Proposed Indicator System Research Articles

Popularity and parity assessment for more inclusive and balanced aquaculture development

Aquaculture, a rapidly expanding food production system, holds promise for improving global food security and resilience. However, imbalanced growth has led to a highly uneven distribution of aquaculture production among countries, a concern that has not been comprehensively examined. This paper fills this knowledge gap by developing an innovative indicator system to assess this issue based on aquaculture development in ~ 200 countries over five decades. The system utilizes the “effective number of countries” (ENC) as a basic measure of production distribution and extends it into two novel indicators, popularity and parity, to gauge inclusiveness and balance. The assessment from 1970 to 2020 reveals that aquaculture has become a global enterprise, operating in nearly 90% of countries. Nevertheless, there is still substantial potential for growth in aquaculture popularity across most of 43 species groups examined here. Regarding concerns over persistently imbalanced aquaculture growth, our assessment reveals that aquaculture parity increased during 1970–2020 in the majority of 85 country groups examined here, including 18 of 27 regions and subregions. Global parity is also on the rise in the new millennium (2000–2020). However, the global aquaculture parity remains considerably lower than those of capture fisheries and terrestrial meat production. This suggests that imbalanced global aquaculture development cannot be solely attributed to countries’ comparative advantages. This extraordinary imbalance could compromise global food security and food system resilience, but it also signifies untapped growth potential. Mainstreaming aquaculture popularity and parity as policy indicators can foster more inclusive and balanced development and unlock this potential. The proposed indicator system can be applied across diverse sectors and scales, contributing to a broader and refined understanding of the dynamics within the global food system.

Multicriteria assessment of the response capability of urban emergency shelters: A case study in Beijing

Urban emergency shelters are pivotal for safety, with effective evaluation criteria enabling decision-makers to identify strengths and weaknesses, facilitating targeted enhancements. This study aims to propose a scientific criteria system for assessing urban emergency shelters on a smaller scale, employing the analytical hierarchy process and multisource data. Considering six key perspectives—site safety, spatial accessibility, demand matching, shelter facilities, operation, administration and maintenance (OA&M), and public awareness—a hierarchical structure of evaluation indicators for assessing the emergency response capability of urban emergency shelters is presented. To demonstrate the practicality and scientific validity of the proposed indicator system, we apply GIS analysis to evaluate the Yuandadu Park Emergency Shelter in Beijing. The findings validate the effectiveness of the indicator system and its potential for assessing individual shelters comprehensively. By understanding the strengths and weaknesses of shelters through this comprehensive assessment, decision-makers can make informed choices to improve overall emergency preparedness and response in urban settings.

Comprehensive Performance Assessment for Sponge City Construction: A Case Study

Sponge City Construction (SCC) can effectively solve urban areas’ water problems. Green infrastructure (GI), the core of SCC, exhibits a multifaceted capacity to deliver many co-benefits, while grey infrastructure primarily serves the single function of controlling rainfall runoff. However, existing assessment indicator systems fail to either consider or evaluate comprehensive impacts. In this work, a comprehensive indicator system has been established to assess the co-benefits of five different GI measures. The system includes twelve indicators from four aspects, i.e., disaster reduction, economic, environmental, and social benefits. This newly established assessment system is applied to Jinan as a case study. Six out of twelve indicators are evaluated using the self-developed Flood Risk Analysis Software and empirical equations. The results show that the inundation reduction ratios are 11.02%, 9.32%, and 8.02% under the 24-h design rainfall with a 5-year, 10-year, and 20-year return period, respectively. In addition, the corresponding direct flood loss reduction rates are 13.86%, 4.28%, and 4.09%. That is, as the rainfall return periods increase, the disaster reduction benefits become less pronounced. On the contrary, other benefits, e.g., groundwater recharge volumes, are more obvious. The corresponding groundwater recharge volumes are 2.23 million m3, 2.86 million m3, and 2.87 million m3, respectively. The proposed indicator system can be adopted to assess the performances of the different GI combinations, which provides effective support and reference to decision-makers in SCC at the planning and design stages.

