Data Definitions and Sources

This indicator is a measure of urban population-weighted nitrogen dioxide concentrations. The unit of measurement is micrograms per cubic metre.

Source: Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, Environmental Sustainability Index 2005.

The historical data are for overall (urban and non-urban) NO₂ emissions per capita.

Source: OECD Environmental Data Compendium online database.

This indicator is a measure of urban population-weighted sulphur dioxide concentrations. The unit of measurement is micrograms per cubic metre.

Source: Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy, Environmental Sustainability Index 2005.

The historical data are for overall (urban and non-urban) SO2 emissions per capita.

Source: OECD Environmental Data Compendium online database.

This indicator is a measure of kilograms of volatile organic compounds emissions per capita. Volatile organic compounds contain one or more carbon atoms with high vapour pressures; they evaporate readily into the atmosphere to form smog.

Source: OECD Environmental Data Compendium.

This indicator measures urban particulate matter in micrograms per cubic metre. Particulate matter consists of airborne particles that contribute to pollution. PM₁₀ means that the particulate matter has a mass median diameter less than 10 micrograms.

Source: World Bank online database. 

This indicator measures the amount of municipal waste generated per capita, in kilograms. It includes waste that has been disposed of, recycled, or composted from residential and non-residential sources. Residential non-hazardous waste includes solid waste produced by all residences and picked up by the municipality (either using its own staff or through contracting firms), as well as waste from residential sources that is self-hauled to depots, transfer stations, and disposal facilities. Non-residential non-hazardous solid waste is generated by all sources except the residential waste stream. It includes industrial materials generated by manufacturing and by primary and secondary industries and managed off-site from the manufacturing operation. It also includes commercial materials generated by commercial operations such as shopping centres, restaurants, and offices. And it includes institutional materials generated by institutional facilities such as schools, hospitals, government facilities, seniors’ homes, and universities. However, it does not include waste from construction, renovation, and demolition sources.

Source: OECD Environmental Data Compendium online database.

Canadian data source is Statistics Canada, Waste Management Industry Survey: Business and Government Sectors, Catalogue no. 16F0023X (Ottawa: Statistics Canada, 2008).

The Water Quality Index measures dissolved oxygen, pH, conductivity, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus. The index ranges from 0 (lowest quality) to 100 (highest quality).

The water quality parameters chosen by the Yale Center to be included in the Environmental Performance Index were selected for two reasons. First, they are good indicators of specific, globally relevant issues (such as eutrophication, nutrient pollution, acidification, and salinization). Second, they are the most consistently reported. Because water quality is a function of a number of different physical and chemical parameters measured during routine water quality monitoring, a global index of the general status of water quality, ranked by country, is best developed as a composite index of several key parameters.

Source: Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy, Environmental Performance Index.

Water consumption is measured by annual water withdrawals, measured in cubic metres per capita. Withdrawals refer to the gross amount of water extracted from any source, either permanently or temporarily, for a given use.

Source: Aquastat online database.

This indicator is a composite index that measures the proportion of threatened mammals, threatened birds, and threatened vascular plants. The index is created by taking an average of normalized scores for the three sub-indicators.

Sources: Data on mammals and birds: OECD, OECD in Figures 2007 (Paris: OECD, 2007). Vascular plants: OECD Environmental Data Compendium online database.

This indicator measures the change between 2000 and 2005 of forest cover as a percentage of total land area.

Source: World Bank online database.

This indicator measures the share of organic agricultural land out of total agricultural area.

Source: Helga Willer, Minou Yussefi-Menzler, and Neil Sorensen, Eds. The World of Organic Agriculture: Statistics and Emerging Trends 2008. London: Earthscan, 2008. Annex Table 36, 233–235.

Use of forest resources measures a country’s timber harvest as a per cent of the forest’s annual growth. It is a measure of the intensity of use of forest resources.

Source: OECD, Environment at a Glance: OECD Environmental Indicators 2005 (Paris: OECD, 2005).

This indicator measures the change in the Marine Trophic Index between 2000 and 2004. The Marine Tropic Index measures the degree to which countries are “fishing down the food chain,” with fish catches increasingly consisting of smaller fish that are lower in the food chain.

The Marine Trophic Index is usually calculated from data on commercial fish landings. Each species of fish or invertebrate is assigned a number dependent upon its position in the food chain: herbivores such as many invertebrate species are given a low number, whereas top predators such as hake and whiting are given a higher number. The average value for all species gives an index measuring the complexity of the food chain. A decrease in the index signifies an increasing proportion of the catch consisting of invertebrates and fish that are low in the food chain. Possible consequences of reduced food chain complexity are a loss of ecosystem resilience to environmental pressures such as climate change and threats to the supply of fish for human consumption.

Source: Fisheries Centre. University of British Columbia. The Sea Around Us.

Total GHG emissions excluding land use and land use change and forestry (LULUCF) divided by population. The unit of measurement is tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent per capita.

LULUCF refers to changes in GHG emissions due to human activities related to land use, land management, and forestry. This includes wildfires, controlled burning, and cropland conversions. LULUCF is excluded from the GHG emissions data used here because of significant fluctuations in annual LULUCF emissions.

Source: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

This indicator measures the share of low-emitting electricity production in total domestic electricity production. Low-emitting electricity production includes nuclear, hydro, geothermal, wind, solar, and other renewables.

Source: International Energy Agency, Monthly Electricity Statistics.

Energy intensity measures the change in total primary energy supply per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) from 2000 to 2005, calculated using the change in tonnes of oil equivalent (toe) per US$1,000 GDP. 

Source: www.swivel.com/data_sets/show/1004985