Navigating uncertainty in environmental composite indicators
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Linear aggregation is more straightforward for communication and engagement because users can trace scores from the bottom level to the top.
“In general, the linear aggregation method is more straightforward for communication and engagement as users can clearly trace scores from the bottom level to the top [45].”
From Integrated Sustainability Assessment of Divergent Mediterranean Farming Systems: Cyprus as a Case Study (2020) · cites this paper as [45]
Composite sustainability indices may send over-simplistic or misleading messages because they only provide aggregate information.
“The CSIs are appealing for communication, but they may potentially send over-simplistic (or even misleading) messages as they only provide aggregate information [8,21,45].”
From Integrated Sustainability Assessment of Divergent Mediterranean Farming Systems: Cyprus as a Case Study (2020) · cites this paper as [45]
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Greco, S., Ishizaka, A., Tasiou, M., & Torrisi, G. (2019) · Social Indicators Research · doi:10.1007/s11205-017-1832-9 · Cited by 1,325 · see citing works
Stylianou, A., Sdrali, D., & Apostolopoulos, C. D. (2020) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su12156105 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
- Authors
- Burgass, M. J., Halpern, B. S., Nicholson, E., & Milner-Gulland, E. J.
- Affiliations
- University of Oxford (GB)
- University of California, Santa Barbara (US)
- Deakin University (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Burgass, Michael J.
- Venue
- Ecological Indicators
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2017-04
- Volume
- 75
- Pages
- 268-278
- ISSN
- 1470-160X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2570922310
- Cited by
- 176
- References
- 75
- Citations by year
- 2026: 31 · 2025: 20 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 24 · 2020: 19 · 2019: 19 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 7
- FWCI
- 32.56
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- figshare.com
- Licence
- Locations
- Ecological Indicators (publishedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Spiral (Imperial College London) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment, Imperial College London
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law › Sustainable Development and Environmental Policy
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Quality of Life Measurement
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law › Environmental and Social Impact Assessments
- Keywords
- composite index, environmental indicators, uncertainty, linguistic uncertainty, epistemic uncertainty, indicator construction, sensitivity analysis, uncertainty analysis, system modeling, stakeholder engagement, environmental policy
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