Abstract: The high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt constitutes a crucial strategy tied to overall national growth. Ensuring ecological priority and green development necessitates addressing the fundamental issue of improving the green efficiency of water resources in urban agglomerations. This study introduces the concept of “green development” into traditional research on water resources utilization efficiency. A comprehensive indicator system for evaluating the green efficiency of water resources is constructed. The super-efficiency EBM-DEA (Epsilon-Based Measure - Data Envelopment Analysis) model and panel Tobit model were employed to calculate and analyze the green efficiency of water resources in urban agglomerations in the middle Yangtze River. The findings reveal: 1) Changes in GDP have a significant impact on the economic efficiency of water resources, and the measurement results for the environmental efficiency and green efficiency of water resources are more reflective of actual conditions. From 2009 to 2020, comparisons among various city clusters reveal that the green efficiency of water resources in the Wuhan city cluster consistently outperformed that of the Poyang Lake urban agglomeration and Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan urban agglomeration. 2) Cities with thriving economies also exhibit high values of water resource utilization efficiency. Areas with abundant water resources in urban agglomerations in the middle Yangtze River demonstrate slightly lower water use efficiency than areas with scarce water resources. Rapid urbanization exerts a restraining effect on green efficiency of water resource, underscoring the need for urban agglomerations in the middle Yangtze River to adhere to a green and new type of urbanization development path.

Key words: green efficiency of water resources, urban agglomeration in middle Yangtze River, super-efficiency EBM-DEA model, Tobit model