Environmental indicators: what are, types and examples

An environmental indicator is a measure that can be of physical, chemical, biological, social or economic origin, which allows to evaluate all available environmental informationin order to reflect the conditions in which the environment or a particular environmental factor is found, in a certain time and place.

They can be quantitative or qualitative depending on how they are measured and appreciated. The quantitative environmental indicators They are based on parameters with which to give information about a phenomenon. Instead, the qualitative environmental indicators They focus more on observations and perceptions.

Environmental indicators must have certain characteristics and fulfill them, since they are an instrument that influences the evaluation to make from political decisions on the environment, even in the management of a company to become as sustainable as possible. Among the characteristics of environmental indicators are:

• They must evaluate quality and reliable data.
• Be easy to handle and understand.
• That can predict if there will be any negative evolution.
• Its cost must be balanced with its effectiveness.
• Be sensitive to changes.
• Be specific with the objective that there are no different interpretations.

Environmental indicators, depending on the available data, can be classified into different types. These are all three Types of environmental indicators that there is

• Type I: For this type of indicators, the data is always available since they are obtained thanks to permanent monitoring.
• Type LL: They are based on data calculations that come from permanent monitoring, but need additional data since the data may be totally or partially available.
• LLL type: They have no mathematical base or based on data that are available. They are conceptual indicators.

Now that you know well what environmental indicators are, their characteristics and types are going to show some of them. These are some Examples of environmental indicators:

• Sustainable Economic Welfare Index (IBES).
• Human Development Index (HDI).
• Environmental Sustainability Index (ISA)
• Environmental Performance Index (EPI).
• GREEN ECONOMY GLOBAL INDEX (GGEI).
• Ecological footprint (He).
• Living planet index (LPI).
• Carbon footprint.
• Water footprint.

This indicator refers to sustainability of the well -being of a population and was designed by Herman Daly and John Cobb. It adds variables such as adjusted consumption and a measure of socio -economic inequality, through the Gini coefficient.

It has two values, 0 and 1, with which it indicates equality and inequality respectively, to factors such as the level of education, population health, access to goods and services of another type, among others. It is an indicator with great value since with it you can evaluate sustainable development policies.

Analyze how human beings find in terms of their health, education and economic wealth. Health is evaluated depending on life expectancy at birth, education taking into account the years of schooling that are expected of children to compulsory education and adults over 25 years. Finally, wealth is measured by the INB per capita.

He Environmental sustainability (ISA) It has 67 structured variables in 5 components that have 22 environmental factors. Some of the factors that have been evaluated are:

• The emissions and concentration of polluting agents.
• The use of agrochemicals.
• The quality and volume of water.
• Population growth.
• Energy consumption and efficiency.

He Environmental indicator known as Environmental Performance Index (EPI)makes an evaluation to quantify the environmental performance of the various policies that a country has implemented in a certain period of time. In this way you can know the impact of these policies on the environment in that area and see what should be corrected of them in this regard.

He GREEN ECONOMY GLOBS OR GGEIfor its acronym in English, it was born in 2010 by the international consultant Dula Citizen.

This well -known consultant published a report in which she analyzed the changes and investments that are making more than 80 countries by direct economies towards more respectful and sustainable with the environment.

This indicator evaluates the Environmental impact generated by the demand for natural resources by the human being to meet their needs. This indicator is related to the load capacity of the planet, that is, the ability of the land to regenerate its resources. Currently, the average ecological footprint worldwide is 2.2 hectares for each human being, when it should be 1.8 hectares. This means that we exceed the load capacity and do not let the planet regenerate. This indicator really is more realistic at the country level, since some first world countries surpass it with impudence such as Australia (9.3), United States (8.2) or Japan (5). However, countries like Colombia have an ecological footprint of 1.9.

We recommend these other articles on ecological footprint: simple definition and how to reduce the ecological footprint.

It is designed by the World Wildlife Fund International (WWF). This index It measures the abundance of wild species That there is on the planet, monitoring the amount of global populations of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and fish.

The Carbon footprint Indicates the amount of greenhouse gases That a person, company, industry or city, produces directly or indirectly. For this it is necessary to make an emission inventory, defining the scope:

• Scope 1: In this scope, direct emissions are valued since it is linked to the direct consumption of primary energy, that used for distribution.
• SCOPE 2: This would enter indirect emissions, those emissions generated by an indirect consumption of energy, electricity to have the vending machines plugged in and also for the reusable vessel, the energy consumed by the store while it is open.
• Scope 3: In this range, emissions that come from injected energy for the production process enter.

For example, in the case of a product from an industry, its life cycle should be made, measuring all gases emitted in all processes of its manufacture. You can expand this information with these other ecology articles about what the carbon footprint is and how to reduce my carbon footprint.

For Quantify the use of water The environmental indicator called Water Footprint is used, which can quantify the use linked to a person, a product, a company, a country, etc. There are three Types of water footprints depending on the origin of the water or the state that it has after use:

• Blue Water Footprint: This water comes from underground or superficial bodies of water.
• Green Water Footprint: It is the water that comes from the rain and is stored on the ground if it becomes runoff, this can be used in the production of any product.
• Gray water footprint: It is the water that is contaminated after being used, an example would be wastewater.

Here you can learn more about what the water footprint is.

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