Environmental quality indicators

The involvement of the environment (as supplier of production and service resources, as well as of public goods) within the economy implies conservation of its quality, as its capacity to offer what is needed for human activity is dependent on its quality. From this viewpoint, one has to distinguish between the two basic functions performed by the environment - supplying natural materials (the concept of quality leads to the idea of protecting resources), assimilating polluting emissions through its ‘storage’ capacity (which depends on time and the quantity of emissions). This paper proposes an environmental indicator that should satisfy several conditions; 1) to be in stages so as to allow its aggregation up to the national level, 2) to reflect as accurately as possible the quality of the environment, 3) to be straightforward in order to become a permanent indicator in the statistical system of registration and monitoring. Bearing in mind the diversity of environmental factors, the indicator should be nondimensional. Since it concerns pollution, it should be based on the concentrations or substance compositions that are considered acceptable for healthy human life.

• 1 INTRODUCTION

• 2 THE ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS

• 3 ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY INDICATOR

• 4 CONCLUSIONS