Preparedness Indicator System for Education 4.0 with FUCOM and Rough Sets

In view of the recent education sectoral transition to Education 4.0 (EDUC4), evaluating the preparedness of higher education institutions (HEIs) for EDUC4 implementation remains a gap in the current literature. Through a comprehensive review, seven criteria were evaluated, namely, human resources, infrastructure, financial, linkages, educational management, learners, and health and environment. This work offers two crucial contributions: (1) the development of an EDUC4 preparedness indicator system and (2) the design of a computational structure that evaluates each indicator and computes an aggregate preparedness level for an HEI. Using the full consistency method (FUCOM) to assign the priority weights of EDUC4 criteria and the rough set theory to capture the ambiguity and imprecision inherent in the measurement, this study offers an aggregate EDUC4 preparedness index to holistically capture the overall preparedness index of an HEI towards EDUC4. An actual case study is presented to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed indicator system. After a thorough evaluation, the results indicate that human resources were the most critical criterion, while health and environment ranked last. Insights obtained from the study provide HEIs with salient information necessary for decision making in various aspects, including the design of targeted policies and the allocation of resources conducive to implementing EDUC4 initiatives. The proposed indicator system can be a valuable tool to guide HEIs in pursuing EDUC4, resulting in a more effective and efficient implementation of this educational paradigm.

Evaluation index system and evaluation method of energy storage and regional power grid coordinated peak regulation ability

With the development of energy storage technology, energy storage technology began to be put into the peak regulation of power grid. But at present, the lack of scientific evaluation means for coordinated peak regulation ability of energy storage and regional power grid (ESRPG) hinders the large-scale participation of energy storage devices in peak regulation. To solve this problem, this paper proposes an evaluation system and evaluation method to comprehensively and accurately evaluate the coordinated peak regulation ability of ESRPG. Firstly, an evaluation system for the coordinated peak regulation ability of ESRPG is established from the perspective of energy storage and generator units. The indicator system comprehensively considers the impact of technology, economy, reliability, and other factors on the peak regulation ability of the ESRPG. At the same time, a multi-level evaluation method composed of an analytic hierarchy process and weighted rank sum ration is proposed to comprehensively evaluate the proposed indicator system. This method not only takes subjective and objective factors into account, but also eliminates the interference of dimensions, orders of magnitude and other factors on the evaluation results. Finally, the evaluation indicator system and evaluation method are applied to the simulation scene for evaluation, and the results show that the evaluation system and method make up for the shortcomings of the current mainstream methods and effectively evaluate the peak shaving capability.

Regional flood resilience grading based on GEM-AHPSort II method: An objective and managerial factors integrated perspective

Flood resilience is the principal capability of the flood-affected areas to quickly eliminate the impact of floods. Motivated by the realistic demand of improving the regional flood resilience and reducing negative hazards caused by flood, regional flood resilience evaluation is carried out from the perspective of objective and managerial factors in this paper. Firstly, a novel Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) method G1-EW-MGLA (GEM)-AHPSort II method is proposed by combining AHPSort II method, G1-EW method, and MGLA method. Secondly, the evaluation indicator system of regional flood resilience is constructed from the perspective of objective and managerial factors. Subsequently, the proposed method and indicator system were applied to the case of flood resilience evaluation in Hubei Province, China. The case study analysis results show that in the 17 regions involved in the evaluation, the number of regions with “medium-low resilience” and “low resilience” is close to half, and the flood resilience of the regions with high economic development tends to be a higher level. In addition, under the same case data, the evaluation results of the proposed GEM-AHPSort II method are compared against the EW-AHPSort II method and AHPSort II method. The indicator weights determination process of GEM-AHPSort II method has been improved compared with the other two methods, and the evaluation results are more practical. Finally, some management suggestions for effectively improving the regional flood resilience and reducing flood hazards were put forward. This paper can provide a reference for the government to formulate or improve relevant flood protection strategies.

