Determining sustainability using the Environmental Performance Index and Human Development Index – An alternative approach to the Environmental Human Index through a holistic quantitative dynamic framework

Abstract

The Environmental Human Index (EHI) was recently proposed and demonstrated as a new sustainability assessment tool which uses data from the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) and the Human Development Index (HDI). However, the EHI has potential conceptual and operational issues in respect to its consistency with established concepts and principles of the coupled environment-human system and sustainability. Specifically, the thresholds of sustainability the EHI uses, the bias towards the anthroposphere, and the absence of unsustainability. These issues raise potential questions concerning the EHI's value and approach adopted to utilise the EPI and HDI data to determine potential or actual sustainability outcomes. Therefore, to demonstrate how the EPI and HDI can be used to determine sustainability outcomes, the Sustainability Dynamics Framework (SDF) is applied in respect to the case study of the United Kingdom 1995–2020. The results indicated strong sustainability occurring throughout the specified period, within a S-value range of [+0.503 ≤ S(t) ≤ +0.682]. The Pearson correlation analysis showed a significant negative relationship between E and HNI-values and between HNI and S-values, and a significant positive relationship between E and S-values. The Fourier analysis indicated a three-phase change in the nature of the environment-human system dynamics over the 1995–2020 period. The SDF application to the EPI and HDI data has shown the importance of using a consistent holistic conceptual and operational framework to determine and evaluate sustainability outcomes.