LAND Indicators

PR(LAND)

(1)Municipal waste generation (kg per capita per year)

Waste collected and treated by or for municipalities. It covers waste from households (including bulky waste), similar waste from commerce and trade, office buildings, institutions and small businesses, yard and garden waste, street sweepings, the contents of litter containers, and market cleaning waste. The definition excludes waste from municipal sewage networks and treatment, as well as municipal construction and demolition waste. Reducing waste generation improves land sustainability.

(2)Nuclear waste(tons of heavy metals per capita per year)

Nuclear waste is primarily due to spent fuel from nuclear power plants. It is assumed that nuclear waste influences land sustainability negatively due mainly to generation of heavy radioactive metals.

(3)Hazardous waste (tons of waste per capita per year)

Waste found in streams to be controlled according to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal. Reduction of hazardous waste improves land sustainability.

(4)Population growth rate(percentage)

Average annual exponential rate of population change for given periods of years. Small or zero population growth rate is perceived as influencing positively land sustainability.

(5)Pesticide consumption(kg of pesticide consumption per hectare of arable land)

Pesticide use intensity refers to the amount of pesticide used per hectare of arable and permanent cropland. Excessive use of pesticides in agricultural activities has negative impacts on soil, water, humans and wildlife.

(6)Fertilizer consumption(kg of fertilizer per hectare of arable land)

Fertilizer consumption measures the quantity of plant nutrients used per unit of arable land in the form of nitrogenous, potash, and phosphate fertilizers (including ground rock phosphate). Excessive use of fertilizers from agricultural activities has a negative impact on soil and water, altering chemistry and levels of nutrients and leading to eutrophication of water bodies.

ST(LAND)

(7)Desertification of land(percent of dryland area)

Areas with a potential hazard of desertification. All major continents face problems of land degradation in dryland areas, commonly known as desertification. Dryland areas are ‘fragile’ in that they are extremely vulnerable to land degradation resulting from over-grazing and other forms of inappropriate land use.

(8)Forest area(percent of what existed in the year 2000)

Forest area is land under natural or planted stands of trees, whether productive or not. Forests maintain land sustainability.

RE(LAND)

(9)Forest change(annual rate of change

Forest area change is the net change in forests and includes expansion of forest plantations and losses and gains in the area of natural forests. A positive forest change improves land sustainability.

(10)Protected area(ratio to surface area)

An area of land and/or sea especially dedicated to the protection and maintenance of biological diversity, and of natural and associated cultural resources, and managed through legal or other effective means (IUCN 1994). Protected area ensures land sustainability.

(11-12)Recycling rates: glass¹¹, paper¹² (percent of apparent consumption)

Recycling rates are the ratios of the quantity collected for recycling to the apparent consumption. Reducing uncontrolled waste improves land sustainability.

WATER Indicators

PR(WATER)

(13)Total water withdrawals(percent of total renewable resources)

Total annual amount of water withdrawn per amount of renewable water resources. Excessive use of water reduces water sustainability.

(5)Pesticide consumption.

(6)Fertilizer consumption.

ST(WATER)

(14)Organic water pollutant emissions(BOD, biological oxygen demand in kg per capita per day)

Emissions of organic water pollutants are measured by biochemical oxygen demand, which is the amount of oxygen that bacteria in water will consume to break down waste. This is a standard water treatment test for the presence of organic pollutants.

(15)Phosphorous concentration(mg phosphorus per liter of water)

It is a measure of eutrophication, which affects the health of aquatic resources. High levels of phosphorus increase the chances of eutrophication.

(16)Metals concentration(micro-Siemens per centimeter)

It is a widely used bulk measure of metals concentration and salinity. Siemens is a unit of electric conductivity. High levels of conductivity correspond to high concentrations of metals.

RE(WATER)

(17)Public wastewater treatment plants(percent of population connected)

Connected means actually connected to a waste water treatment plant through a public sewage network. Non-public treatment plants, i.e., industrial waste water plants, or individual private treatment facilities such as septic tanks are not included. High connectivity improves water sustainability.

BIODIVERSITY Indicators

PR(BIOD)

(18-23)Threatened bird¹⁸, mammal¹⁹, plant²⁰, fish²¹, amphibian²², and reptile²³ species(percentage)

Includes all species that are critically endangered, endangered, or vulnerable, but excludes introduced species, species whose status is insufficiently known, those known to be extinct, and those for which a status has not been assessed. IUCN has established detailed quantitative definitions for the above categories. Very briefly:

Critically endangered is a species that faces an extremely high risk of extinction. A species in this category has experienced or will experience a population reduction of at least 80% within the next 10 years or the next 3 generations, whichever is longer and causes of extinction may not have ceased or may not be understood or may not be reversible.

Endangered species face a very high risk of extinction and the corresponding population reduction as above is at least 50%.

Finally, vulnerable species face a high risk of extinction and a corresponding population reduction of at least 30%.

ST(BIOD)

(7)Desertification of land.

(8)Forest area.

RE(BIOD)

(9)Forest change.

(10)Protected area.

AIR Indicators

PR(AIR)

(24)Ozone depleting substances per capita (consumption in ozone depleting potential metric tons)

An ozone depleting substance is any substance containing chlorine or bromine, which destroy the stratospheric ozone layer that absorbs most of the biologically damaging ultraviolet radiation. Ozone depleting potential (ODP) refers to the amount of ozone depletion caused by a substance. ODP is defined as the ratio of the impact on stratospheric ozone of a substance to the impact of the same mass of CFC-11. CFC-11 has an ODP of 1.

(25)Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per capita(tons of CO₂ equivalent)

Emissions of total GHG (CO₂, CH₄, N₂O, hydrofluorocarbons (HFC’s), perfluorocarbons (PFC’s), and SF₆), excluding land-use change and forestry. To convert all emissions to CO₂ equivalent, the global warming potential (GWP) is used. GWP is an index used to translate the level of emissions of various gases into a common measure in order to compare the relative radiative forcing of different gases without directly calculating the changes in atmospheric concentrations. GWP is the ratio of the warming caused by a substance to the warming caused by the same mass of CO₂.

ST(AIR)

(26)Mortality from poor air quality(number of deaths per 100,000 persons)

Diseases of the respiratory system generally cause irritation and reduced lung function, especially in more susceptible members of the population such as young children, the elderly and asthmatics.

(27-29)Atmospheric concentrations of NO₂²⁷, SO₂²⁸ and total suspended particulates²⁹ (µg/m³ of air)

The values were originally collected at the city level. The number of cities with data provided by each country varies. Within each country the values have been normalized by city population for the year 1995, and then summed to give the total concentration for the given country. High concentrations decrease air sustainability.

RE(AIR)

(30)Renewable resources production(percent of total primary energy supply)

The higher the proportion of renewable energy sources is, the less a country relies on environmentally damaging sources such as fossil fuel and nuclear energy.