A framework for achieving urban sustainable development goals (SDGs): Evaluation and interaction

Sustainable development is a complex system involving multiple dimensions of society, economy, resources and environment. It is of great significance to evaluate the sustainable development level and explore the interactions among sustainable development goals (SDGs) for the promotion of sustainability. In present study, a localized urban sustainable development evaluation framework was first proposed. Then, taking Shandong Province as an example, the spatiotemporal variations and goal evenness of sustainability were investigated. Finally, synergies and trade-offs between SDGs were revealed. The results showed that the sustainable development level has improved slightly from 2011 to 2020 in Shandong Province, exhibiting a dual-core pattern with Jinan and Qingdao. Shandong Province performed relatively well in SDG 1 (no poverty), SDG 2 (zero hunger), SDG 9 (industry, innovation, and infrastructure), and SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities). The unevenness existed in sustainable development, indicating that the development process varied from one goal to another and there were obvious differences among cities for the same goal. Relatively weak synergies and trade-offs relationships were mainly observed between SDGs, and the interactions were in a changing state. Analyzing the sustainable development level from multiple perspectives and promoting multi-goal coordinated development are vital for achieving urban sustainable development.