Assessing environmental sustainability by the double reference point methodology: the case of the provinces of Andalusia (Spain)

ABSTRACT

Sustainability is one of the main challenges of society. Progress in operational tools that help with environmental management and decision-making is slower and more complex than expected. The objective of the research is to show the usefulness of calculating composite indicators of environmental sustainability as a management tool. The proposed scientific model applies a multicriteria analysis, in an aggregate approach, with a double reference point (reservation and aspiration levels), incorporating the opinions of experts, and making the concepts of strong and weak sustainability operational. The method is applied to the eight provinces of Andalusia (Spain), using the official data published by the Regional Ministry of Environment. The results show that the indicators obtained are especially useful for the management of the territory, because they serve as an absolute measure of environmental sustainability. Besides, they enable global and specific analyzes of each indicator, they easily identify the strengths and weaknesses of each territory, and they provide an alert system to prevent problems and help to make strategic decisions. The methodology is innovative, fast and without excessive economic cost.

KEYWORDS:

• Environmental sustainability
• weak sustainability
• strong sustainability
• composite indicators
• multicriteria methods
• double reference point
• environmental management

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the financial support received from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Project ECO2016-76567-C4-4-R), from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Project RTI2018-094844-B-C33), and from the EU ERDF operative program (project UMA18-FEDERJA-065).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Although environmental sustainability is present in almost all of the 17 Goals, we would like to emphasize its impact on goals 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the European Regional Development Fund [project UMA18-FEDERJA-065]; Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación [Project RTI2018-094844-B-C33]; Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad [Project ECO2016-76567-C4-4-R].