4. Indicators and Linkages

Townsville City Council
Accelerated Sustainability Planning


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4. Indicators and Linkages

Parks Services staff, Coordinator Citiwaste & Environmental Management Services Project Officer.

LEVEL 1: INDICATORS

Objectives:

Understand the basics of indicators
Develop a set of 9 indicators for each Compass Point
Make linkages among the indicators
Report on the results

INTRODUCTION

Indicators are representations of trends. Usually, they are presented in the form of measurements: how many, how much, how fast, how often, and so forth.

Indicators are a way of looking at a complex system, assessing its current status, and signaling that status in simple terms.

Sustainability indicators are about assessing sustainability -- the status of the complex systems that make up an entire human society, community, or organisation, together with the natural systems on which they depend.

In this module, you will get an introduction to sustainability indicators, and some practice in thinking about them.

You will also get some practice in using them -- to find linkages between different elements of the systems in which you play a part.

In addition to the presentation slides, we've included a brief article for background purposes to read at your leisure.

The indicators were also evaluated on the following criteria:

Relevant - directly connected to the issues you are concerned with
Measurable - objective or subjective, qualitative or quantitative
Reliable - do you trust the data you would get? would it come regularly?
Understandable - can the average person "get it"?
Clear in Direction - is it obvious which direction is good?
Responsive - if you change something, will the indicator change? how fast?

For more information on indicators of sustainability, and links to other resources, go to the www.AtKisson.com website.

Representative of the Society Group demonstrates the
structure of the indicator level of the Sustainability Pyramid.

	Sustainability Indicators from Pyramid
	Economy	Society	Wellbeing	Nature
1	Resource Efficiency	Health Life Expectancy	Quality of School	Marine Environment Water Temperature
2	Material (Self) Efficiency	Volunteers as Proportion of Population	Job Opportunities	Number of Species - Biodiversity
3	Registered Patents and Scientific Papers	Social Isolation	Personal Safety	Percentage Parkland (Open Space)
4	Creative Class(Worker Knowledge Intensity)	Social Cohesion	Climate	Percentage Natural Environment
5	Retained Workforce	Wealth	Quality of Shopping	Per Capita Usage of Water
6	Value Added Industry	Employment Income in Relationship to Society	Job Diversity	Particulates in the Atmosphere (Air)
7	Under and Unemployment (% Human Capital Underutilisation)	Educated Society (tertiary, TAFE & trades)	Travel Time	Kilowatt Hours per Population (Energy)
8	Job Creation	Number of People Adopting Sustainable Practices	Sense of Community	Waste to Landfill Kilograms per Capita
9	Local Gross Product	Participation in Cultural and Sporting Events	Proximity	Number of People Taking Action

Note: Ranking of Indicators does not imply priority or relative importance

The Assets of Townsville and indicators identified by the Accelerated Sustainability Workshop.
The Assets of Townsville and indicators identified by the Accelerated Sustainability Workshop.

LINKING THE INDICATORS

A Linkage is a cause/effect relationship between two indicators. Actually, the link is between the systems that the indicators measure -- but the indicators are our windows into the systems. A Linkage can be parallel or inverse, direct or indirect. It's not necessary to master these concepts for the purposes of this workshop … but an understanding of them will help you in your search for linkages.

Types of Linkage

Parallel Linkage: When one indicator goes up or down, the other moves in the same direction.

Inverse Linkage: When one indicator goes up, the other goes down (or vice versa, or both).

Direct Linkage: The system being measured by one indicator directly influences the system being measured by another indicator.

Indirect Linkage: The system being measured by one indicator is influenced by another system, which in turn influences the system being measured by a second indicator. There can be multiple chains of indirect linkage.

