An Improved Indicator System for Evaluating the Progress of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Sub-Target 9.1 in County Level

Jiacheng Xu,Jun Chen,Jianjun Bai

doi:10.3390/su11174783

Abstract

In order to assess the progress of the SDG sub-target 9.1 at the county level, the SDG indicator 9.1.1 (rural access index) and 9.1.2 (passenger and freight volumes) were implemented in Deqing County, China to explore the fitness-for-purpose of these indicators for county level evaluations. It is found that the country-oriented indicator system has some localization problems and cannot fully reflect the connotation of the SDG sub-target 9.1 when used in the county level. An improved indicator system was built by modifying the SDG indicator 9.1.1 and adding three more indicators (namely the road density, accessibility, and total postal business). The analysis of the calculation process and results showed that the improved indicator system can solve the problems arising from the original SDG indicator when applied in the county level. The modified resident access index can eliminate the dependence of the original indicator 9.1.1 calculations on urban-rural boundary data, and takes into account the urban vulnerable groups such as urban villages residents. While the road density and accessibility can be used to measure the quantity, quality, and connectivity of the road and the reality of the residents to obtain the road, which enables the indicators to reflect the necessary details of the level of the transportation infrastructure construction. The total postal business can help the SDG indicator 9.1.2 reflect the relationship between the transportation infrastructure construction and the development of the economic and people’s livelihood.

Highlights

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has been adopted unanimously by 193 Member States at the United Nations Summit on Sustainable Development, in September 2015
Raszkowski and Bartniczak [2] research the implementation of the 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Poland; the technical secretariat for the Statistical Coordination Group for the 2030 Agenda in Latin America and the Caribbean [3] has developed a regional indicator framework for SDGs based on the UN SDGs; Panda and Mohanty [4] discussed the progress of health-related sustainability indicators in Indian states; Li et al [5] reviewed the progress of indicator 3.2.1 under-five mortality in 35 countries in Africa
SDGs are a comparatively good indicator system to assess the sustainable development of countries around the world so far, while some studies have indicated that there are still some problems within it, some of them are listed as follows

Summary

Introduction

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has been adopted unanimously by 193 Member States at the United Nations Summit on Sustainable Development, in September 2015. Raszkowski and Bartniczak [2] research the implementation of the 2030 Agenda SDGs in Poland; the technical secretariat for the Statistical Coordination Group for the 2030 Agenda in Latin America and the Caribbean [3] has developed a regional indicator framework for SDGs based on the UN SDGs; Panda and Mohanty [4] discussed the progress of health-related sustainability indicators in Indian states; Li et al [5] reviewed the progress of indicator 3.2.1 under-five mortality in 35 countries in Africa Most of these studies focused on the application of indicators, such as using indicators to evaluate and monitor the level of sustainable development in some countries or regions. SDGs are a comparatively good indicator system to assess the sustainable development of countries around the world so far, while some studies have indicated that there are still some problems within it, some of them are listed as follows

Methods

Results

Conclusion