Sustainable Development Goal 6 Assessment and Attribution Analysis of Underdeveloped Small Regions Using Integrated Multisource Data

Abstract

Data scarcity is a key factor impacting the current emphasis on individual indicators and the distribution of large-scale spatial objects in country-level SDG 6 research. An investigation of progress assessments and factors influencing SDG implementation in cities and counties indicates that smaller-scale regions hold greater operational significance for achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development from the bottom up; thus, urgent attention should be given to data deficiencies and inadequate analyses related to SDG impact attribution. This study, conducted in the National Innovative Demonstration Zone for Sustainable Development of Lincang City, investigates multisource data sources such as integrated statistics, survey data, and remote sensing data to analyze the progress and status of SDG 6 achievement from 2015–2020, and employs the LMDI decomposition model to identify influential factors. The assessment results demonstrate that the SDG 6 composite index in Lincang increased from 0.47 to 0.61 between 2015 and 2020. The SDG 6 indicators and SDG 6 composite index have significant spatial heterogeneity. The water resources indexes in wealthy countries are high, the water environment and water ecology indexes in developing countries are comparatively high, and the SDG 6 composite index is high in undeveloped counties. Technological and economic advances are the main positive drivers impacting the SDG 6 composite index, and the relative contributions of technology, economy, structure, and population are 61.84%, 54.16%, −4.03%, and −11.96%, respectively. This study shows that integrated multisource data can compensate for the lack of small-scale regional statistical data when quantitative and comprehensive multi-indicator evaluations of the SDGs are conducted. And, policies related to SDG 6.1.1, SDG 6.2.1, and SDG 6.3.1 can be a priority for implementation in undeveloped regions with limited funding.