, and provides policymakers worldwide with a useful framework of understating industrial water use efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water leaks are an environmental and sustainable issue as well as an economic issue. The objective of this paper is to analyse the efficiency of a sample of Spanish urban water systems by considering water leaks in a network as undesirable outputs. Data envelopment analysis (DEA), an analytical benchmarking methodology, is used to calculate technical and economic efficiency. We also discuss the possible relationship between efficiency and tariffs charged to users. Results show that the possibilities for reducing water leaks in networks are high, thus demonstrating that there is room for savings from an economic and environmental point of view. The assessment of efficiency performance could usefully assist local authorities and water suppliers in the task of optimising urban water management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study assesses the efficiency of the urban water supply system in 27 selected Indian cities. It applies data envelopment analysis (DEA) as an analytical tool to measure technical efficiency. Cities are categorized into different groups according to the management structure of their water utilities. The results show that within groups, the utilities that are managed by 'municipal corporations (MCs) and parastatals', with a certain amount of functional autonomy, perform better in comparison to the group 'MCs and government' and thus, strengthen the hypothesis that functional autonomy in management leads to better performance of the water utilities. Moreover, the results also have implications for urban domestic water pricing. We find that most water utilities are operating under decreasing returns to scale (DRS), implying that water should be priced at a marginal cost of supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]