Development of Environmental Indices: Outdoor Recreational Resources and Land Use Shift

Abstract

Economic and social indicators and indices such as the index of wholesale prices, index of retail sales, and the cost of living index have been utilized by governmental decision makers and the general public for years. More recently, environmentally related indices have been developed to assess the quality of our air, the quality of our water, and the environment in general.2,4,12 These environmental indices serve a useful purpose, but they are somewhat limited in scope, failing to consider many important factors. The EQ (Environmental Quality) Index, published annually by the National Wildlife Federation, is strikingly illustrated and contains a variety of interesting, often alarming facts, but the Federation does not claim to be analytically rigorous in its derivation of quantitative results.