Touristification and Conflicts of Interest in Cruise Destinations: The Case of Main Cultural Tourism Cities on the Spanish Mediterranean Coast

Tourist demands and the ensuing commodification of habitability in cities have led to the emergence of resistance movements. This study aims to define patterns in touristified cities by measuring the presence of citizen initiatives, together with tourism intensification and related socio-demographic variables. All the indicators have been tested in the Mediterranean port cities of Barcelona and Malaga as they lead the cultural offer. Both municipalities have been analysed at census-section level and show a common urban pattern: the Airbnb offer has spread out in the old town in direct competition with traditional accommodation and replacing long-term rentals. Statistical analysis reveals a significant correlation among citizen initiatives with tourism services, which are the driver mechanisms behind the movements. Cluster maps show a clear centre-periphery pattern according to the tourism intensification set with high coefficient values for tourist accommodation. Bivariate spatial autocorrelation indicates that protest movements emerge in tourism specialisation areas with a high concentration of tourist facilities. Monitoring the proposed indicator system over time may serve as a basis for local administrations to promote new urban policies dealing with overtourism. Future research may redefine and include new variables, test other tourist destinations and consider a smaller non-administrative territorial unit of analysis.

Indicators for measuring tourism intensification in urban areas through their associative network: Case studies from the Spanish Mediterranean coast

Clustering of tourism-related activities leads to tourism gentrification because of urban tourism. This study proposes a methodology for identifying pattern of tourism intensification in cities. The main objectives were to conduct an in-depth measurement of tourism intensification and to consider the conflict of interest between stakeholders involved. The proposed indicator system is based on several variables measured by neighbourhoods as territorial units: citizen initiatives, population and tourist accommodations and facilities. All indicators were tested in two Spanish port cities: Malaga and Valencia. Geographic Information System mapping showed common patterns in both cities, such as tertiary use concentrated in the old town, new tourist offers around it, and emerging clusters far away. Statistical analysis showed a high spatial correlation between neighbourhoods with several citizen initiatives and a wide range of Airbnb listings or cultural facilities. The spatial analysis and correlations between tourism intensification indicators may serve as a basis for local administrations to propose an urban policy that deals with overtourism in the short and medium terms. This work serves as a basis for new research on urban tourism: redefinition and addition of variables, as well as further development of comparative case studies or field studies that check the datasets.

Power Generation Performance Indicators of Wind Farms Including the Influence of Wind Energy Resource Differences

The accurate evaluation and fair comparison of wind farms power generation performance is of great significance to the technical transformation and operation and maintenance management of wind farms. However, problems exist in the evaluation indicator systems such as confusion, coupling and broadness, and the influence of wind energy resource differences not being able to be effectively eliminated, which makes it difficult to achieve the fair comparison of power generation performance among different wind farms. Thus, the evaluation indicator system and comprehensive evaluation method of wind farm power generation performance, including the influence of wind energy resource differences, are proposed in this paper to address the problems above, to which some new concepts such as resource conditions, ideal performance, reachable performance, actual performance, and performance loss are introduced in the proposed indicator system; the combination of statistical and comparative indicators are adopted to realize the quantitative evaluation, indicator decoupling, fair comparison, and loss attribution of wind farm power generation performance. The proposed comprehensive evaluation method is based on improved CRITIC (Criteria Importance though Intercrieria Correlation) weighting method, in which the uneven situation of different evaluation indicators and the comprehensive comparison of power generation performance among different wind farms shall be overcome and realized. Several sets of data from Chinese wind farms in service are used to validate the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed method by taking the comprehensive evaluation models based on CRITIC weighting method and entropy weighting method as the benchmarks. The results demonstrated that the proposed evaluation indicator system works in the quantitative evaluation and fair comparison of wind farm design, operation, and maintenance and traces the source of power generation performance loss. In addition, the results of the proposed comprehensive evaluation model are more in line with the actual power generation performance of wind farms and can be applied to the comprehensive evaluation and comparison of power generation performance of different wind farms.

