Integrated municipal waste management systems: An indicator to assess their environmental and economic sustainability

Tools based on Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) are routinely used to assess the environmental and economic performance of integrated municipal solid waste (MSW) management systems. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is used to quantify the environmental impacts, whereas Life Cycle Costing (LCC) allows financial and economic assessments. These tools require specific experience and knowledge, and a large amount of data.The aim of this project is the definition of an indicator for the assessment of the environmental and economic sustainability of integrated MSW management systems. The challenge is to define a simple but comprehensive indicator that may be calculated also by local administrators and managers of the waste system and not only by scientists or LCT experts.The proposed indicator is a composite one, constituted by three individual indicators: two of them assess the environmental sustainability of the system by quantifying the achieved material and energy recovery levels, while the third one quantifies the costs. The composite indicator allows to compare different integrated MSW management systems in an objective way, and to monitor the performance of a system over time.The calculation of the three individual indicators has been tested on the integrated MSW management systems of the Lombardia Region (Italy) as well as on four of its provinces (Milano, Bergamo, Pavia, and Mantova).     

How to tell green from grey? Towards a methodological framework for evaluating the greening of national tax systems

In this paper, we evaluate four types of indicators that can be used for measuring the greening of a tax system: revenue-based indicators, single tax rates, aggregate tax-rate based indicators and the implicit tax rate on energy. We develop an evaluation framework, introducing two principal evaluation criteria: content validity and comprehensiveness, and four statistical criteria: data availability, comparison over time, international comparability and ease of aggregation. Additional analysis regarding the issue of weighting is carried out for the aggregate tax-rate based indicator. The theoretical and methodological evaluation is supplemented and validated empirically using recent data on the Belgian and Flemish tax system. Finally, conclusions are drawn with regard to the strengths and the weaknesses of the four types of indicators, and recommendations are made for further research.     

生态效益评价内容和评价指标筛选

生态效益评价的重要性已经广为人知,但评价内容和指标不统一,大大影响了评价结果的可信度。基本上是各说各有理,很难相互比较。在分析国内外相关生态系统评价方法基础上,提出生态效益评价框架,强调生态效益与经济效益和社会效益共同构成了人类社会的价值判断标准和决策依据,是经济效益和社会效益的基础,应该包括生态系统整体贡献,考虑与生态系统的动态变化的关系;并探讨了生态效益评价指标筛选的原则(关联性、灵敏性、层级性、决策导向性、代表性、可行性、独立性及经济适用性和社会可接受性);提出了生态效益指标筛选的多准则综合法和生态效益评价指标检验的3个标准(可定量化、专一化和震撼性)。本研究将为生态效益指标体系的构建提供重要参考。     

Suitability of presence vs. absence indicator species to characterize stress gradients: Lessons from zooplankton species of boreal lakes

Indicator species are species that readily reflect some measure of habitat characteristics and have become an increasingly appealing tool in environmental monitoring. Traditionally, habitat conditions were derived based on the presence of specific indicator species, but the absence of indicator species may be just as informative. To evaluate the importance of presence vs. absence of indicator species for characterizing habitats across environmental gradients, we evaluated the interactions of zooplankton and acid-stress in 244 boreal lakes. We adopted the statistical methods proposed by Dufrene and Legendre (1997) to identify presence and absence indicator species to characterize high, intermediate and low acid-stress lake categories. Presence indicator species (identified by the statistical analysis) for highly stressed lakes were not entirely appropriate because further evaluation identified them as ubiquitous generalists. In contrast, absence indicators for highly stressed lakes were more appropriate as these habitat specialists were specifically absent from this category of lakes. On the other hand, presence indicators for the low acid-stress category were largely habitat specialists and therefore appropriate indicators. However there were no presence or absence indicators for lakes at intermediate acid-stress level. Thus the combined use of both presence and absence indicators is recommended to characterize habitats across a stress gradient. To evaluate if the successful application of this combined approach is dependent on a stress gradient, we applied the same analyses to a sub-set of uninfluenced (non-sensitive) lakes representing three different environmental conditions. This approach identified statistically significant presence and absence indicator species for all three different reference conditions. Yet, the absence-based approach was not essential under unstressed conditions, as presence indicator species were habitat specialists for all reference categories. Finally, this study also emphasizes the importance of meaningful ecological traits of species in order to ensure the appropriateness of statistically selected indicator species.     

