Building a Composite Indicator to Measure Environmental Sustainability Using Alternative Weighting Methods

José A. Gómez-Limón, Manuel Arriaza and M. Dolores Guerrero-Baena
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José A. Gómez-Limón: WEARE: Water, Environmental and Agricultural Resources Economics Research Group, Faculty of Law and Business Sciences, University of Córdoba, 14071 Córdoba, Spain
Manuel Arriaza: Department of Agricultural Economics, Institute of Agricultural Research and Training (IFAPA), 14080 Córdoba, Spain
M. Dolores Guerrero-Baena: WEARE: Water, Environmental and Agricultural Resources Economics Research Group, Faculty of Law and Business Sciences, University of Córdoba, 14071 Córdoba, Spain

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 11, 1-17

Abstract: Environmental sustainability in agriculture can be measured through the construction of composite indicators. However, this is a challenging task because these indexes are heavily dependent on how the individual base indicators are weighted. The main aim of this paper is to contribute to the existing literature regarding the robustness of subjective (based on experts’ opinions) weighting methods when constructing a composite indicator for measuring environmental sustainability at the farm level. In particular, the study analyzes two multi-criteria techniques, the analytic hierarchy process and the recently developed best-worst method, as well as the more straightforward point allocation method. These alternative methods have been implemented to empirically assess the environmental performance of irrigated olive farms in Spain. Data for this case study were collected from a panel of 22 experts and a survey of 99 farms. The results obtained suggest that there are no statistically significant differences in the weights of the individual base indicators derived from the three weighting methods considered. Moreover, the ranking of the sampled farms, in terms of their level of environmental sustainability measured through the composite indicators proposed, is not dependent on the use of the different weighting methods. Thus, the results support the robustness of the three weighting methods considered.

Keywords: agricultural sustainability; environmental performance; sustainability indices; multi-criteria analysis; analytic hierarchy process; best-worst method; irrigated olive groves; Spain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:11:p:4398-:d:363753

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