Analysis of Electricity and Natural Gas Security. A Case Study for Germany, France, Italy and Spain

This work aims to present an analysis of electricity and natural gas supply security in the four European Union countries with the highest level of consumption, namely Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. The goal of the study is to use and adapt a set of 22 indicators for estimating the level of energy security. The evaluation of an index called “Energy Security Level”, measuring the overall energy security, is performed for the period 2006–2018 in order to compare its evolution in each of the analyzed countries. The application of the proposed indicator system demonstrates which measures weakened or strengthened energy security in the past. The analysis of the energy security level demonstrates that Germany and France perform better than Italy and Spain in terms of energy security assurance. The main factors for these differences are the rich energy mix for Germany and the massive presence of nuclear power in France. These two elements make German and French energy systems more resilient than the Italian and Spanish ones. The results of sensitivity and uncertainty analysis demonstrate that the initial values of indicator weights have low impact on the uncertainty of energy security level estimations.

Development and integrated assessment of the circular economy in the European Union: the outranking approach

Purpose The Green Deal strategy of the European Union (EU) as well as the increasing concerns over resource scarcity worldwide has put forward such concepts as the circular economy. This paper seeks to compare the progress of the development of the circular economy across the EU Member States. Such analysis is helpful in guiding the circular economy support policies. Design/methodology/approach This paper develops a quantitative framework for analysis of the implementation of the circular economy objectives in the EU Member States. The framework proposed includes three multi-criteria decision making methods representing reference point and outranking approaches. The use of multiple methods allows exploiting the differences in the underlying aggregation principles. Findings Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands appear as the most advanced in the sense of circular economy development. The results indicate that the water-locked small countries and the new EU Member States are among the lowest performing ones. The flows of the waste need to be monitored more tightly in order to increase the circularity. The development of recycling facilities can also increase circularity irrespectively of the economic development level (e.g. the case of Bulgaria). Originality/value The paper contributes to the discussion regarding the circular economy by proposing an indicator system and the multi-criteria analysis framework. The proposed indicator system covers input use (circularity), trade flows and recycling processes. The proposed framework can be applied to track the progress of different countries in implementing the targets of the circular economy.

What's wrong with the public participation of urban regeneration project in China: a study from multiple stakeholders' perspectives

PurposeMeasuring the performance of public participation is conducive to improving participation systems. However, such measurement, particularly in urban regeneration projects, is difficult because of the complex indicators and multiple stakeholders involved. The purpose of this paper is to measure the public participation level in urban regeneration projects in China.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopts a perception difference-based method to measure the public participation level in urban regeneration projects in China. Specifically, an indicator system consisting of 12 indicators from three categories was first purposed. A perception difference-based method that integrates ANOVA test and Tukey test were then developed. The method was validated using five represented projects, and the results are interpreted based on a proposed measurement matrix.FindingsRegardless of the type of indicator, the perception of the government aligns with the perception of private sector professions, however, deviates from the perception of citizens. By taking the mean score and the significance level among stakeholders of perception as two dimensions, different patterns of issues in the current participation practice in urban regeneration are manifested.Research limitations/implicationsTheoretically, the proposed indicator system and perception difference-based method combined to provide a holistic view of public participation, which is verified to provide a better measurement. Practically, the authors’ methodology helps in revealing issues in current participation practice and further leading to designing coping strategies. Nonetheless, the proposed method requires further validation in participation practices in China and other countries.Originality/valueBy considering the perception mean and the significance level as two dimensions, a public participation measurement matrix is proposed. The performance in different indicators are classified into four stages accordingly, namely idling, starting, running-in and accelerating.

Energy Internet Evaluation Index System under the Zero Carbon Goal

At present, the zero-carbon goal has become the common choice of all the world. Driven by the zero-carbon goal, energy system in China will develop to be cleaner and cleaner. In this situation, Energy Internet has become the future development trend of the energy system. Based on the detailed analysis on the development history, the basic connotation and the key features of Energy Internet, an Energy Internet evaluation index system is introduced. This proposed indicator system evaluates Energy Internet from five dimensions, and all the indexes include the qualitative and the quantitative indicators, the process indicators and the result indicators, the technical indicators and the economic indicators. On this basis, an evaluation method is proposed based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process and the Delphi method. The proposed evaluation index system and the evaluation method can provide a good objective evaluation of the development of Energy Internet.