基于指标自动筛选的新疆开孔河流域生态健康评价

生态健康评价对了解区域生态健康状况和促进区域可持续发展具有重要意义,如何自动筛选出能反映生态系统特性的重要指标,是生态健康定量评估的关键问题。基于压力-状态-响应(PSR,Press-State-Response)框架和生态等级网络框架(EHN,Ecological Hierarchy Network),通过文献调研和因果分析建立要素层与指标层之间的交叉联系,构建了生态健康评价"网状"指标体系;在保证指标体系完备性基础上,通过结合主成分分析和熵权法的候选指标权重的客观计算,基于目标优化理论构建了评价指标的自动筛选模型,并基于中选指标计算了新疆开孔河流域2001—2017年生态健康指数(EHCI,Ecological Health Comprehensive Indexes),分析其空间分异和时间变化特征。结果表明:利用所建立的评价指标自动筛选模型,开孔河流域生态健康评价指标由31个候选指标自动筛选出了17个中选指标,用54.8%的指标表达了85.98%的信息,中选的17个指标在干旱/半干旱区域有关文献中应用较多,使用频次比例都在20%以上,其中归一化植被指数(NDVI,Normaliz...     

Correlations among measures of quality in HIV care in the United States: cross sectional study

Objective To determine whether a selected set of indicators can represent a single overall quality construct.Design Cross sectional study of data abstracted during an evaluation of an initiative to improve quality of care for people with HIV.Setting 69 sites in 30 states.Data sources Medical records of 9020 patients.Main outcome measures Adjusted performance rates at site level for eight measures of quality of care specific to HIV and a site level summary performance score (the number of measures for which the site was in the top quarter of the distribution).Results Of 28 site level correlations between measures, two were greater than 0.40, two were between 0.30 and 0.39, four were between 0.20 and 0.29, and the 20 remaining were all less than 0.20. One site was in the top quarter for seven measures, but no sites were in the top quarter for six or eight of the measures. Across the eight quality measures, sites were in the top quarter no more often than predicted by a chance (binomial) distribution.Conclusions The quality suggested by one measured indicator cannot necessarily be generalised to unmeasured indicators, even if this might be expected for clinical or other reasons.     

Water Management Tool of Industrial Products: A case study of screen printing fabric and digital printing fabric

Water scarcity and pollution have become increasingly serious because of industrial production. Thus, a tool should be developed to evaluate the level of water use of industrial production. Several calculation methods for water use relative to water footprint have been developed by many scholars. However, most of these methods still have defects in terms of indicators, parameters, and calculation methods. In this paper, we established an evaluation tool that is suitable for the current production situation of industrial products, i.e., a water management tool of industrial products that includes two parts: direct water use caused by the production process of industrial products and indirect water use caused by the energy and material used during production. Each part contains three indicators: water withdrawal, water consumption, and water assimilation. We applied the tool in the textile and apparel industry to calculate the water use of screen and digital printing fabrics, as well as the production processes for both printing fabrics. Results show that the tool can highlight the water intensive product and production process, which can help enterprises take effective and specific measures to save water and reduce pollution.     

An indicator system for identification of sites of high conservation value for saproxylic oak (Quercus spp.) beetles in southern Sweden

The saproxylic beetle fauna on old oaks was sampled in four regions of southern Sweden using two methods: window and pitfall trapping. The aim was to test a way of finding indicator species which can be used to identify sites with high species number or that scored high on a conservation priority species index, based on occurrence of red-listed species. From 92 sites surveyed, in total 164 species of saproxylic beetles were identified. Different sets of indicator species were selected based upon 22 sites from a centrally located region. Predictions of species number and the index for 30 other sites from the same province were made. The correlation between observed and predicted species number and the index increased with increasing number of indicators. When comparing different treatment of species indata, the explanatory power of predictions was strongest for presence/absence data. Indicator sets of species effectively caught with pitfall traps gave overall the best predictions of both species number and the index. Predictions of species number and the index worked well within the same regions but gave varied result for the three other regions which shows that transferability of indicators between regions may be doubtful.     

