Evaluating and analyzing the sustainable development using PCA - a case study in Honghu City China

The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) method can be used for managing numerous correlative indexes. In this paper we attempt to apply this method to evaluating and analyzing the sustainable development, a case study in Honghu City China. Firstly, according to the theory of system, we regard Honghu City as one compound system including population, economy, society, and resource environment subsystems, and set up evaluation index system of Honghu city. Then evaluate and analyze the state of sustainable development using PCA. The results show: Honghu city develops towards the benign direction generally, and some reasons for the development state are analyzed. Above evaluation and analysis process indicate: PCA is a good method to evaluate and analyze sustainable development.