Economy Linkages
Code	Indicator	Compass	Linkages
E1	Resource Efficiency	Wellbeing	Climate
		Society	Healthy % Practices
		Nature	Biodiversity Marine Water Energy Action Air Waste
E2	Material (Self) Efficiency (comparison between gross regional product and gross regional imports)	Wellbeing	School
		Society	Income Educated Wealth
		Nature	Energy Water Waste
E3	Registered Patents and Scientific Papers (Can relate to positive aspects such as enhanced Tropical Design and management of the environment.)	Wellbeing	Opportunities Climate
		Society	Educated Wealth Cohesion
		Nature	Marine Biodiversity Energy Water Waste
E4	Creative Class (Worker Knowledge Intensity)	Wellbeing	School
		Society	Educated
		Nature	Water Waste Air
E5	Retained Workforce	Wellbeing	Opportunities Diversity Travel Community Safety Proximity Shopping
		Society	Income Educated Wealth
		Nature	Water Air
E6	Value Added Industry	Wellbeing	Opportunities Diversity
		Society	Practices Wealth
		Nature	Energy Waste Water
E7	Under and Unemployment (% Human Capital Underutilisation)	Wellbeing	Opportunities Diversity
		Society	Employment Income Cohesion Isolation
		Nature	---
E8	Job Creation	Wellbeing	Diversity Opportunities
		Society	Income Cohesion Wealth
		Nature	Note: job creation can be positive for environment.
E9	Local Gross Product	Wellbeing	Shopping Proximity Travel Community Safety
		Society	Income Cohesion Wealth % Practices
		Nature	% Natural Biodiversity Open Space

Society Linkages
Code	Indicator	Compass	Linkages
S1	Health Life Expectancy	Wellbeing	---
		Economy	---
		Nature	Air Water
S2	Volunteers as Proportion of Population	Wellbeing	Community
		Economy	Jobs
		Nature	---
S3	Social Isolation	Wellbeing	Proximity Travel
		Economy	---
		Nature	---
S4	Social Cohesion	Wellbeing	Safety Community Travel
		Economy	---
		Nature	---
S5	Wealth	Wellbeing	Opportunities Diversity
		Economy	Jobs Product
		Nature	---
S6	Employment Income in Relationship to Society	Wellbeing	---
		Economy	Unemployment Jobs Workforce
		Nature	---
S7	Educated Society	Wellbeing	Diversity Opportunities School
		Economy	Jobs
		Nature	---
S8	Number of People Adopting Sustainable Practices	Wellbeing	---
		Economy	Patents Material Resource
		Nature	Action
S9	Participation in Cultural and Sporting Events	Wellbeing	Community Travel
		Economy	---
		Nature	Open Space

Wellbeing Linkages
Code	Indicator	Compass	Linkages
W1	Quality of School	Nature	---
		Economy	---
		Society	---
W2	Job Opportunities	Nature	---
		Economy	Jobs
		Society	Educated
W3	Personal Safety	Nature	---
		Economy	---
		Society	---
W4	Climate	Nature	---
		Economy	---
		Society	---
W5	Quality of Shopping	Nature	---
		Economy	---
		Society	---
W6	Job Diversity	Nature	---
		Economy	Class
		Society	---
W7	Travel Time	Nature	---
		Economy	---
		Society	---
W8	Sense of Community	Nature	Action Open Space
		Economy	---
		Society	---
W9	Proximity	Nature	---
		Economy	---
		Society	---

Nature Linkages
Code	Indicator	Compass	Linkages
N1	Marine Environment Water Temperature	Wellbeing	---
		Economy	---
		Society	---
N2	Number of Species - Biodiversity	Wellbeing	---
		Economy	Jobs
		Society	---
N3	Percentage Parkland (Open Space)	Wellbeing	---
		Economy	---
		Society	---
N4	Percentage Natural Environment	Wellbeing	---
		Economy	Resource
		Society	% Practices
N5	Per Capita Usage of Water	Wellbeing	---
		Economy	Industry
		Society	% Practices
N6	Particulates in the Atmosphere (Air)	Wellbeing	---
		Economy	Industry
		Society	---
N7	Kilowatt Hours per Population (Energy)	Wellbeing	---
		Economy	Jobs Material
		Society	---
N8	Waste to Landfill Kilograms per Capita	Wellbeing	---
		Economy	Material
		Society	% Practices
N9	Number of People Taking Action	Wellbeing	---
		Economy	---
		Society	% Practices