Urban environment quality assessment by using composite index model

Abstract

Urban environments are often subject to many challenges, which make it very difficult to assess sustainability performance of urbanization. Indexing can be an appropriate systematic tool for sustainability assessment in sophisticated decision‐making situations involving simultaneous consideration of multiple qualitative and quantitative factors. In this study, a systems approach was adopted to develop a composite index called SUQCI (Sustainable Urban Quality Composite Index) in order to assess the potential of a city to become sustainable. The index is composed of 10 components containing a total number of 16 indicators. According to which, the 22 districts of Tehran City were compared in terms of sustainability of urban environment quality. The obtained results indicated that the Districts 1, 2, and 3 are in ideal sustainability conditions. These areas are among prosperous places of the city. About 59.09% of all districts were below the average SUQCI. The Districts 18 and 19 with the SUQCI values of 0.21 and 0.25 remain in critical condition. In overall, a great injustice in distribution of sustainability components is observed in Tehran so that unsustainable urban environment becomes more evident in underserved areas of the city. In recent years, increasing attempts have been made to overcome the injustice. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 34: 1473–1480, 2015