[Evaluation of urban human settlement quality in Ningxia based on AHP and the entropy method]

As one of the key indicators of the urbanization and the sustainable development of cities, urban human settlement quality has been a hot issue. In this paper, an evaluation system containing indicators related to four aspects (ecological, social, humanities and economic environments) was established to assess the urban human settlement quality in five main cities in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Northwest China. After calculating each indicator' s weight in the evaluation system through AHP and the entropy method, the quality of urban human settlement was analyzed. Results showed that Yinchuan had a score of 0. 85 for the quality of human settlement, Shizuishan 0.62, Wuzhong 0.43, Zhongwei 0.33, and Guyuan 0.32, respectively. Shizuishan got the highest score in the eco-environment aspect, and Yinchuan had the highest scores for social, humanities and economic environments. Zhongwei and Guyuan had relatively low scores in all the four urban human settlement aspects. Coordination analysis showed that internal coordination was moderate for Yinchuan (0.79) and Shizuishan (0.72), and relatively good for the other cities. However, coordination was relatively poor among the five cities, especially in social environment (0.48). These results suggested that an unsatisfied situation existed in terms of the urban human settlement quality in Ningxia, and that corresponding measures should be taken to accelerate the development of vulnerable indicators, so as to coordinate all the urban human settlement aspects within and among cities.