Trabajo Individual

Unidad 1 - Fase 1 – Conceptos Básicos de Indicadores Ambientales

Por
Neiby Polanco Barragan – Código 1125551809

Grupo 358024_17

Presentado a
Claudia Carina López

Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia UNAD

Escuela de Ciencias Agrícolas, Pecuarias y del Medio Ambiente
Definición de Indicadores Ambientales
Yopal, febrero de 2022
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ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATORS
Sustainable Development Indicators (SDI) can be interpreted as a system of signals that
facilitate the evaluation of the progress of our countries and regions towards sustainable
development. Indicators are concrete tools that support the work of design and evaluation
of public policy, strengthening informed decisions, as well as citizen participation, to drive
our countries towards sustainable development, in other words, it is a measure that can be
of physical, chemical, biological, social or economic origin, which allows the evaluation of
all available environmental information, in order to reflect the conditions in which the
environment or a particular environmental factor is, at a given time and place.
On the other hand, they can be quantitative or qualitative depending on how they are
measured and appreciated. Quantitative environmental indicators are based on parameters
with which to provide information about a phenomenon. Qualitative environmental
indicators, on the other hand, focus more on observations and perceptions.

Historical Development
The development of indicators and indicator systems did not stop there. In 2000, the
Ministry of the Environment (MMA), the National Planning Department (DNP), the Office
of the Comptroller General of the Republic, the Office of the Attorney General of the
Nation and the Office of the Auditor General of the Republic proposed the Unified System
of Indicators for Monitoring Environmental Planning and Management (SUIGA), proposed
the Unified System of Indicators for the Monitoring of Environmental Planning and
Management (SUIGA), which selected the framework of theme and sub-theme for the
classification of environmental indicators due to its simplicity, as well as a set of 24
environmental indicators and a plan to put them into operation (López, 2006).
More recently, the IDEAM in coordination with the Ministry of Environment and
Sustainable Development (MADS) and the National Administrative Department of
Statistics (DANE), has consolidated a set of indicators that besides reflecting information
of national interest, has the purpose of responding to requests for information from the
International Initiatives of environmental indicators, generating as a result country reports
to these organizations on several occasions. These initiatives include the Statistical
Yearbook of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC),
the Environmental Indicators of the Andean Community (CAN), the Seventh Millennium
Development Goal (MDG7) and the Latin American and Caribbean Initiative for
Sustainable Development (ILAC).

Characteristics
Environmental indicators must comply with certain characteristics, since they are an
instrument that influences the evaluation for making political decisions on the environment,
as well as in the management of a company to become as sustainable as possible, among
them we have:
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- Evaluate quality and reliable data.

- To be easy to handle and understand.
- To be able to predict if there will be any negative evolution.
- Their cost must be balanced with their effectiveness.
- Be sensitive to changes.
- Be specific in order to avoid different interpretations.
Sometimes we walk down the street in big cities and we are not aware of the amount of
green house gases we are breathing. We also bathe in rivers or beaches where we do not
know the quality of the water, or we take walks in the countryside without knowing
whether the soil we are walking on is polluted. Nowadays, thanks to environmental quality
indicators, we can know the environmental state of our surroundings and be able to make
an evaluation of it in order to improve it.
It is important to note that environmental indicators must be developed taking into account
the specific problems of each community or territory, although following general
guidelines; otherwise, there is a risk of developing a set of data detached from the local
context. Furthermore, if a quantifiable indicator cannot be found, a qualitative assessment
can be used (Gómez Orea, 2003).
Current challenges of environmental indicators
Institutional constraints (more work is required in the development of methodologies that
address statistical issues and indicators, as well as training in the construction of indicators;
limitations in economic, human and infrastructure resources; difficulties in data aggregation
and comparison; lack of information compilation systems; lack of relevance in certain
issues).
Technical constraints (lack of training in methodologies related to sustainable development
indicators; lack of basic data or statistics in terms of quality and quantity; different or vague
definitions that entail the risk of misinterpretation; deficient coverage of monitoring
networks, resulting in data gaps in time series; different reporting periods, which
complicates comparison between countries; technical and conceptual measurement
difficulties).
National databases are not only important for the synthetic view they provide on
environmental scenarios, but also for the identification of information gaps. At the
international level, on the other hand, the data bases make it possible to evaluate countries
on the basis of common standards. Following the Environmental Performance Index (EPI),
we analyzed for Colombia the data bases that feed most of the parameters and data
collection, while assessing their availability. We found that most of the information is in
two national repositories, with problems related to availability, access to time series and
raw data, accompanied by the fact that some EPI indicators are not reflected in any of the
primary databases or have no data for analysis. Although the country is involved and has a
strong commitment to the international environmental agenda, there is still a lack of open
and reliable national information sources that could support a monitoring program based on
international indices, such as the EPI.
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- Of the natural system: physical, chemical and biological variables that constantly impose
themselves on the project, especially in the spatial and temporal spheres.
- Of the human system: public participation, representative character, social space, level of
development.
- Technical: these are closely related to the other constraints, making the whole process
more difficult.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

QUIROGA MARTINEZ, R (2007). Environmental and sustainable development

indicators: advances and perspectives for Latin America and the Caribbean. [Online].
Retrieved November 2016
fromhttp://www.cepal.org/deype/publicaciones/xml/4/34394/lcl2771e.pdf.