Analyzing three pillars of sustainable development goals at sub-national scales within the USA

Abstract

America is a paradox: one of the world's economically leading countries, lagging in sustainable development (SD). Drawing on many studies, the problems caused by imbalances between the environment and economy often result in resource drains at the local level, leaving the state and local government officials to devise solutions to address such imbalances. While there are a few UN studies available analyzing this phenomenon at the state scale, no studies have observed SDGs across 3,142 localities (counties or county-equivalents) within the USA. The study categorized these SDGs into three pillars of SD: Social, Economic, and Environmental, to analyze the balance and imbalance between the pillars of SD across all states and localities within the USA. An indicator-based approach was used to measure SDGs for the years 2010 and 2015. Results confirmed the uniform distribution of overall SDG Index distribution across states, but some localities performed poorly, mainly in the Southern Region. Rank-wise, top scorers upheld balanced scores across three pillars and bottom ranks showed imbalances. Overall, the social pillar was less predominant, but the economic and environmental pillars predominated in the northern and southern parts of the nation, respectively. The outcome of the study can help collaborate and build networks, targeting clustered areas through collective actions and planning local strategies for the outliers and other localities. While localization is the key, balancing between three pillars is essential to make progress on the path of SD. Therefore, the present study can be used as a framework to prioritize SDG actions at sub-national scales.