A review of indicators of estuarine tidal wetland condition

This review critically evaluates indicators of tidal wetland condition based on 36 indicator development studies and indicators developed as part of U.S. state tidal wetland monitoring programs. Individual metrics were evaluated based on relative scores on two sets of evaluation factors. A rigor score evaluated metric development based on conceptual relevance, indicator development method, degree of independent validation, and temporal and spatial extent tested. An applicability score evaluated metrics based on cost of data collection, probable spatial extent of applicability, technical complexity, and indicator responsiveness. The majority of indicators could be classified as biotic condition indicators (81%), with vegetation (37%) and macroinvertebrate (28%) metrics composing the largest proportion. Most metrics provided a conceptual model or scientific justification (97%), were developed by correlation to environmental gradients (46%), were tested over multiple seasons or years (49%) and at multiple sites (88%). Few were independently validated (18%). Average rigor score was 10 (on a scale of 0–25) and ranged between 1 and 21. Highest rigor scores were for trematode community metrics (community similarity index, species richness) and metrics of grass shrimp (Palaemonetes pugio) individuals (gene expression, relative fecundity, embryo hatching success, larval survival). Most metrics had a high cost of data collection (63%), required field and laboratory processing (84%), would be applicable across the U.S. (72%), and were responsive to the variable of interest (44%). Mean applicability score was 4.9 (range: 2–8). Highest scores were found for metrics that only required field collection of data using simple or no instrumentation. Lowest scoring metrics required expensive equipment, specialized taxonomic knowledge, complex laboratory analysis, and/or culturing of organisms. Scores for individual metrics were grouped by indicator, then averaged and rescaled between 0 and 100 to provide a composite evaluation of the indicator they measured. Among major indicator types, biotic indicators had the highest rigor scores (mean = 44, range 20–79), followed by indicators of chemical/physical characteristics (mean = 36, range 16–56), landscape condition (mean = 31, range 24–37), and hydrology/geomorphology indicators (mean = 21, range 4–52). In contrast, biotic indicators scored lowest for applicability (mean = 58, range 25–100) and indicators of landscape condition scored highest. The results of this review suggest that the development and selection of tidal wetland indicators could be vastly improved by employing a standardized development methodology that provides uniform information about each indicator. In addition, tidal wetland indicator research should focus on the development of indicators of ecological processes and disturbance regimes.     

Study on the evaluation system of urban low carbon communities in Guangdong province

In recent years, China has been gradually consolidating the establishment of Low Carbon Communities (LCC) to minimize the emission of CO₂ and other greenhouse gasses. Guangdong Province, as one of the low-carbon pilot provinces, has also paid great attention to the building of LCC. However, currently Guangdong province, or even China as a whole, has no official evaluation system in place which can be employed to evaluate the degree of low carbon of urban LCC. This paper aimed to establish a system for evaluating the urban LCC of Guangdong Province based on their actual situations. The system divided the evaluation into six categories, applied the SMART criteria to select suitable indices, and set the reference values for two zones, i.e., the Pearl River Delta zone (PRD) and the non-PRD zone. Monte Carlo and AHP were combined for the calculation of index weights, thus ensuring that the weight judgment matrixes could all pass the consistency check. In addition, this paper also laid down detailed evaluation regulations to improve the operability of this system and guarantee its wide application and better generalization. Finally, one typical urban community was selected to test the operability of this system, and the One-At-a-Time (OAT) method was used to analyze the sensitivity of each index and explore the degree of influence of these indices on evaluation results. The results showed that three indicators corresponding to green building percentage, new energy vehicles percentage and low carbon public transportation had the highest sensitivity. After field test evaluation, the evaluation system was found to have strong operability, and a high accessibility to indicator data. This system cannot only be used as a tool by the Provincial People's Government of Guangdong to evaluate the construction progress and degree of low carbon in LCC, but can also provide a reference point and experience for the Chinese government to draw upon in establishing the evaluation system of LCC at a national level.     

