IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i4p1198-d208691.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainable Development Goals Indicators: A Methodological Proposal for a Multidimensional Fuzzy Index in the Mediterranean Area

Author

Listed:
  • Margherita Casini

    (Department of Business and Law, University of Siena, Piazza San Francesco 7/8, 53100 Siena, Italy)

  • Simone Bastianoni

    (Ecodynamics Group, Department of Earth, Environmental and Physical Sciences, University of Siena, Pian dei Mantellini 44, 53100 Siena, Italy)

  • Francesca Gagliardi

    (Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Siena, Piazza San Francesco 7/8, 53100 Siena, Italy)

  • Massimo Gigliotti

    (Ecodynamics Group, Department of Earth, Environmental and Physical Sciences, University of Siena, Pian dei Mantellini 44, 53100 Siena, Italy)

  • Angelo Riccaboni

    (Department of Business and Law, University of Siena, Piazza San Francesco 7/8, 53100 Siena, Italy)

  • Gianni Betti

    (Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Siena, Piazza San Francesco 7/8, 53100 Siena, Italy)

Abstract

This paper describes a methodology for the construction of a multidimensional index for sustainability assessment in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN 2030 Agenda. The methodology is designed to properly capture the multidimensional nature of sustainable development and the SDG framework, introducing an innovative Fuzzy Multidimensional Index to measure the performance of Mediterranean countries. The focus is on agro-food sustainability, in-line with the aims of the Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area (PRIMA). Drawing on fuzzy set theory, a step-by-step procedure was developed: the underlying dimensions of a set of selected indicators for the SDGs are identified by exploratory factor analysis; an innovative weighting method is applied to aggregate the indicators and calculate the country scores for each dimension and the Fuzzy Multidimensional Index. The PRIMA program will be a first step towards the implementation of innovative solutions, by funding international cooperation projects between countries on both sides of the Mediterranean for a decade: the Fuzzy Multidimensional Index will be the primary source of data for evaluating such projects and policies implemented from them; the Index will therefore be able to close a gap in the availability of appropriate data.

