Application of AHP for the Weighting of Sustainable Development Indicators at the Subnational Level

Abraham Londoño-Pineda,Jose Alejandro Cano,Rodrigo Gómez-Montoya

doi:10.3390/economies9040169

Abraham Londoño-Pineda, Jose Alejandro Cano + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/economies9040169

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Abstract

This article presents an indicator weighting method for constructing composite indices to assess sustainable development at the subnational level. The study uses an analytic hierarchy process (AHP), which is considered relevant, since it establishes links between the indicators that make up the different sustainable development goals (SDG). For this purpose, 28 indicators defined by experts constitute the base to evaluate the progress towards sustainable development of the Aburrá Valley region, located in Antioquia, Colombia. The results show that health, employment, and education indicators obtained higher weights, while environmental indicators received the most reduced weights. Likewise, the model proves to be consistent using a consistency ratio, which generates the possibility of replicating this model at different subnational levels.

Highlights

Economies 9: 169. https://doi.org/The origin of the sustainable development concept is usually attributed to the “Brundtland Report” published by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) (Holden et al 2014; Jónsson et al 2016)
Likewise, when comparing X4 with X23, a value of 1 was assigned, which means that the indicator X4 (Maternal mortality rate) is important as the indicator X23 (Concentration of Particulate Material PM2.5) since air quality directly affects the health of citizens, those who are at risk of respiratory diseases
This paper introduced an indicator weighting method for assessing sustainable development at the subnational level using an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) supported by expert criteria

Summary

Introduction

Economies 9: 169. https://doi.org/The origin of the sustainable development concept is usually attributed to the “Brundtland Report” published by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) (Holden et al 2014; Jónsson et al 2016). Since the Rio Earth Summit 1992, the most common way to define sustainable development has been through the triple bottom line perspective (economic, social, and environmental dimensions—see Figure 1a), which must generate interactions between them (Swarnakar et al 2021; Ali-Toudert and Ji 2017; Tanguay et al 2010), and have become the most used way for assessing sustainable development (Bolcárová and Kološta 2015; Shaker and Sirodoev 2016). Recent works, such as those by Londoño and Cruz (2019), use the sustainable development goals (SDGs) as a guide to assess sustainable development because the SDG agenda will be in effect until 2030, and from there, a baseline of 17 SDGs, goals, and 232 indicators will serve as a guide for assessing sustainable development

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