Defining stages of the Industry 4.0 adoption via indicator sets

Abstract As Industry 4.0 offers significant productivity improvements, its relevance has grown across various organisations. While it captures the attention of both the industry and the academia, very few efforts have been made to streamline useful indicators across stages of its implementation. Such work facilitates the development of strategies that are appropriate for a specific stage of implementation; therefore, it would be significant to a variety of stakeholders. As a result, this paper aims to establish an indicator system for adopting Industry 4.0 within the context of the three stages of the innovation adoption: (i) pre-adoption, (ii) adoption, and (iii) post-adoption. First, a comprehensive review was performed with a search expanding into the literature on innovation and technology adoption. Second, the resulting indicators were filtered for relevance, redundancy, description, and thorough focus discussions. Finally, they were categorised by their stage of adoption. From 469 innovation adoption indicators found in the literature, this work identified a total of 62 indicators relevant for the Industry 4.0 adoption, in which 11, 14, and 37 of them comprised the three stages, respectively. Case studies from two manufacturing firms in the Philippines were reported to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed indicator system. This work pioneers the establishment of an indicator system for the Industry 4.0 adoption and the classification of such indicators into three stages — pre-adoption, adoption, and post-adoption — which would serve as a framework for decision-makers, practitioners, and stakeholders in planning, strategy development, resource allocation, and performance evaluation of the Industry 4.0 adoption.

Construction and application of service quality evaluation system in the preclinical research on cardiovascular implant devices

BackgroundServices for the preclinical development and evaluation of cardiovascular implant devices (CVIDs) is a new industry. However, there is still no indicator system for quality evaluation. Our aim is to construct a service for quality evaluation system for the preclinical research and development of CVIDs based on Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP).MethodsFirst, we reviewed the related literature to identify and select possible factors. Second, we developed an analytic hierarchy process framework. Third, we developed a questionnaire based on pairwise comparisons and invited 10 experienced specialists to rate these factors. We then used FAHP to compute the weights of these factors and prioritize them. Finally, to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed indicator system, a case study was performed as a practical example.ResultsFour main indicators (professionalism, functionality, stability and security) and 15 subindicators were selected to form the service evaluation system based on literature review and expert’s proposals. According to the weight calculation data, the order of primary indicators by importance, is professionalism (0.6457), security (0.1193), functionality (0.0958) and stability (0.0596) in sequence. Top five secondary indices are personnel’s technical ability, facility and equipment attractiveness, data auditability, confidentiality capability and professional service procedures. In the case study, FW’s final actual effectiveness value was 0.9076, which is the same as the actual situation.ConclusionThe indicator system established in this study is comprehensive, reasonable, reliable and with strong practicality. It is worth popularizing and applying. The implementation of this evaluation system can provide measurable evidence for service demander and a way to improve service quality for suppliers.

The environmental sustainability evaluation of an urban tap water treatment plant based on emergy

The resources and environment issues, derived from tap water production, have been widely concerned with fast development of social economy. Based on the characteristics of water supply systems (especially its pollution emissions’ impact), this work proposed a set of improved indicator system for evaluating their environmental sustainability. As a case study, a tap water treatment plant, located in Jiangsu Province, China, was investigated using the proposed indicator system. The study results show that (1) purchased nonrenewable input accounts for 50.24% of the total input; therein, thermal power contributes the largest; (2) the unit emergy value of tap water reaches 9.03E11sej/m3 based on the baseline 12.0E24 Sej/a; (3) the Mn removal needs the largest cost in terms of emergy; (4) the pollution emissions’ impact reduces its performances slightly; (5) based on the classic indicator values, it has better economic benefit, lower environmental loading, and higher sustainability level than the similar systems. After some issues’ discussions, this work puts forward the related suggestions for further improving its comprehensive performance in the future.

