Need for Reassessment of Environmental Indices

Abstract

Several environmental indices have been developed over the last five decades. These indicators have been used by decision makers. However, it is becoming difficult for decision makers to understand the relevance and meaning of these indicators because of factors, such as technological advancement, reliability of these indicators over time, the emergence of new parameters, and suitability of these indices that have posed questions on the relevance of these indicators. Therefore, revalidation or reassessment of the environmental indices is required. In this paper, a case study on the leachate pollution index (LPI) that was developed using the Delphi technique will be conducted. The procedure that was used for the development of the index did not accurately reflect the opinion of the experts that have responded to the questionnaire. In addition, shortcomings in the formulation of the LPI are highlighted and, based on this paper, it was concluded that if the correct procedure was adopted, the LPI might contain different parameters as constituent pollutants. Therefore, this paper highlights the need to reassess environmental indices.