Environmental management efficiency evaluation based on indicator information integration and DEA-Malmquist index

Completeness of indicator information is an important problem that needs to be further studied in environmental management efficiency evaluation (EMEE). However, this problem has not attracted sufficient attention in existing studies and there is lack of the total factor productivity analysis, which is an effective method to evaluate the environmental management efficiency change that has been applied in different fields. Therefore, a novel EMEE model is proposed based on indicator information integration and DEA-Malmquist index, in which the kernel of the indicator information integration is the evidential reasoning (ER) approach with an indicator weight calculation; the DEA-Malmquist index is introduced to evaluate the efficiency of environmental management and also analyzes its efficiency change based on the integrated indicator information. A case study of 30 provinces (except Tibet) in mainland China from 2005- 2017 is provided to illustrate the analysis of regional efficiency distribution, efficiency change and improvement strategy of environmental management. Results show that the proposed model can provide a reference for the improving regional environmental protection.