Journal
JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
Volume 241, Issue -, Pages 479-487Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS LTD- ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2019.02.117
Keywords
Groundwater sustainability assessment framework; Environmental sustainability index; AHP; Groundwater resources; Hanoi
Categories
Funding
- Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Japan
Ask authors/readers for more resources
There is mounting concern about how to support decision-makers in driving sustainable water resources management; science needs to support the decision-making process to promote evidence-based decisions. To this end, sustainability assessment is considered a useful technique, which provides enough information to assist management. This study proposed a groundwater sustainability assessment framework, which is developed from a regular sustainability assessment approach and analytical hierarchy process (Al-IP). In the proposed framework, the three main pillars (environmental, social, and economic) of the concept of sustainability were considered the three important sustainability criteria. Hence, we demonstrated the proposed framework for a Hanoi case study with focus on the environmental sustainability criterion. The concept of AHP was used to create the main sustainability components (the three criteria, associated with their aspects and indicators) of a hierarchy, which appropriately cover environmental sustainability issues of groundwater resources in the target area. Based on the available reliable data of the current problems in Hanoi, we proposed three main sustainability aspects (quantity, quality, and management) and, accordingly, selected their twelve environmental sustainability indicators. To determine a reasonable sustainability assessment, we considered a conventional linear and nonlinear relationship between the indicators and the corresponding sustainability indices. As for the results from the Hanoi case study, the environmental sustainability indices obtained from using a combined linear and nonlinear relationship case appropriately reflect the current situation, that is, the environmental sustainability assessment is close to reality. The sustainability indices of the quantity, quality, and management aspects of groundwater were appropriately assessed at acceptable levels, resulting in Hanoi being rated at the acceptable level in the final environmental sustainability index. The variability of the environmental sustainability indices indicated that the current groundwater abstraction networks are heavily concentrated in a few specific areas in Hanoi, which is not optimal for utilizing the rich natural recharge resources of the area. Improvement of the current poor groundwater quality and strict enforcement of environmental regulations are essential to enhancing the environmental sustainability and, more importantly, to drive Hanoi towards sustainable groundwater resources.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available