Suggested Citation

  • Margherita Casini & Simone Bastianoni & Francesca Gagliardi & Massimo Gigliotti & Angelo Riccaboni & Gianni Betti, 2019. "Sustainable Development Goals Indicators: A Methodological Proposal for a Multidimensional Fuzzy Index in the Mediterranean Area," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-25, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:4:p:1198-:d:208691
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/4/1198/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/4/1198/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Qiang Zhang & Xujia Jiang & Dan Tong & Steven J. Davis & Hongyan Zhao & Guannan Geng & Tong Feng & Bo Zheng & Zifeng Lu & David G. Streets & Ruijing Ni & Michael Brauer & Aaron van Donkelaar & Randall, 2017. "Transboundary health impacts of transported global air pollution and international trade," Nature, Nature, vol. 543(7647), pages 705-709, March.
    2. Kveselis, Vaclovas & Dzenajavičienė, Eugenija Farida & Masaitis, Sigitas, 2017. "Analysis of energy development sustainability: The example of the lithuanian district heating sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 227-236.
    3. Gianni Betti & Francesca Gagliardi & Vijay Verma, 2018. "Simplified Jackknife Variance Estimates for Fuzzy Measures of Multidimensional Poverty," International Statistical Review, International Statistical Institute, vol. 86(1), pages 68-86, April.
    4. Gianni Betti, 2017. "What impact has the economic crisis had on quality of life in Europe? A multidimensional and fuzzy approach," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 51(1), pages 351-364, January.
    5. Gianni Betti & Francesca Gagliardi & Achille Lemmi & Vijay Verma, 2015. "Comparative measures of multidimensional deprivation in the European Union," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 49(3), pages 1071-1100, November.
    6. Indre Siksnelyte & Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas & Dalia Streimikiene & Deepak Sharma, 2018. "An Overview of Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Methods in Dealing with Sustainable Energy Development Issues," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-21, October.
    7. Dalia Streimikiene & Indre Siksnelyte & Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas & Fausto Cavallaro, 2018. "The Impact of Greening Tax Systems on Sustainable Energy Development in the Baltic States," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-29, May.
    8. Arthur Lehner & Christoph Erlacher & Matthias Schlögl & Jacob Wegerer & Thomas Blaschke & Klaus Steinnocher, 2018. "Can ISO-Defined Urban Sustainability Indicators Be Derived from Remote Sensing: An Expert Weighting Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-31, April.
    9. Bruno Cheli & Gianni Betti, 1999. "Fuzzy analysis of poverty dynamics on an italian pseudo panel 1985-1994," Metron - International Journal of Statistics, Dipartimento di Statistica, Probabilità e Statistiche Applicate - University of Rome, vol. 0(1-2), pages 85-105.
    10. Elena Escrig‐Olmedo & María Jesús Muñoz‐Torres & María Ángeles Fernández‐Izquierdo & Juana María Rivera‐Lirio, 2017. "Measuring Corporate Environmental Performance: A Methodology for Sustainable Development," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(2), pages 142-162, February.
    11. Gianni Betti & Bruno Cheli & Achille Lemmi & Vijay Verma, 2008. "The Fuzzy Set Approach to Multidimensional Poverty: the Case of Italy in the 1990s," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Nanak Kakwani & Jacques Silber (ed.), Quantitative Approaches to Multidimensional Poverty Measurement, chapter 2, pages 30-48, Palgrave Macmillan.
    12. Arnstein Aassve & Gianni Betti & Stefano Mazzuco & Letizia Mencarini, 2007. "Marital disruption and economic well‐being: a comparative analysis," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 170(3), pages 781-799, July.
    13. Besma Belhadj, 2011. "A new fuzzy unidimensional poverty index from an information theory perspective," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 40(3), pages 687-704, May.
    14. Gianni Betti, 2017. "Fuzzy measures of quality of life in Germany: a multidimensional and comparative approach," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 51(1), pages 23-34, January.
    15. Louis Guttman, 1954. "Some necessary conditions for common-factor analysis," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 19(2), pages 149-161, June.
    16. Sarfaraz Hashemkhani Zolfani & Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas & Payam Khazaelpour & Fausto Cavallaro, 2018. "The Multi-Aspect Criterion in the PMADM Outline and Its Possible Application to Sustainability Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-15, November.
    17. Gianni Betti & Antonella D’Agostino & Laura Neri, 2011. "Educational Mismatch of Graduates: a Multidimensional and Fuzzy Indicator," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 103(3), pages 465-480, September.
    18. Gianni Betti & Antonella D'Agostino & Achille Lemmi & Claudio Quintano, 2009. "A parametric model for estimating fuzzy poverty measures and their standard errors," Politica economica, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 3, pages 279-300.
    19. Animesh Debnath & Jagannath Roy & Kajal Chatterjee & Samarjit Kar, 2018. "Measuring Corporate Social Responsibility Based on Fuzzy Analytic Networking Process-Based Balance Scorecard Model," International Journal of Information Technology & Decision Making (IJITDM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 17(04), pages 1203-1235, July.
    20. Nanak Kakwani & Jacques Silber (ed.), 2008. "Quantitative Approaches to Multidimensional Poverty Measurement," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-58235-4, December.
    21. Hussein Sayed & Ramadan Hamed & Samaa Hazem Hosny & Alyaa Hegazy Abdelhamid, 2018. "Avoiding Ranking Contradictions in Human Development Index Using Goal Programming," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 138(2), pages 405-442, July.
    22. Gianni Betti & Rossella Soldi & Ilija Talev, 2016. "Fuzzy Multidimensional Indicators of Quality of Life: The Empirical Case of Macedonia," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 127(1), pages 39-53, May.
    23. Vijay Verma & Gianni Betti, 2011. "Taylor linearization sampling errors and design effects for poverty measures and other complex statistics," Journal of Applied Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(8), pages 1549-1576, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Maris Kalinka & Sanda Geipele & Edgars Pudzis & Andrejs Lazdins & Una Krutova & Jurijs Holms, 2020. "Indicators for the Smart Development of Villages and Neighbourhoods in Baltic Sea Coastal Areas," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-13, June.
    2. Mark E. Caulfield & James Hammond & Steven J. Fonte & Mark van Wijk, 2020. "Land Tenure Insecurity Constrains Cropping System Investment in the Jordan Valley of the West Bank," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-18, August.
