Evaluation of urban sustainable development levels based on PCA-DEA method

The rapid acceleration of industrialization and urbanization influences urban ecological environment and resource utilization. Therefore, it is important to evaluate urban sustainable development levels. Integrating principal component analysis (PCA) with data envelopment analysis (DEA) utilizes the advantages and avoids the disadvantages of the two methods. On the basis of foregoing researches, the paper put forward a more effective PCA-DEA method. Then the paper developed a case study on the seventeen cities in Shandong Province. The results shows that effective values of Qingdao, Zibo, Zaozhuang, Rizhao, Linyi, Dezhou and the other eleven cities are equal to and less than 1 respectively. Therefore, the efficiencies of output to input of the six cities are most optimal, while sustainable development levels of the other eleven cities are lower. Additionally, there are redundant inputs or insufficient outputs in these cities. The results can provide references for the formulation of regional development policies.