A Hybrid DPSR and Entropy-Weight-Based Uncertain Comprehensive Evaluation Method for Human-Water Harmony Assessment

Sustainable development on harmonious relationship between water and human beings has attracted considerable research attention. Human-water harmony (HWH) is closely related to complex systems that involve ecology, society and economy. Timely evaluation is necessary to promote the human-water relationship. A hybrid framework that uses a driving force-pressure-state-response (DPSR)-based evaluation index system for determining the HWH degree is proposed in this study. The index system covers multiple dimensional indicators that reveal the complete causal chain containing drivers and pressures of current water environment state promoted by the inner-outer factors in social activities and fundamental water management response measures. Evaluation of HWH is conducted on the basis of uncertain comprehensive evaluation (UCE)-originated method, in which weights are determined by introducing information entropy to eliminate the negative influence caused by subjectivity. And personal uncertainty that exists in the experts’ comments on each indicator is converted into uncertain variable. Meanwhile, the eventual assessment outcome is achieved via expected value technique. Lastly, a comprehensive evaluation case for HWH of Handan city in China and comparative analysis with the traditional UCE method are investigated to illustrate the feasibility and validity of the proposed method. The result indicates that the harmony degree is quantified as ‘ordinary harmonious’, which provides a reference for solving the harmonious development problem of the human-water relationship.