Indicators of Environmental Quality

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

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2. Indicators of Environmental Quality: An Overview

   • William A. Thomas

   Pages 1-5

3. Why Environmental Quality Indices?

   • Thomas L. Kimball

   Pages 7-14

4. Uses of Environmental Indices in Policy Formulation

   • Gordon J. F. MacDonald

   Pages 15-21

5. Urban-Environmental Indicators in Municipal and Neighborhood Policy Planning and Decision Making

   • John Berenyi

   Pages 23-30

6. The Uncommunicative Scientist: The Obligation of Scientists to Explain Environment to the Public

   • Peter Hackes

   Pages 31-39

7. Evaluation of Natural Environments

   • Martin Murie

   Pages 43-51

8. Indicators of Environmental Quality of Urban Life: Economic, Spatial, Social, And Political Factors

   • Chester Rapkin, Robert W. Ponte

   Pages 55-69

9. Establishing Priorities Among Environmental Stresses

   • Howard Reiquam

   Pages 71-82

10. Pollutant Burdens in Humans: A Measure of Environmental Quality

    • John H. Finklea, Douglas I. Hammer, Kenneth M. Bridbord, Vaun A. Newill

    Pages 83-91

11. Aquatic Communities as Indices of Pollution

    • Ruth Patrick

    Pages 93-100

12. Plants as Indicators of Air Quality

    • C. Stafford Brandt

    Pages 101-107

13. Biochemical Indicators of Environmental Pollution

    • Gerald Goldstein

    Pages 109-131

14. Use of Sense of Smell in Determining Environmental Quality

    • Trygg Engen

    Pages 133-146

15. Development of Environmental Indices: Outdoor Recreational Resources and Land use Shift

    • Robert P. Pikul, Charles A. Bisselle, Martha Lilienthal

    Pages 147-172

16. A Water Quality Index -Crashing the Psychological Barrier

    • Robert M. Brown, Nina I. McClelland, Rolf A. Deininger, Michael F. O’Connor

    Pages 173-182

17. Indices of Air Quality

    • Lyndon R. Babcock Jr., Niren L. Nagda

    Pages 183-197

18. Statistically Based Air-Quality Indices

    • W. D. Shults, John J. Beauchamp

    Pages 199-209

19. Indicators of Environmental Noise

    • David M. Lipscomb

    Pages 211-241

20. Developing a Soil Quality Index

    • Richard H. Rust, Russell S. Adams, William P. Martin

    Pages 243-247

Researchers and agencies collect reams of objective data and authors publish volumes of subjective prose in attempts to explain what is meant by environmental quality. Still, we have no universally recognized methods for combining our quantitative measures with our qualitative concepts of environ­ ment. Not all of our environmental goals should be reduced to mere numbers, but many of them can be; and without these quantitative terms, we have no way of defining our present position nor of selecting positions we wish to attain on any logically established scale of environmen tal values. Stated simply, in our zeal to measure our environment we often forget that masses of numbers describing a system are insufficient to understand it or to be used in selecting goals and priorities for expending our economic and human resources. Attempts at quantitatively describing environmental quality, rather than merely measuring different environmental variables, are relatively recent. This condensing of data into the optimum number of terms with maximum information content is a truly interdisciplinary challenge. When Oak Ridge National Laboratory initiated its Environmental Program in early 1970 under a grant from the National Science Foundation, the usefulness of environmental indicators in assessing the effects of technology was included as one of the initial areas for investigation. James L. Liverman, through his encouragement and firm belief that these indicators are indispensable if we are to resolve our complex environmental problems, deserves much of the credit for the publication of this book.

• development
• ecology
• environment
• environmental pollution
• formation
• research
• soil

• American Bar Foundation, Chicago, USA

  William A. Thomas

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