Optimum weights of environmental parameters in evaluating urban environmental sustainability index: case study of Jaipur city

Developing nations including India are witnessing a very rapid rate of urbanization, leading to severe worsening of urban environment due to pollutants. Poor planning of cities is major issue and a big hindrance on the social and economic conditions jeopardizing the human existence in the near future. The challenge lies on how to quantify the environmental quality in a complex scenario where major environmental parameters are monitored only at relatively few locations. Some of the parameters, which would be extremely useful in evaluating or validating environmental sustainability, are difficult to derive and determining their spatial distribution is a challenge. In the present study an Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) has been developed for Jaipur City. It is based on important, air, water quality, and municipal solid waste parameters affecting urban health. Using GIS tools, average value of this index is calculated for every ward of Jaipur city and is compared with various data collected for asthma and water-borne diseases from 20 major hospitals in Jaipur to validate the model. Weights of various parameters are optimized using nonlinear generalized reduced gradient (GRG) solver. Final ward-wise ESI map is presented, and it collaborates well with the major industrial areas of the Jaipur City.