Volume 27, Issue 5 pp. 1318-1337
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Valuation of socio-economic indicators for progressing urban sustainability under distinctive rubrics

Ambreen Ghalib

Corresponding Author

Ambreen Ghalib

College of Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan

Correspondence

Ambreen Ghalib, The University of the Punjab, Canal Rd, Quaid-i-Azam Campus, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan.

Email: [email protected]

Danish Raza, State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.

Email: [email protected]

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Sahar Mirza

Sahar Mirza

Department of Geography, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan

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Danish Raza

Corresponding Author

Danish Raza

State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China

The Urban Unit, Lahore, Pakistan

Correspondence

Ambreen Ghalib, The University of the Punjab, Canal Rd, Quaid-i-Azam Campus, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan.

Email: [email protected]

Danish Raza, State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.

Email: [email protected]

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Ainnee Rafi

Ainnee Rafi

Electrical Engineering Department, HITEC University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan

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Farhan Ali

Farhan Ali

The Urban Unit, Lahore, Pakistan

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First published: 31 May 2023

Abstract

The key objective of the study is to collect the factors which play an important role in the city's sustainability and implementation advantages for the development of cities in future. This article develops an urban sustainability assessment framework by giving GIS-based decision support tools to guide cities toward sustainability. Multicriteria analysis was used as the decision support system and provides an analytical framework for assessing differences in the level of criteria and ranking decision options. It has the capability for assessment of urban sustainability because it brings sustainability criteria from three pillars of sustainability, environmental, social, and economic, which provide an integrated approach for assessment of urban sustainability. The GIS-based multicriteria analysis serves as a sustainability support system that maps urban sustainability and the underlying environmental, social, and economic conditions. The results from the study show that the four cities - Faisalabad, Lahore, Gujranwala, and Multan - have better economic conditions while only Lahore and Faisalabad showed social progress and the remaining cities showed less suitability. For the environmental index, none of the cities attained high suitability. Lahore, Faisalabad, and Rawalpindi showed better conditions than Gujranwala and Multan. It is demonstrated that Punjab cities have made progress in economic condition and improvement in social condition but have poor environmental condition. In the study, the environmental dimension has indicators which have more impact on the urban sustainability. Environmental degradation is observed in all selected regions and not a single region showed suitability toward its environmental condition and due to this none of the cities gained suitable scores for urban sustainability. Consequently, urban sustainability is a multidimensional and dynamic process that needs regular evaluation and monitoring. Thus, this article contends that the tools help to highlight and emphasize those areas that need guidance in achieving urban sustainability.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

All data present in the article.

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