IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/sustdv/v16y2008i4p251-260.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Towards a new index for environmental sustainability based on a DALY weighting approach

Author

Listed:
  • Isabelle Blanc
  • Damien Friot
  • Manuele Margni
  • Olivier Jolliet

Abstract

Composite indicators are synthetic indices that are used to rank country performances in specific policy areas. Many do, however, suffer from methodological difficulties. Specific difficulties linked to indices for environmental sustainability are analyzed through the illustration of several sets. The most critical issues are linked with a poor analytical framework and a lack of common unit for the aggregation. Some measure directly the state of the environment while other use proxies such as pressure or response indicators or even a mix of these. A new composite index for environmental sustainability was developed in the EU project EPSILON, which aimed at assessing European regional sustainability for policy decision making related to the improvement of regional sustainability. Indicators are expressed according to a coherent framework issuing from the 'driving force-pressure-state-impact-response' approach with an innovative weighting scheme derived from human health impact assessment based on disability adjusted life years (DALYs). Results are compared with a more conventional aggregation technique based on an equal weighting coupled to various normalization techniques. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Isabelle Blanc & Damien Friot & Manuele Margni & Olivier Jolliet, 2008. "Towards a new index for environmental sustainability based on a DALY weighting approach," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(4), pages 251-260.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:sustdv:v:16:y:2008:i:4:p:251-260
    DOI: 10.1002/sd.376
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1002/sd.376
    File Function: Link to full text; subscription required
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/sd.376?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael Freudenberg, 2003. "Composite Indicators of Country Performance: A Critical Assessment," OECD Science, Technology and Industry Working Papers 2003/16, OECD Publishing.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Joel A. Martínez-Regalado & Cinthia Leonora Murillo-Avalos & Purificación Vicente-Galindo & Mónica Jiménez-Hernández & José Luis Vicente-Villardón, 2021. "Using HJ-Biplot and External Logistic Biplot as Machine Learning Methods for Corporate Social Responsibility Practices for Sustainable Development," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(20), pages 1-16, October.
    2. Giannetti, Biagio F. & Sevegnani, Fábio & Almeida, Cecília M.V.B. & Agostinho, Feni & Moreno García, Roberto R. & Liu, Gengyuan, 2019. "Five sector sustainability model: A proposal for assessing sustainability of production systems," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 406(C), pages 98-108.
    3. Golušin, Mirjana & Munitlak Ivanović, Olja & Redžepagić, Srdjan, 2013. "Transition from traditional to sustainable energy development in the region of Western Balkans – Current level and requirements," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 182-191.
    4. Stebbings, Emily & Hooper, Tara & Austen, Melanie C. & Papathanasopoulou, Eleni & Yan, Xiaoyu, 2021. "Accounting for benefits from natural capital: Applying a novel composite indicator framework to the marine environment," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cherchye, Laurens & Knox Lovell, C.A. & Moesen, Wim & Van Puyenbroeck, Tom, 2007. "One market, one number? A composite indicator assessment of EU internal market dynamics," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 749-779, April.
    2. Dziallas, Marisa & Blind, Knut, 2019. "Innovation indicators throughout the innovation process: An extensive literature analysis," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 80, pages 3-29.
    3. Marta de la Cuesta-González & Cristina Ruza & José M. Rodríguez-Fernández, 2020. "Rethinking the Income Inequality and Financial Development Nexus. A Study of Nine OECD Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-18, July.
    4. Carayannis, Elias G. & Goletsis, Yorgos & Grigoroudis, Evangelos, 2018. "Composite innovation metrics: MCDA and the Quadruple Innovation Helix framework," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 4-17.
    5. Arvanitidis, Paschalis & Petrakos, George, 2007. "Characteristics of Dynamic Regions in the World Economy: Defining Knowledge-Driven Economic Dynamism," Papers DYNREG19, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    6. Francesco Sica & Francesco Tajani & Maria Rosaria Guarini & Rossana Ranieri, 2023. "A Sensitivity Index to Perform the Territorial Sustainability in Uncertain Decision-Making Conditions," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-21, February.
    7. Pollesch, N.L. & Dale, V.H., 2016. "Normalization in sustainability assessment: Methods and implications," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 195-208.
    8. Truyens, Jasper & De Bosscher, Veerle & Sotiriadou, Popi & Heyndels, Bruno & Westerbeek, Hans, 2016. "A method to evaluate countries’ organisational capacity: A four country comparison in athletics," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 279-292.
    9. Jana Sereghyová, 2004. "Konkurenceschopnost Evropské unie v podmínkách globalizace," Acta Oeconomica Pragensia, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2004(3), pages 143-168.
    10. Laurens CHERCHYE & Willem MOESEN & Nicky ROGGE & Tom VAN PUYENBROECK, 2009. "Constructing a knowledge economy composite indicator with imprecise data," Working Papers of Department of Economics, Leuven ces09.15, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Department of Economics, Leuven.
    11. Sedigheh Meimandi Parizi & Mohammad Taleai & Ayyoob Sharifi, 2022. "A GIS-Based Multi-Criteria Analysis Framework to Evaluate Urban Physical Resilience against Earthquakes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-31, April.
    12. Osama A. B. Hassan, 2008. "Assessing The Sustainability Of A Region In The Light Of Composite Indicators," Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management (JEAPM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 10(01), pages 51-65.
    13. Wang, H., 2015. "A generalized MCDA–DEA (multi-criterion decision analysis–data envelopment analysis) approach to construct slacks-based composite indicator," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 114-122.
    14. Kai Wang & Zhe Wang & Jun Deng & Yuanyuan Feng & Quanfang Li, 2022. "Study on the Evaluation of Emergency Management Capacity of Resilient Communities by the AHP-TOPSIS Method," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-14, December.
    15. Ugo Gentilini & Patrick Webb, 2005. "How Are We Doing on Poverty and Hunger Reduction?: A New Measure of Country-Level Progress," Working Papers in Food Policy and Nutrition 31, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy.
    16. Böhringer, Christoph & Bortolamedi, Markus, 2015. "Sense and no(n)-sense of energy security indicators," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 359-371.
    17. Walheer, Barnabé, 2018. "Aggregation of metafrontier technology gap ratios: the case of European sectors in 1995–2015," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 269(3), pages 1013-1026.
    18. Tatjana Slavova, 2008. "A rank order and efficiency evaluation of the EU regions in a social framework," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 35(4), pages 339-367, September.
    19. Martínez Roget, F. & Murias Fernández, P. & Miguel Domínguez, J.C. De, 2005. "El análisis envolvente de datos en la construcción de indicadores sintéticos. Una aplicación a las provincias españolas/DEA Construction of Composite Indicators. An Application to the Spanish Province," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 23, pages 753-771, Diciembre.
    20. Mr. Alexander Massara & André Mialou, 2014. "Assessing Countries’ Financial Inclusion Standing - A New Composite Index," IMF Working Papers 2014/036, International Monetary Fund.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:sustdv:v:16:y:2008:i:4:p:251-260. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-1719 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.