Sustainability Assessment of Rural Areas Using Composite Green Rating Score (CGRS) Across Diverse Eco-Geographical Conditions: A Case Study of Villages in Sangli District, Maharashtra

Indian rural development faces multidimensional challenges, including uneven socioeconomic conditions, limited infrastructure, and environmental risks. Recognizing the need for a systematic sustainability assessment, this study proposes a Composite Green Rating System (CGRS) to analyze and compare the ecological, infrastructural, and socio-economic performance of rural settlements. Existing sustainability rating systems, such as LEED, BREEAM, and GRIHA, are designed for city- or industrial-scale contexts and do not account for rural ecological heterogeneity, decentralized infrastructure, and socio-economic inequalities. To address this gap, the CGRS integrates environmental, infrastructural, and socioeconomic factors into a transferable index tailored to rural locations. Primary data were collected via structured questionnaires from 120 respondents across three villages - Dorli, Bilashi, and Padmale - covering environmental conditions, infrastructure, sustainable practices, and risk awareness. Descriptive statistics, Chi-square, ANOVA, and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to assess differences and the reliability of adoption patterns across villages. The normalized scores were aggregated to compute domain-wise averages, which were then used to derive the CGRS, yielding a single, comparable sustainability ranking for each village. A SWOT analysis was also conducted to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and provide actionable insights to inform targeted interventions. The results show that Padmale recorded the highest CGRS (64%), followed by Bilashi (59%), while Dorli performed lower (34%) owing to poor environmental and infrastructural performance. The integrated CGRS and SWOT model identifies village-specific strengths and weaknesses, facilitating evidence-based planning and supporting policy-led interventions for sustainable rural development. This model is a workable and transferable tool for tracking and upgrading rural sustainable development. By being parallel to India’s rural development plans and the UN SDGs, the CGRS framework offers policymakers with evidence-based recommendations for crafting localized, sustainable interventions.