Applications of aggregation theory to sustainability assessment

Pollesch, N.; Dale, V. H.

doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2015.03.011

Title: Applications of aggregation theory to sustainability assessment

Journal Article · Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Ecological Economics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2015.03.011· OSTI ID:1286768

^[1]; Dale, V. H. ^[2]

Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States). Dept. of Mathematics; Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for BioEnergy Sustainability
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for BioEnergy Sustainability

In order to aid in transition towards operations that promote sustainability goals, researchers and stakeholders use sustainability assessments. Although assessments take various forms, many utilize diverse sets of indicators that can number anywhere from two to over 2000. Indices, composite indicators, or aggregate values are used to simplify high dimensional and complex data sets and to clarify assessment results. Although the choice of aggregation function is a key component in the development of the assessment, there are few examples to be found in literature to guide appropriate aggregation function selection. This paper develops a connection between the mathematical study of aggregation functions and sustainability assessment in order to aid in providing criteria for aggregation function selection. Relevant mathematical properties of aggregation functions are presented and interpreted. Lastly, we provide cases of these properties and their relation to previous sustainability assessment research. Examples show that mathematical aggregation properties can be used to address the topics of compensatory behavior and weak versus strong sustainability, aggregation of data under varying units of measurements, multiple site multiple indicator aggregation, and the determination of error bounds in aggregate output for normalized and non-normalized indicator measures.

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Research Organization:: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725

OSTI ID:: 1286768

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1249864

Journal Information:: Ecological Economics, Vol. 114, Issue C; ISSN 0921-8009

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 52 works

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Assessing sustainability in agricultural landscapes: a review of approaches ^1,2 Eichler Inwood, Sarah E.; López-Ridaura, Santiago; Kline, Keith L. Environmental Reviews, Vol. 26, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1139/er-2017-0058	journal	September 2018
Composite Indicators for Sustainability Assessment: Methodological Developments Zhou, P.; Zhang, L. P. Energy, Environment and Transitional Green Growth in China https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7919-1_2	book	April 2018
Sensitivity to weighting in life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) Prado, Valentina; Cinelli, Marco; Ter Haar, Sterre F. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-019-01718-3	journal	December 2019
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Title: Applications of aggregation theory to sustainability assessment

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