Indicateurs sociaux, indicateurs d'environnement

The aim of indicators which have been the subject of many studies in the social field and more recently in that of environment is to provide data and aids to decision in fields to which the use of traditional economic methods are not adapted. The term «indicators » covers synthetic variables that enable the state of certain elements of the living conditions of a group of people to be defined and comparisons time and space to be made. Several questions will be raised with regard to them : what degree of aggregat of variables is possible and compatible with objective information ? How can these indicators become tools enabling the « decision-makers » to be aware of the meaning and the consequences of a decision ? How can the subjective aspects of the perception of a situation by those concerned be integrated ? In the field of environment (in which we include pollution and nuisances, space use, natural sites and milieux, landscapes) the working out and the use of indicators prove necessary but also particularly delicate for the phenomena of interrelated factors, of competition between activities and the subjective elements of perception take on a particular importance.