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Due to the discharge of pollutants, over-exploitation of water resources and large regional imbalances, it is critical to design an effective Reward and Penalty Mechanism (RPM) for the regions in a basin based on the Water Resource Environmental Carrying Capacity (WRECC) performance. To determine how to set the reference points of reward and penalty plans and design the RPM, the following approach is proposed. Firstly, since the evaluated regions always orient their activities towards certain goals at the initial stage of the evaluation period, this paper finds the closest goal for each indicator according to the previous performance using a DEA benchmarking model. Secondly, a reward and penalty plan addressing both reward and penalty within a unified benchmarking framework is designed according to the different alert levels determined from WRECC performances. Thirdly, an extended DEA model is developed to adjust the benchmarking of the current period to the goals to determine DEA targets that are achievable and represent best practices as reference points. The gaps between the DEA targets and actual observed values allow for us to identify the alert level of the evaluated region. The rewards or penalties of the current period can be obtained based on reward and penalty plans at the final stage. A case study concerning the WRECC-based PRM of the top 10 cities in China's Huaihe River basin is selected to demonstrate the validity of the proposed approach. The results indicate that the top 10 cities of the Huaihe River basin in 2016 are benchmarked against Zhengzhou, Yangzhou and Jining; Zhengzhou, Xuzhou, Yangzhou and Jining should receive rewards and the remainder of the evaluated cities should pay penalties. According to the results, the gap between the actual performance and the DEA targets can be defined; how much improvement the regions should make can be identified; and regions that should be rewarded or punished as well as the specific amount of money required can be determined.

Thermal power has accounted for the major part of the electricity generation over recent several decades in China. It plays an important role in supporting China's economic development while it also brings great pressure to the environment protection because of a large amount of pollution generated during its production. In order to solve or alleviate the environmental problem caused by thermal power firms, efficiency evaluation is the first important step. As thermal power firm is a complex system with multiple inputs and multiple outputs, usually including fuzzy data and undesirable outputs in the productions, in this paper, we build an integrated Enhanced Russell measure model based on data envelopment analysis for evaluating the performance of decision making units in the presence of the undesirable outputs in fuzzy circumstance. Then, this new model is applied to analyze the environmental performance and provide the benchmarks for the thermal power firms in China which can guide the decision makers to make suitable future production plans for improving their performance.

National Natural Science Funds of China for Innovative Research Groups [70821001]; National Natural Science Funds of China [70901069, 71222106, 71203186]; Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China [20133402110028]; Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [WK 2040150007]; China Scholarship Council

Since China became a member of World Trade Organization (WTO), its economy develops at a fast speed. At the same time, the environmental problem becomes more and more serious and increasingly affects economic development. Studying the factors that influence environmental efficiency has become an essential point in dealing with the relationship between economy and environment. Considering the differences in space and economic development among different districts, this paper discusses the quantitative relationship among exports figure, imports figure, GDP per capita, industrialization level, fiscal decentralization and environmental efficiency of each Chinese province by using statistical analysis. Furthermore, this paper discusses differences among each district's influential factors from the perspective of Spatial Economics and makes combination forecast on the trend of environmental efficiency. It also shows that the environmental efficiency of Chinese provinces is generally at a low level. In addition, as the economic statuses of different provinces vary and the factors that influence environmental efficiency in different provinces also have significant differences, each province should take certain measures to design the environmental protection policy in line with its local circumstance.