Title: Criteria selection framework for sustainable development indicators

Authors: Hippu Salk Kristle Nathan, B. Sudhakara Reddy

Addresses: Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), General Arun Kumar Vaidya Marg, Goregaon (E), Mumbai, 400065, India. ' Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), General Arun Kumar Vaidya Marg, Goregaon (E), Mumbai, 400065, India

Abstract: The selection of an optimum number of indicators is the key to any sustainable development indicator (SDI) research. Indicators, too less in number, may be inadequate to convey the message and; too many may dilute the purpose. To arrive at an optimum number of indicators from a larger set of potential ones, a set of criteria is applied. In the past SDI-initiatives, emphasis was not laid on structuring criteria; these were invariably considered in a linear way. This paper proposes a framework to organise criteria in a tree fashion at successive levels. For each level, the weights of a criterion relative to others are determined by following analytical hierarchy process where experts| opinions are considered. For aggregation of scores, |displaced ideal| method is proposed over linear additive model.

Keywords: what-how-whom framework; value trees; analytical hierarchy process; AHP; displaced ideal; criteria selection; sustainable development indicators; sustainability indicators.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMCDM.2011.041189

International Journal of Multicriteria Decision Making, 2011 Vol.1 No.3, pp.257 - 279

Published online: 29 Nov 2014 *

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