Improving assessment of groundwater sustainability with analytic hierarchy process and information entropy method: a case study of the Hohhot Plain, China

The objective of this study was to test indicators and improve the assessment of groundwater sustainability by using a synthetic method. An indicator system of groundwater sustainability was constructed under the framework of driver–pressure–state–impact–response, and a method for the assessment of groundwater sustainability was developed by using analytic hierarchy process together with information entropy theory. This method was used to calculate the weight of each indicator. And then, the sustainability scale was determined by the indicator zoning methods. The assessment results of a case study in Hohhot Plain, China, demonstrated that the method greatly reduced the randomicity and anthropogenic influence on the determination of weight of indicators; and gave a quantitative classification on sustainability scale which produced a rational result on the assessment of groundwater sustainability in Hohhot Plain.