Evaluation and Assessment Environmental Sustainability (Case Study: Ardebil Province)

The development of discussions about­ industry and its effects on the environment, along with population growth, led to a sustainability paradigm in the world. Sustainability roots in environmental thoughts which is a multidimensional phenomenon nowadays including social, economic, and environmental issues. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate and assess the sustainability of development in economic, social and environmental aspects in the counties of Ardabil Province. The research method is descriptive-analytical and quantitative. The population consists of 10 counties of Ardebil Province, based on census in 2015 and 2014. 3 economic, social and environmental components consisting of 10 economic indices, 16 social indices, and 14 environmental indices were used to evaluate. In this study, Analytic Network Process model (ANP) was used to express the relative importance of each indicator, and the sustainable barometer model was used to analyze the data. The results show ­that among the triple sustainability aspects, the economic aspect has more sustainability in comparison to the social and environmentally aspects. Indices of economic and social with the value of (0.485) and (0.469) have an average level of sustainability and the environmental aspect with a value of (0.383) has a nearly unsustainable level. According to human well-being, among the 10 counties­ studied, only the city of (Sareyn), has an almost unsustainable level, eight cities (Khalkhal, Kosar, Garmi, Nir, Meshgin Shahr, Namin, Pars Abad, and Bableh Savar) have an average level of sustainability and a city of (Ardebil) has at an almost sustainable level. Also in terms of well-being of ecosystems of the counties studied, it suggests that seven cities (Garmi, Nir, Sareyn, Namin, Bableh Savar, Meshgin Shahr, and Khalkhal) are almost unsustainable, and three cities (Kosar, Pars Abad, and Ardabil) have an average level of sustainability.