Building a sustainable development index and spacial assessment of municipalities inequalities in the state of Ceará

Abstract The paper builds a sustainable development index based on environmental, social, economic and institutional dimensions and presents a spatial assessment of municipalitties inequalities in the State of Ceará. Sustainability indices force institutions and governments to question their standards and act as “driving forces” for public policy-making. The validity of sustainability indexes is heavily dependent on how their components are weighted and aggregated. The research is quantitative developed through secondary data acquired in public agency databases of the country (Brazil) and federal unit (State of Ceara). Data analysis included confirmatory factor analysis for the construction of general sustainability indexes, descriptive analysis of these indices and spatial econometric modeling to represent on the map of Ceará municipalities. The survey results reveal a regular adjustment of the sustainable development index. The model allows a geographical view of sustainable development indicators and presents with a tool in the definition of public policies for social equity, environmental and economic. The analysis of social, economic, environmental, institutional and general indices revealed that the most urban areas of the State of Ceará have a greater sustainable development and confirms the fragility of public policies in promoting regional balance.

摘要 本研究构建了涵盖环境、社会、经济与制度维度的可持续发展指数，并对巴西塞阿拉州（State of Ceará）各城镇的发展不均衡程度开展空间评估。可持续发展指数可倒逼机构与政府检视自身发展标准，同时可作为公共政策制定的核心驱动力。可持续发展指数的有效性高度依赖其各组成部分的权重设定与聚合方式。本研究采用定量研究范式，所用二手数据取自巴西本国及联邦主体塞阿拉州的公共机构数据库。数据分析环节涵盖用于构建综合可持续发展指数的验证性因子分析（confirmatory factor analysis）、针对上述指数的描述性分析，以及用于在塞阿拉州城镇地图上呈现结果的空间计量建模（spatial econometric modeling）。研究结果表明，本研究所构建的可持续发展指数拟合效果良好。该模型可直观展现可持续发展指标的空间分布特征，并可为社会公平、环境保护与经济发展领域的公共政策制定提供决策辅助工具。通过对社会、经济、环境、制度及综合可持续发展指数的分析可知，塞阿拉州的多数城镇建成区拥有更高的可持续发展水平，同时也证实了当前公共政策在推动区域均衡发展方面存在明显短板。