There are obstacles in estimating environmental dynamics behind its convenience, beginning with the development of effective policies for sustainable urban development. The objectives of this research were to comprehend the ability and performance of ecological indices integration and to identify the spatial distribution of changes from 2018 to 2021 in Pekanbaru City, Riau province, Indonesia. This study employed remote sensing data to create ecological parameters including the build-up index, vegetation index, soil index, and moisture index, as well as principal component analysis to generate ecological index integration. The findings indicate a correlation of over 90% among these parameters from 2018 to 2021. Overall, there has been a significant decrease in the ecological quality index’s high-quality categories, such as good and excellent, covering a total of 19.6% over 127 km². Conversely, the poor ecological quality category increased to 2.2%, encompassing an area of 15 km², up from the initial 21.2% covering 122 km². Additionally, the fair and moderate categories also experienced increases of 4% and 13.4%, respectively, reaching 28 km² and 84 km². The study area’s ecological quality is largely affected by increased anthropogenic activities, leading to a drastic decrease in the presence of ecological quality in the good and excellent categories. The importance of spatial planning is emphasized to incorporate aspects of ecological assessment rather than solely focusing on increasing economic activity. This outcome can be used to respond to the concept of sustainable development by caring for the ecological environment, particularly in urban areas, and mitigating ecological damage.