Global environmental sustainability trends: A temporal comparison using a new interval-based composite indicator

IF 5.4 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES Environmental and Sustainability Indicators Pub Date : 2024-09-18 DOI:10.1016/j.indic.2024.100482
{"title":"Global environmental sustainability trends: A temporal comparison using a new interval-based composite indicator","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.indic.2024.100482","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Assessing progress on the pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals is crucial for evaluating the sustainability of a Country, although this is not easy, considering the interdependencies or interconnections of individual goals with others, and the fact that there are several indicators for each goal. The aims of this research are: (1) to propose a novel interval-based environmental sustainable composite index (ESI) suitable to monitor the worldwide environmental SDGs' implementation at national scale, (2) to solve the problem of missing data in large databases and the subjectivity in computing a composite index (CI), (3) to group and compare statistically countries according to the ESI, and (4) to represent spatially the results to identify areas of the world more or less environmentally sustainable than others. Clustering and Sankey diagrams have supported the temporal and spatial analysis of ESI trends, showing that Canada, Brazil, New Zealand, and several European countries have been the most sustainable in 2019. The novelty of this indicator is that each country presents an ESI central value, the most probable value of the composite indicator, and a range, which represents the uncertainty given by the lower and upper bounds. In this sense, it is possible to better interpret the results of the composite indicator, while simultaneously obtaining a measure of the uncertainty of the results. The composite indicator can be used to monitor countries’ vulnerability towards the unsustainability risk, as well as countries that are not able to escape from a sort of “unsustainability trap”.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":36171,"journal":{"name":"Environmental and Sustainability Indicators","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.4000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2665972724001508/pdfft?md5=7df41dcfd7c5e9a57a63cbc62bcc787c&pid=1-s2.0-S2665972724001508-main.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Environmental and Sustainability Indicators","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2665972724001508","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0

Abstract

Assessing progress on the pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals is crucial for evaluating the sustainability of a Country, although this is not easy, considering the interdependencies or interconnections of individual goals with others, and the fact that there are several indicators for each goal. The aims of this research are: (1) to propose a novel interval-based environmental sustainable composite index (ESI) suitable to monitor the worldwide environmental SDGs' implementation at national scale, (2) to solve the problem of missing data in large databases and the subjectivity in computing a composite index (CI), (3) to group and compare statistically countries according to the ESI, and (4) to represent spatially the results to identify areas of the world more or less environmentally sustainable than others. Clustering and Sankey diagrams have supported the temporal and spatial analysis of ESI trends, showing that Canada, Brazil, New Zealand, and several European countries have been the most sustainable in 2019. The novelty of this indicator is that each country presents an ESI central value, the most probable value of the composite indicator, and a range, which represents the uncertainty given by the lower and upper bounds. In this sense, it is possible to better interpret the results of the composite indicator, while simultaneously obtaining a measure of the uncertainty of the results. The composite indicator can be used to monitor countries’ vulnerability towards the unsustainability risk, as well as countries that are not able to escape from a sort of “unsustainability trap”.
查看原文
分享 分享
微信好友 朋友圈 QQ好友 复制链接
本刊更多论文
全球环境可持续性趋势:使用新的基于时间间隔的综合指标进行时间比较
评估在实现可持续发展目标方面取得的进展对于评价一个国家的可持续性至关重要,尽管考虑到单个目标与其他目标之间的相互依存或相互联系,以及每个目标都有多个指标这一事实,评估工作并非易事。本研究的目的是(1)提出一种新颖的基于区间的环境可持续综合指数(ESI),适用于监测全球环境可持续发展目标在国家范围内的实施情况;(2)解决大型数据库中数据缺失的问题,以及计算综合指数(CI)时的主观性问题;(3)根据环境可持续综合指数对各国进行分组和统计比较;(4)在空间上表示研究结果,以确定世界上环境可持续程度较高或较低的地区。聚类图和桑基图为ESI趋势的时间和空间分析提供了支持,显示加拿大、巴西、新西兰和几个欧洲国家在2019年最具可持续性。该指标的新颖之处在于,每个国家都提出了一个ESI中心值,即综合指标的最可能值,以及一个范围,表示由下限和上限给出的不确定性。从这个意义上讲,可以更好地解释综合指标的结果,同时获得对结果不确定性的衡量。综合指标可用于监测各国面对不可持续风险的脆弱性,以及那些无法摆脱某种 "不可持续陷阱 "的国家。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
求助全文
约1分钟内获得全文 去求助
来源期刊
Environmental and Sustainability Indicators
Environmental and Sustainability Indicators Environmental Science-Environmental Science (miscellaneous)
CiteScore
7.80
自引率
2.30%
发文量
49
审稿时长
57 days
期刊最新文献
Decoding the mystery of Bangladesh's jute decline: A climate crisis or plastic predicament Perceived accessibility matters: Unveiling key urban parameters through traditional and technology-driven participation methods Water provision benefits from karst ecosystems: An example for Watuputih groundwater basin, North Kendeng Mountain, Indonesia Towards net-zero carbon emissions: A systematic review of carbon sustainability reporting based on GHG protocol framework Ecosystem services driving factors and ecological conservation pattern construction, Qinghai-Tibet Plateau
×
引用
GB/T 7714-2015
复制
MLA
复制
APA
复制
导出至
BibTeX EndNote RefMan NoteFirst NoteExpress
×
×
提示
您的信息不完整,为了账户安全,请先补充。
现在去补充
×
提示
您因"违规操作"
具体请查看互助需知
我知道了
×
提示
现在去查看 取消
×
提示
确定
0
微信
客服QQ
Book学术公众号 扫码关注我们
反馈
×
意见反馈
请填写您的意见或建议
请填写您的手机或邮箱
已复制链接
已复制链接
快去分享给好友吧!
我知道了
×
扫码分享
扫码分享
Book学术官方微信
Book学术文献互助
Book学术文献互助群
群 号:481959085
Book学术
文献互助 智能选刊 最新文献 互助须知 联系我们:info@booksci.cn
Book学术提供免费学术资源搜索服务,方便国内外学者检索中英文文献。致力于提供最便捷和优质的服务体验。
Copyright © 2023 Book学术 All rights reserved.
ghs 京公网安备 11010802042870号 京ICP备2023020795号-1