SUSTAINABILITY ANALYSIS OF HUNGARIAN MUNICIPALITIES

Abstract

The study examines sustainability performance of the Hungarian municipalities. Sustainability performance was defined as economic, social and environmental performance, according to the triple bottom line concept.
The study used mixed methodology.
To provide a deeper analysis of performance, in addition to the examination of related regulations and literature, environmental information systems of municipalities with more than 30 thousand inhabitants were thoroughly investigated.
Through the introduction of the ban on planning operating deficit in 2013 short-time economic performance can be considered sustainable, however, uncovered replacement costs could cause problems in mid- and longterm.
Most elements of social performance are prescribed by legislation, albeit due to insufficient funding their quality may fall below anticipated levels.
In case of environmental performance, according to European Union regulations, infrastructural investments were realized on the field of waste water and waste management. Most municipalities examined, however, did not use information systems able to measure indicators quantifying the reduction of environmental footprints that were undertakings in the received developmental grants. Based on our results several problems and risks became visible but global sustainability performance of municipalities remains currently reasonable.