A quantitative indicator framework for stand level evaluation and monitoring of environmentally sustainable forest management

An indicator framework was designed as an operational science-based tool for the evaluation of the environmental aspects of sustainable forest management at stand level in Flanders (Belgium). The framework aims to assess the effects of forest management on forest composition, structure and functioning. It consists of seven principles and 19 criteria, to which 157 potential indicators, selected from literature, were assigned; 40 of these were considered as suitable by an expert panel, based on 10 operational selection criteria. All indicators were quantitative variables measurable in the field.After elaboration of a measurement protocol, the indicator framework was validated in 115 forest stands, distributed over the three main forest types of Flanders. The new indicator framework exhibited greater sensitivity to forest management practices and demonstrated better discriminating power than the method that is currently used by the Flemish forest administration to estimate the naturalness and environmental quality of a forest stand. Following a detailed cost calculation of each indicator and based on the sensitivity of each indicator to forest management practices, the indicator framework was further reduced to a final set of 29 indicators. This framework can also be applied in other regions, provided that local threshold values are defined to convert indicator values to indicator scores.The selection procedure and the possible contribution of this set to the forest management in Flanders are discussed.     

Use and influence of composite indicators for sustainable development at the EU-level

Considering the on-going strive towards new, alternative indicators to measure our societal development pathways, and the fact that policy indicators remain largely enigmatic with regard to their patterns of embeddedness in institutional decision-making processes, it appears necessary to work towards reducing our lack of understanding of their interactions with policy-making. In the present paper, we focus on exploring the significance of composite indicators for policy making in the particular policy environment of the EU-institutions. Our research is underpinned by the conviction that such indicators are not systematically used directly, but have an indirect influence on policy making that needs to be better understood. Our analytical framework – in order to analyse the ways in which composite indicators enter policy processes – is characterised by the distinction between the ‘use’ and the ‘influence’ of indicators on the one hand, and on the other hand between 3 types of factors: indicator factors, policy factors and user factors. Our empirical results show that while most of the academic attention and political debate around indicators has tended to focus on ‘indicator factors’, such quality attributes actually mattered relatively little in our setting as determinants of indicator influence. This rejects the idea that the robustness of evidence would lie exclusively in its technical quality and in the independence of its producer, and instead calls attention to the processes of evidence-construction. Simultaneously, ‘user factors’ (beliefs and representations of policy actors) and ‘policy factors’ (institutional context) were crucial as explanatory factors of the policy mechanics we identified.     

生态产业园的复合生态效率及评价指标体系

生态产业园的建设在国内取得了丰富的成果,已成为我国循环经济建设和可持续发展的重要载体之一。与国外不同,我国的生态产业园最终将演化为生态城市,其功能也从工业生产功能发展为融生产、生活和生态为一体的复合功能。生态效率是评价一个研究对象投入产出效益的量化工具,将生态效率的理念融入生态产业园,从园区作为区域可持续发展的载体、作为生态城市演化的一个特定阶段的视角,提出了复合生态效率的概念,构建了园区复合生态效率评价指标体系,并以郑州经济技术开发区为例,说明了复合生态效率指标在产业园中的应用。     

矿区生态产业评价指标体系

论述了煤炭矿区生态产业评价指标体系设置的理论依据,针对煤炭矿区生态产业链的特点和发展模式,从自然资源、经济效益、环境效益和社会效益四个角度出发选择筛选指标,构建了煤炭矿区生态产业评价指标体系.建立了模糊综合评价模型,探讨了运用层次分析法并通过熵值法修正的确定评价指标权重的新方法,构建了各因素指标的模糊隶属度函数.应用龙口矿区2010年的指标数据对所建模型和方法进行检验,对龙口矿区生态产业发展及生态产业链延伸提出了具体建议.     

