Environmental indicator: A Definition Environmental Indicator is a metric describing the state or dynamics of an environment. Indicators can be presented as absolute values, particularly where the units are physically meaningful, or as anomalies, ratios or percentages. Indicators can also have a synthetic dimension, combining more than one variable into a composite index.
Quality of a candidate indicator should be
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specific to each potential pressure, state and response
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easily measurable at reasonable cost
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sufficiently well defined as to capture the main properties of the environment.
Source:United Nations Environment Programme DEWA/GRID -Geneva