1 INDICATORS SYSTEMS x SYNTHETIC INDICATORS. The role of composite indicators to communicate environmental and related statistics: a practical example Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics – IBGE * IAOS 2010 – Santiago, Chile October 2010 Wadih João Scandar Neto * The opinions are responsibility of the author and not necessarily represent the opinions of IBGE

2 Synthetic (composite) Indicators x Indicators System Two emblematic phrases: –“Composite indicators are confusing entities whereby apples and pears are added up in absence of a formal model or justification.” –“Composite indicators are a way of distilling reality into a manageable form.” (SALTELLI et al., 2004) Other contributions to controversy discussion: –RYTEN (2000), JANNUZZI (2002), SCANDAR NETO (2006)

3 Synthetic (composite) Indicators x Indicators System Some questions about this controversy: –The construction of synthetic indicators can aggregate information for policy and decision makers? –Is it possible to create a synthetic indicator without loosing information about the primary indicators? –Is it useful to communicate complex issues?

4 An epistemological motivation The Triangle of Latour Why construct synthetic indicators? Examples: Census, Maps

5 Steps to construct a synthetic indicator

6 Sustainable Development Index of Rio de Janeiro State Municipalities – Km 2 –16 million Inhab. –92 Municipalities

7 Sustainable Development Index of Rio de Janeiro State Municipalities A brief of methodological options: –Concept and Framework: The UNSDC 2001 recommendations for Sustainable Development Indicators, four dimensions (environmental, social, economical and institutional) –Primary indicators: 30 indicators in the four dimensions, following the national SDI, adapting to municipal availability and particularity –Standardization: transform each variable into a scale from 0 to 1 –Agglutination method: Simple Mean, after testing Principal Components and Multicriteria Analysis. Details (SCANDAR NETO, 2006)

8 Sustainable Development Index of Rio de Janeiro State Municipalities Primary indicators

9 How to represent the indicators - The maps 46 maps are necessary to represent the 30 primary indicators, 11 themes, 4 dimensions and the SDI. Five examples: SDI, Env., Social, Econ. and Inst. Indexes.

10 Alternative way to represent the indicators - The basic Chart The basic chart – join a column chart with a box-plot

11 The Graphical Synthesis

12 The Numerical Synthesis

13 Other statistical information Scatter plot The variable profile (descriptive statistics) The system to present the results may content other information, for example, descriptive statistics or scatter plot showing the relationship between two variables

14 Conclusion The process of successive synthesis, coupled with its presentation, adds more information for the decision maker, compared to the separate analysis of 30 tables. It organizes the overview of the primary indicators. It breaks, in part at least, the dichotomy “synthetic indicator x indicator system”. The "synthesis" can not ignore the "system" and the "synthesis" becomes a powerful descriptive tool, not only a model to rank the municipalities. This is still an experimental field that may offer alternatives to the official statistical organizations to better fulfill their role of informing the society and decision makers.

15 Thank you