Study on the Relationship Between Urbanization and Water Quality: Case Studies of Chinese Cities

The rate of urbanization in developing nations is on the rise; however, expedited urbanization concurrently precipitates the degradation of the urban water environment. Given the comparatively circumscribed data monitoring capabilities of developing nations, to check into internal factors that impact urban water quality and their interaction with limited data in a time of the growth of urbanization and assist developing countries in reconciling urbanization with the urban environment, this paper takes the vicennial development of two industrialized cities in China as a case study by constructing an index model based on a nonlinear improved analytic hierarchy process. The model parameters were calibrated and verified with data from Zunyi and Harbin cities in China. The results display that the root mean square errors of Zunyi’s and Harbin’s data were 0.093 and 0.096, respectively, manifesting satisfactory accuracy and the universality of the model. The dominating factors impacting urban water quality were further revealed by dissecting the model’s elements, which can provide accurate and scientific assistance in urban water quality management. Overall, these findings could help urban water quality management in developing countries, especially in regions where data monitoring is lacking.