Measuring geomorphological vulnerability on beaches using a set of indicators (GVI): A tool for management

A system of indicators has been developed to evaluate beach geomorphological vulnerability (GVI) through: intrinsic susceptibility, the agents that model them, and their ability to remain stable over time. The method is applied to 34 beaches on the island of Gran Canaria (Spain) that experience different levels and conditions of human occupation, marine incidence, landforms and sediments, and spatial evolution that have been recorded since 1960. In contrast with other studies, the analysis of these dimensions (and their relationships) allows a diagnosis of the geomorphology of the beaches with an integrated approach. The results illustrate the numerous causes that generate geomorphological vulnerability, such as wave intensity, the presence of dikes or breakwaters, coastline variations, the absence of foredunes and embryonic dunes, the width of the intertidal zone, or the absence of beachrocks or lavic stones outcropping onto the shore. These variables combine and operate differently in five defined groups of beaches with different management needs. The most vulnerable ones were those with strong marine incidence, which require maintenance of their landforms in order to guarantee their stability. The opposite situation is found in beaches with little impact from anthropic and marine components. These beaches are less vulnerable since they have moderate susceptibility and high resilience. Their management requirements consist of soft measures since they have a strong geomorphological robustness. In this context, the proposed indicator system is a potentially relevant contribution to the management of beaches, especially for those that are under threat.

Measuring and assessing urban sprawl: A proposed indicator system for the city of Thessaloniki, Greece

Urban sprawl phenomenon has been on the planning research agenda for more than five decades now. In an effort to comprehend the phenomenon there have been several quantitative approaches to measure it and identify its spatial patterns. This paper attempts to develop a refined indicator system for measuring and assessing the spatial characteristics of urban sprawl in Greek cities. To do so it suggests a system of indicators adapted to the specificities of Greek cities that tend to be quite unique in terms of their urban expansion practices. At the same time, the study deals with the critical issue of data availability and for that it proposes a minimum, but sufficient subset of indicators based on free satellite imagery that could be applicable in any Greek city. Furthermore, a composite analysis using population data is attempted. The proposed indicator system is applied to the Greater Area of Thessaloniki, the second largest city in Greece that was in constant transition till the recent economic crisis. Application of methodology suggests that the proposed system of indicators can contribute to the measurement and assessment of sprawl, since the results of the indicators validate theoretical findings and recordings for urban sprawl in Thessaloniki.

Towards an indicator system to assess equitable management in protected areas

Aichi Target 11 (AT11), adopted by 193 Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 2010, states that protected areas (PAs) must be equitably managed by 2020. However, significant challenges remain in terms of actual implementation of equitable management in PAs. These challenges include, among others, the lack of a standardized approach to assess and monitor social equity and the difficulty of reducing social equity to a series of metrics. This perspective addresses these challenges and it proposes a minimum set of ten indicators for assessing and monitoring the three dimensions of social equity in protected areas: recognition, procedure and distribution. The indicators target information on social equity regarding cultural identity, statutory and customary rights, knowledge diversity; free, prior and informed consent mechanisms, full participation and transparency in decision-making, access to justice, accountability over decisions, distribution of conservation burdens, and sharing of conservation benefits. The proposed indicator system is a first step in advancing an approach to facilitate our understanding of how the different dimensions of social equity are denied or recognized in PAs globally. The proposed system would be used by practitioners to mainstream social equity indicators in PAs assessments at the site level and to report to the CBD on the ‘equitably managed’ element of AT11.

Development of an integrated indicator system to assess the impacts of reclamation engineering on a river estuary

An integrated indicator system was developed for determining synthetic environmental responses under multiple types of coastal reclamation engineering in the Yellow River estuary, China. Four types of coastal engineering works were analyzed, namely port construction, petroleum exploitation, fishery and aquaculture, and seawall defense. In addition, two areas with limited human disturbances were considered for comparison. From the weights of the response value for each indicator, port construction was determined to be the primary impact contributor among the four engineering works studies. Specifically, hydrodynamic conditions, ecological status, economic costs, and engineering intensity were on average 72.78%, 65.03%, 75.03%, and 66.35% higher than those of other engineering types. Furthermore, fishery and aquaculture impact on water quality was 42.51% higher than that of other engineering types, whereas seawall defense impact on landscape variation was 51.75% higher than that of other engineering types. The proposed indicator system may provide effective coastal management in future.