Evaluation and empirical study of Happy River on the basis of AHP: a case study of Shaoxing City (Zhejiang, China)

Abstract

Context ‘Happy River’ is a new goal of river management in the new era of China. Aims To quantitatively evaluate the status of ‘Happy River’. Methods The evaluation model of ‘Happy River Index’ was established in this study through the analytic hierarchy process according to the three levels of ‘objective–criterion–index’. The criterion layer includes the following five parts (including weights): water protection (0.25), ecological construction (0.22), landscape aesthetics (0.20), water culture (0.18) and social functions (0.15); three to six indicators are set under each criterion layer as the index layer. On the basis of this, the main rivers in six regions of Shaoxing City were evaluated and the scores calculated comprehensively. Key results The results showed that the total scores of Shangyu District, Yuecheng District and Xinchang County were 89, 87 and 85 respectively, indicating that the rivers are in a very good state; the total scores of Zhuji City, Shengzhou City and Keqiao District were 82, 80 and 75 respectively, indicating that the state of rivers is relatively poor compared to the first three regions. Conclusions The follow-up work can be promoted from the aspects of ecological construction, water culture construction, water protection and social functions. Implications The established model and empirical study have provided a theoretical basis and data basis for the comprehensive evaluation of modern rivers.