GIS-based assessment of urban environmental quality in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

•The paper assesses the urban environmental quality (UEQ) of Port-au-Prince in GIS.•It includes physical environment, built environment and natural hazard factors.•The factors are integrated together by weights assigned by 16 local experts.•An overwhelming majority (62%) of residents lives in very-low or low UEQ.•The UEQ assessment result is validated by a survey of more than 400 residents.

This paper assesses the urban environmental quality (UEQ) of Port-au-Prince in a Geographic Information System (GIS) environment. In addition to those physical environment factors commonly considered in the literature, the UEQ in Port-au-Prince is affected by several built-environment factors that are unique to the experience of local residents such as proximity to water body (including coastal) pollution, open market, cemetery and slum. The study area is also prone to many natural disasters such as flooding, landslide and coastal surge. The factors are integrated together by weights assigned by local experts. The result shows that an overwhelming majority (62%) of residents live in areas of very-low or low environmental quality with less than 40% of land, and thus indicates a grave situation of environmental injustice. The UEQ classification is largely consistent with a survey of more than 400 local residents.