Based on the theory of Cobb-Douglas production function, this paper introduces the SocioEnvironmental Indicator, industrial blue water footprint and industrial grey water footprint to improve the traditional input-output indicator system, used the Epsilon-Based Measure (EBM) models, to measure green efficiency of industrial water resource (GEIWR) based on provincial panel data from 2004 to 2016 in China, and then applied Tobit model to explore the mechanism. First, the results show that distinct differences in the efficiency from different provinces in China. The efficiency from the eastern regions is higher than that in other regions. Then, some western provinces have a high efficiency with a shortage of water but effective waste water regulation, which indicates that the effective efficiency only symbolizes the region’s optimal input-output allocation. In particular, the industrial water-saving potential showed a declining trend but there is still much room for improvement of provinces in central China, such as Hubei, Sichuan and Hunan. Lastly, the environmental regulation, technological progress, regional characteristics, industrial structure, foreign capital utilization and water resource consumption have certain impacts on the efficiency. This paper could be helpful in providing a reference for the evaluation of green efficiency of industrial water resource.
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