Abstract Rapid urbanization has resulted in sudden degradation of the environmental quality of urban settlements, which are difficult to measure and quantify. The present study attempts to provide an assessment of the environmental quality by developing environmental quality index (EQI) for the Ernakulam district in Kerala, India. The index values are spatially mapped to develop an environmental quality index map for the study area under five different classes namely, very poor, poor, moderate, good, very good. The EQI values are calculated for nineteen composite variables classified under three domains namely, ecological, meteorological, and socio-economic domains. A preliminary statistical analysis and detailed principal component analysis (PCA) were performed to construct the environmental quality index for the study region. This was followed by a spatial mapping and analysis to provide a better understanding of the status of the environmental quality to the local residents, environmental planners, regional scientists and policy makers. The results obtained from the analysis show that the study area has a low overall environmental quality. The region considered in this paper has highlighting features of various settlement patterns, population distributions, and land use distributions, which indicates a clear transition in the environmental quality index of different settlement units. Hence, by selecting this region and observing various number of indicators, the real effect of urbanization on the quality of the environment was projected. The systematic methodological procedure explained in this paper can be used elsewhere also, where the study area has similar characteristics as that of the area considered in this study. The outcome of the study is applicable for present and future urban planning, building construction, land and resource management for a sustainable environment.

中文翻译：

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区域城市环境质量评价与空间分析

摘要 快速城市化导致城市住区环境质量突然恶化，难以衡量和量化。本研究试图通过开发印度喀拉拉邦 Ernakulam 地区的环境质量指数 (EQI) 来评估环境质量。指数值在空间上被绘制成研究区的环境质量指数图，分为五个不同的等级，即非常差、差、中等、好、非常好。EQI 值是针对 19 个复合变量计算的，这些变量分为三个领域，即生态、气象和社会经济领域。进行初步统计分析和详细主成分分析（PCA）以构建研究区域的环境质量指数。随后进行空间测绘和分析，以便让当地居民、环境规划者、区域科学家和政策制定者更好地了解环境质量状况。分析结果表明，研究区总体环境质量较低。本文研究的区域具有突出的各种聚落格局、人口分布和土地利用分布的特征，表明不同聚落单元的环境质量指数有明显的转变。因此，通过选择该区域并观察各种指标，可以预测城市化对环境质量的实际影响。本文中解释的系统方法论程序也可以在其他地方使用，其中研究区域与本研究中考虑的区域具有相似的特征。研究结果适用于当前和未来的城市规划、建筑施工、土地和资源管理，以实现可持续环境。