A water sustainability index for West Java. Part 1: developing the conceptual framework

Sustainable water resources management is essential since it ensures the integration of social, economical and environmental issues into all stages of water resources management. The development and application of water sustainability indices to achieve sustainable water management has been successfully done in the last few years. Although existing water sustainability indices have successfully provided information on current conditions of water resources and prioritised water related issues, they have been developed for specific case study areas. This study therefore aims at developing a water sustainability index for West Java, Indonesia. The overall steps for developing the index include developing a conceptual framework, application of Delphi technique to finalise the components/indicators of the index, applying the index to case studies and robustness analysis of the index. This paper, which is the first in a two-part series, discusses the first step, namely developing the conceptual framework of the West Java Water Sustainability Index (WJWSI). It outlines the criteria for identifying the initial set of components/indicators and based on those criteria, a detailed justification for selecting each component and indicator is also presented. The second paper of the series presents the application of Delphi technique to finalise the framework of WJWSI based on feedback from selected stakeholders. The remaining steps of developing WJWSI will be undertaken in the future.