Evaluation of Effective Factors in Achieving Ecological City in the Direction of Sustainable Development

Abstract

Diverse ways have been presented for achieving urban balance and sustainability. The ecological city is one of these approaches. Consequently, the primary objective of this study is to identify and assess the effective variables in attaining an ecological city in the direction of sustainable development in the city of Jingzhou. Separating the effective criteria and variables for creating the ecological city and comparing the perspectives of professionals and citizens regarding the priority of these factors are additional objectives of this study. The current study has an applied objective and a descriptive data gathering strategy. In this study, a two-part questionnaire was developed in which Friedman’s test was used to prioritize the effective criteria for attaining an ecological city from the people’ perspective. The Analysis Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used to prioritize the aforementioned variables from the experts’ perspective. The statistical population of the study consists of residents of the city of Jingzhou. A total of 384 individuals were selected as the sample. The analysis of data was performed using SPSS statistical software. According to the results, there is no substantial difference in ways in which residents and specialists prioritize the effective components for building an ecological city. Except for the sub-factors of the “physical” section (where the priorities are completely different among the groups) and the two “environmental” sections (where the priorities of the two groups are slightly different), the priority of the sub-factors is the same in the remaining sections from the perspective of both groups. According to the findings of this study, “independent and self-sufficient local economy” and “use of renewable energy” are the most beneficial components for creating an ecological city from the perspective of both inhabitants and professionals. In addition, among the indicators of Jingzhou city, the economic index is in a better position for the city to be ecological.