An overview of environmental indicators ; state of the art and perspectives
1994
Work on indicators is critically reviewed, focusing on a number of key
issues ; air and water pollution ; natural resources and biodiversity ;
climate change ; ozone depletion ; public health; demography ;
production ; consumption ; and technology ; waste ; and costs of
environmental protection measures. Indicators have an added significance
as compared to the underlying statistics and are tied to a specific
purpose. For simplicity the number of indicators can be reduced by
aggregating them into an index. A conceptual framework is proposed for
the selection, development and analysis of indicators. This framework
comprises three interrelated sub-systems: the human population ;
production, consumption and technology ; and the environment. An
integrated analyses of the state of the environment requires indicators
that capture not only the quality of the environment, but also the forces
that change the environment, and the responses to these changes by human
society. These crucial interactions can be better understood if a
conceptual or computational modelling framework is developed and used.
The characteristics of indicator systems have been determined mainly by
the producers of the information rather than by its users. Furthermore,
the present sets of environmental indicators have been mainly selected by
the industrialized countries, for their own needs. Indicators should be
developed according to their envisaged applications. These applications
include early warning and evaluation of policy performance. As countries
develop, priorities shift over time, requiring adjustments of indicator
systems. The reliability of indicators is mainly determined by the
reliability of the underlying statistics and raw data. Harmonization of
definitions and measurements methods and the development of standards
should be further pursued.
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