Analyzing the state of development of Pune City by using multi-criteria decision analysis and analytic hierarchy process

1. Abstract As per the United Nations Human Settlement Programme Nairobi (2011), cities are the engines of economic growth with social and cultural life and spatial organization of human society and settlement. It is essential to study the city's development stages and establish a system or method to evaluate the development from time to time. It will help the policymakers and planners to formulate optimum guidelines for developing the cities and the other urban areas. To compare the development or performance of two different timelines for the same city, there is an intensifying need to establish representative and comparable indicators to both. At present, there are many various urban indicators developed by different institutions that analyze the current situation of development in large cities. The study's main issue is that identified indicators for the city lose their consistency, credibility, and comparability over the period of time, suggesting that indicators should be updated regularly. Their applicability should be questioned in the case of medium-sized and small cities. This paper seeks to investigate the present state of development of the study area to evolve a set of plausible development guidelines with the established set of indicators and sub-indicators and with the help of multi-criteria decision analysis and analytic hierarchy process. The present study aims to formulate the sustainability indices subsystem-wise for prioritizing wards and prabhags of the study area to implement policies and projects effectively.