Exploring environmental urban policies: a methodological proposal to build a composite indicator measuring urban environmental virtuosity

Ercolano, Salvatore and Romano, Oriana (2011): Exploring environmental urban policies: a methodological proposal to build a composite indicator measuring urban environmental virtuosity.

Abstract

Synthesizing the complex phenomenon of “environment” into a single indicator could leads to a loss of information, which inhibit his use as a reference for the resolution of several issues such as, for example, the allocation of resources. On the other hand it allows to represent the overall environmental performance of cities and to highlight relationships between different sectors. We consider “process oriented” variables instead of aggregated and “outcome oriented” ones, generally used to measure environmental sustainability strictu sensu. In this sense we refers specifically to the concept of “environmental virtuosity”, that allows to rank statistical units (i.e. Italian main municipalities), considering their policy efforts for improving urban environmental quality. Generally an indicator of environmental quality should combine partial information to summarize the main subject. This paper proposes to measure urban environmental virtuosity by multivariate analysis, following OECD (2008) procedure. This methodology will try to overcome the main methodological issues in building up indicators, consisting in the choice of weights and in the common practice of simply adding sub-indicators.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Composite indicators, multivariate analysis, environmental policies
• Subjects: Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics; R - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics > R3 - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location > R38 - Government Policy

References

Coco G., Russo M. (2006), Using CATPCA to evaluate market regulation, in Zani S. et al (ed. by) Data Analysis Classification and the Forward search, Springer, pp.369-376

De Simone E., Ercolano S., Gaeta G.L., (2010), Exploring Capitalism(s), EAEPE conference

Ercolano S., Gaeta G.L., (2010), Reassessing the power of purse, DYSES conference

Isla M. ( 1996), A review of the urban indicators experience and a proposal to overcome current situation. The application to the municipalities of the Barcelona province, Departament d’Economía Aplicada Autonomous University of Barcelona

Istat (2009), Indicatori ambientali urbani, Rapporto Istat

Legambiente (1994), Ecosistema urbano: Rapporto sulla qualità ambientale dei comuni capoluogo di provincia, http://www.legambiente.eu/documenti/1989-1996/ecosistemaUrbano1994.pdf

Linting M., Neurman J.J. Groenen P.J. , Van Der Koojj A.J., (2007) , Nonlinear principal compontents analysis: introduction and application, Phisical Metodhs 12(3)

Nicoletti G., Scarpetta S. and Boylaud O. (2000), Summary indicators of product market regulation with an extension to employment protection legislation, OECD Economics department working papers No. 226

OECD 1993 core set of indicators for environmental performance reviews, a synthesis report by the Group on the State of the Environment, Environmental monographs n.83.

OECD (2008) Handbook on Constructing Composite Indicators: Methodology and User Guide, OECD Publishing

Rapporto di Ambiente Italia (2003), Verso un quadro della sostenibilità a livello locale - Indicatori comuni europei (ICE), Roma.

Rostirolla P. (1998), La fattibilità economico-finanziaria: metodi e applicazioni, Liguori editore, Napoli.

Saisana M., Tarantola S., 2002, State-of-the-art Report on Current Methodologies and Practices for Composite Indicator Development, EUR Report 20408 EN, European Commission, JRC-IPSC, Italy.

Singh R., K., Murty H.R., Gupta S.K., Dikshit A.K., (2009), An overview of sustainability assessment methodologies, Ecological Indicators, pp. 189-212

Stanners, D., Bourdeau, P., Europe’s environment: the Dobris assessment, European Environment Agency, Copenhagen 1991.

Statistics from the city of Helsinki, Environmental statistics of Helsinki,1998:01.

Svedin L.M., (2009), Organizational cooperation in crises, Ashgate publishing limited