• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.417-428
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to raise the necessity of ensuring sustainability of water infrastructures in economic, social and environmental sectors by using index that evaluates the sustainability centering on water supply and wastewater utilities. This study identified sub-indexes that should be stressed among different indexes in economic, social and environmental aspects and those indexes were compared by each clusters of cities. The principal component analysis was used to calculate the weights of the sub-indexes, and the k-mean cluster analysis was conducted to classify the clusters. As a result of the weighting analysis, financial independence, service revenue ratio, subsidy ratio, population coverage ratio, deterioration, stream/river ecosystem health and river water quality were found to be the major variables in assessing sustainability. Cities were then classified into two groups using the k-mean cluster analysis. The overall sustainability scored high in the economic sector was relatively satisfactory, but it was necessary to improve the environmental sustainability. The group with relatively good environmental sustainability showed low score in the overall sustainability and required improvements in the economic sector.