国家公园旅游可持续性管理评估指标体系——以西藏色林错-普若岗日冰川国家公园潜在建设区为例

当前,国内外对于国家公园旅游可持续性的定义及其评估指标尚未形成共识,已有的部分指标存在可操作性较弱、管理成本较高等问题,无法直接应用于中国国家公园旅游可持续性的管理与评估。从三条路径构建国家公园旅游可持续性管理评估指标体系：以实际需求为导向,分析国家公园所在区域对旅游可持续性管理评估指标的需求;以国际共识为导向,检验《全球可持续旅游目的地标准》在国家公园的适用性;以实践为导向,梳理世界主要国家及地区国家公园旅游可持续性的管理重点。以色林错-普若岗日冰川国家公园（简称"色-普国家公园"）潜在建设区为例,建立国家公园旅游可持续性管理评估指标体系。从经济、社会、文化、生态环境等方面明确了色-普国家公园潜在建设区对管理评估指标体系的需求。经过适用性判定,识别在色-普国家公园潜在建设区具有较强适用性的可持续旅游目的地评估指标。通过频次统计,从经济、社会、文化、生态环境、制度建设等方面遴选世界主要国家及地区国家公园旅游可持续性的重点管理指标。所建立的色-普国家公园潜在建设区旅游可持续性管理评估指标体系包括5个一级指标,15个二级指标,36个三级指标。在此基础上,建议逐步建立健全监测与统计体系,为管理评估指标体系的应用提供支撑。     

Provincial level-based emergy evaluation of crop production system and development modes in China

This paper presented a multi-objective indicator system for the performance evaluation of crop production system based on emergy method. Eight emergy indicators were selected to analyze the crop production system in the 31 provinces of mainland China to compare intensive use, scale management, investment density, environmental pressure, output benefit, output density, output per capita, and economic benefit. This paper conducted a comparison of each indicator in different provinces, and divided the 31 provinces into 10 groups by cluster analysis. The results show that: the crop production system among provinces has a significant difference and it is summarized into 10 development modes; with the development of modern agriculture, Chinese crop production system still complies with the input–output balance; the majority of provinces cannot achieve win-win between economic investment and environmental health; most of the underdeveloped provinces with high productivity may not be able to obtain good economic benefit; there is a significant positive correlation between the scale management degree and emergy output per capita in the crop production system; 10 development modes and policy suggestions are deduced. It is concluded that emergy-based multi-objective indicators can serve as an effective method in the evaluation of crop production system.     

Undesirable specialization in the construction of composite policy indicators: The Environmental Performance Index

The non-parametric Data Envelopment Analysis approach is increasingly used to construct composite indicators for country performance monitoring, benchmarking, and policy evaluation in a large variety of fields. The flexibility in the definition of aggregation weights is praised as the method's most important advantage: DEA allows each evaluated country to look for its own optimal weights that maximize the composite indicator relative to the other countries. However, this flexibility also carries a potential disadvantage as it may allow countries to appear as a brilliant performer in a manner that is hard to justify: by ignoring or overemphasizing one or multiple of the judiciously selected performance indicators. To illustrate this issue of undesirable specialization in DEA-based evaluations, this paper compares the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) as computed by the optimistic and pessimistic version of the DEA-model as proposed by Zhou et al. (2007). Based on both computed composites, undesirable specialization in performance is identified.     