    3. Bauweraerts, Jonathan & Arzubiaga, Unai & Diaz-Moriana, Vanessa, 2022. "Going greener, performing better? The case of private family firms," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    4. Dang, Hai-Anh H. & Serajuddin, Umar, 2020. "Tracking the sustainable development goals: Emerging measurement challenges and further reflections," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    5. Vítor João Pereira Domingues Martinho, 2021. "Agri-Food Contexts in Mediterranean Regions: Contributions to Better Resources Management," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-17, June.
    6. Lilian Monteiro Ferrari Viterbo & André Santana Costa & Diogo Guedes Vidal & Maria Alzira Pimenta Dinis, 2020. "Workers’ Healthcare Assistance Model (WHAM): Development, Validation, and Assessment of Sustainable Return on Investment (S-ROI)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(9), pages 1-18, April.
    7. Raejung Lee & Jinho Kim, 2021. "Developing a Social Index for Measuring the Public Opinion Regarding the Attainment of Sustainable Development Goals," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 156(1), pages 201-221, July.
    8. Ilaria Benedetti & Federico Crescenzi & Tiziana Laureti, 2020. "Measuring Uncertainty for Poverty Indicators at Regional Level: The Case of Mediterranean Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-19, October.
    9. Xiangdan Piao & Xinxin Ma & Tetsuya Tsurumi & Shunsuke Managi, 2022. "Social Capital, Negative Event, Life Satisfaction and Sustainable Community: Evidence from 37 Countries," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 17(3), pages 1311-1330, June.
    10. Blaženka Popović & Svjetlana Janković Šoja & Tamara Paunović & Radojka Maletić, 2019. "Evaluation of Sustainable Development Management in EU Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-16, December.
    11. Gianni Betti & Laura Neri & Marco Lonzi & Achille Lemmi, 2020. "Objective Environmental Indicators and Subjective Well-Being: Are They Directly Related?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-12, March.
    12. Matheus Pereira Libório & Petr Yakovlevitch Ekel & Oseias da Silva Martinuci & Letícia Ribeiro Figueiredo & Renato Moreira Hadad & Renata de Mello Lyrio & Patrícia Bernardes, 2022. "Fuzzy set based intra-urban inequality indicator," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 56(2), pages 667-687, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Martina Ciani & Francesca Gagliardi & Samuele Riccarelli & Gianni Betti, 2018. "Fuzzy Measures of Multidimensional Poverty in the Mediterranean Area: A Focus on Financial Dimension," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-13, December.
    2. Margherita Casini & Francesca Gagliardi & Gianni Betti, 2018. "Sustainable Development Goals indicators: a methodological proposal for a fuzzy Super Index in the Mediterranean area," Department of Economics University of Siena 782, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    3. Vijay Verma & Gianni Betti & Francesca Gagliardi, 2017. "Fuzzy Measures of Longitudinal Poverty in a Comparative Perspective," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 130(2), pages 435-454, January.
    4. Gianni Betti, 2017. "What impact has the economic crisis had on quality of life in Europe? A multidimensional and fuzzy approach," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 51(1), pages 351-364, January.
    5. Gianni Betti & Francesca Gagliardi & Achille Lemmi & Vijay Verma, 2015. "Comparative measures of multidimensional deprivation in the European Union," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 49(3), pages 1071-1100, November.
    6. Francesca Bettio & Elisa Ticci & Gianni Betti, 2020. "A Fuzzy Index and Severity Scale to Measure Violence Against Women," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 148(1), pages 225-249, February.
    7. Wei Su & Gianni Betti & Baris Ucar, 2020. "Longitudinal measures of fuzzy poverty: a focus on Czechia, Hungary and Poland after the crisis," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 54(1), pages 27-41, February.
    8. Gianni Betti, 2017. "Fuzzy measures of quality of life in Germany: a multidimensional and comparative approach," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 51(1), pages 23-34, January.
    9. Besma Belhadj & Firas Kaabi, 2020. "New membership function for poverty measure," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(4), pages 676-688, November.
    10. Ali Asadi & Gianni Betti & Francesca Gagliardi & Hossein Khoshbakht, 2018. "Multidimensional and fuzzy poverty at regional level in Iran," Department of Economics University of Siena 796, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    11. Gianni Betti & Rossella Soldi & Ilija Talev, 2016. "Fuzzy Multidimensional Indicators of Quality of Life: The Empirical Case of Macedonia," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 127(1), pages 39-53, May.
    12. Belhadj Besma, 2016. "Inequality among the poor in poverty measure case of Tunisia (2005–2010)," OPSEARCH, Springer;Operational Research Society of India, vol. 53(2), pages 409-425, June.
    13. Bettio, Francesca & Ticci, Elisa & Betti, Gianni, 2018. "A fuzzy approach to measuring violence against women and its severity," GLO Discussion Paper Series 171, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    14. Mejda Bouanani & Besma Belhadj, 2020. "Does Zakat reduce poverty? Evidence from Tunisia using the Fuzzy Approach," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(4), pages 835-850, November.
    15. Gianni Betti & Costanza Consolandi & Robert G. Eccles, 2018. "The Relationship between Investor Materiality and the Sustainable Development Goals: A Methodological Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-23, June.
    16. Gianni Betti & Antonella D'Agostino & Giulio Ghellini & Sergio Longobardi, 2020. "Measuring the impact of financial crisis on quality of life in Europe," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 40(1), pages 292-307.
    17. Nita Handastya & Gianni Betti, 2023. "The ‘Double Fuzzy Set’ Approach to Multidimensional Poverty Measurement: With a Focus on the Health Dimension," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 166(1), pages 201-217, February.
    18. Gianni Betti & Lucia Mangiavacchi & Luca Piccoli, 2020. "Women and poverty: insights from individual consumption in Albania," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 69-91, March.
    19. Leu, Chao-Hsien & Chen, Ke-Mei & Chen, Hsiu-Hui, 2016. "A multidimensional approach to child poverty in Taiwan," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 35-44.
    20. Vladimir Menshikov & Irena Kokina & Vera Komarova & Oksana Ruža & Alina Danileviča, 2020. "Measuring multidimensional poverty within the resource-based approach: a case study of Latgale region, Latvia," Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center, vol. 8(2), pages 1211-1227, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:4:p:1198-:d:208691. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.