植物生活史型定量划分及其权重配置方法——以四棱豆生活史型划分为例

植物生活史型定量划分方法研究是植物生活史型研究的重要内容。现有的生活史型定量划分方法是基于主成分分析法(PCA)建立起来的,未考虑性状指标之间的相互影响,因此需要探索适用于"网状"结构指标体系的植物生活史型划分新方法。根据植物生活史型划分指标的层次性特点,以攀援型和矮生型四棱豆(Psophocarpus tetragonolobus)为例,分别采用主成分分析法(PCA)、层次分析法(AHP)和网络层次分析法(ANP)对性状指标进行权重配置,计算性状指标的综合得分和生活史型划分参数,结果如下:与ANP相比,PCA计算的V型(营养生长型)参数值偏低(x在0.39以下),S型(有性生殖型)参数值偏高(z在0.453以上);AHP计算的V型参数值偏高(x在0.614以上),S型参数值偏低(z在0.088以下);3种方法计算的生活史型划分参数差异明显。由于PCA、AHP均要求性状指标之间相互独立,不能排除性状指标之间的关联,因此基于PCA、AHP的四棱豆生活史型划分结果均出现了偏差,表明性状指标之间的相关性影响了生活史型划分结果。ANP的指标体系为"网状"结构,其控制层、网络层各个指标之间均存在关联。构建ANP的判断矩阵时提取了性状指标的相关矩阵信息,权重配置反映了性状指标之间的相关关系。基于ANP方法对攀援型和矮生型四棱豆生活史型的划分结果分别为V0.517C0.327S0.156和V0.416C0.43S0.154。当性状指标之间的相关不显著时,可采用PCA和AHP法分配权重;当性状指标之间存在显著相关时,采用ANP法进行权重配置更为恰当。综上所述,基于ANP的植物生活史型划分方法解决了性状指标之间相互影响问题,为植物生活史型定量研究提供了新的有效方法。     

Measuring the Outcome of Biomedical Research: A Systematic Literature Review

Background

There is an increasing need to evaluate the production and impact of medical research produced by institutions. Many indicators exist, yet we do not have enough information about their relevance. The objective of this systematic review was (1) to identify all the indicators that could be used to measure the output and outcome of medical research carried out in institutions and (2) enlist their methodology, use, positive and negative points.

Methodology

We have searched 3 databases (Pubmed, Scopus, Web of Science) using the following keywords: [Research outcome* OR research output* OR bibliometric* OR scientometric* OR scientific production] AND [indicator* OR index* OR evaluation OR metrics]. We included articles presenting, discussing or evaluating indicators measuring the scientific production of an institution. The search was conducted by two independent authors using a standardised data extraction form. For each indicator we extracted its definition, calculation, its rationale and its positive and negative points. In order to reduce bias, data extraction and analysis was performed by two independent authors.

Findings

We included 76 articles. A total of 57 indicators were identified. We have classified those indicators into 6 categories: 9 indicators of research activity, 24 indicators of scientific production and impact, 5 indicators of collaboration, 7 indicators of industrial production, 4 indicators of dissemination, 8 indicators of health service impact. The most widely discussed and described is the h-index with 31 articles discussing it.

Discussion

The majority of indicators found are bibliometric indicators of scientific production and impact. Several indicators have been developed to improve the h-index. This indicator has also inspired the creation of two indicators to measure industrial production and collaboration. Several articles propose indicators measuring research impact without detailing a methodology for calculating them. Many bibliometric indicators identified have been created but have not been used or further discussed.     

生态系统健康评价的研究进展

生态系统健康评价是环境管理和生态系统监控的基础,生态系统监控可促进生态系统健康评价。首先介绍了生态系统健康概念的产生,发展及其不同的内涵,并着重回顾和讨论了生态系统健康评价指标及其存在的问题,生态系统健康评价指标包括生态指标,物理化学指标,人类健康与社会经济指标3大类,生态指标是反映生态系统特征和状态的生物指标,它分为生态系统,群落和种群与个体等不同层次的指标或指标体系,物理化学指标是检测生态系统的非生物环境的指标。人类健康与社会经济指标着眼于生态系统对人类生存与社会发展的支持作用,采用经济参数和社会发展的环境压力指标等来衡量生态服务的质量与可持续性,根据其敏感程度和功能性,生态系统健康评价指标分为早期预警指标,适宜程度指标和诊断指标3类,一个完整的生态系统评价应包括上述3大类指标或指标体系,但在具体的评价实践中往往因评价目的和对象的不同而有所选择,生态系统健康评价目前有两个亟待解决的问题,如何有效确立评价标准与参照系以及如何正确区分人为压力和自然干扰。