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Dual weak–strong sustainability synthetic indicators using a double reference point scheme: the case of Andalucía, Spain

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Abstract

Assessing sustainability has become a major issue among the researchers in the last decades, and many different methodologies have been proposed for this purpose. Sustainability is, by nature, multidimensional and thus, it pursues a balance between its multiple dimensions (economical, social, environmental, etc.). Being a multicriteria concept, it seems reasonable to use multicriteria tools to measure sustainability. In this paper, a double reference point scheme is proposed for the construction of synthetic sustainability indicators. With this scheme, it is possible to build a weak synthetic indicator, which allows full compensation among the individual indicators, and a strong synthetic indicator, which does not allow any compensation. The joint visualization of these indicators lets us identify in an easy and intuitive way the strengths and weaknesses of each territory. Besides, full rankings can be obtained using mixed synthetic indicators, which allow for different partial compensation degrees, and provide the user with a global overview of the sustainability of the region. This scheme has been applied to the 770 municipalities of Andalusia (South of Spain). 52 individual indicators have been used, classified in 4 dimensions: environmental, social, economic and financial.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the financial support received from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (projects ECO2013-47129-C4-2-R and CSO2015-64468-P), and from the Regional Government of Andalucía (project P09-FQM-5001 and SEJ-417).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Economics (Mathematics), Universidad de Málaga, Calle Ejido 6, 29071, Málaga, Spain

    José M. Cabello, Beatriz Rodríguez & Francisco Ruiz

  2. Department of Geography, Faculty of Tourism, Universidad de Málaga, Campus de Teatinos s/n, 29071, Málaga, Spain

    Enrique Navarro-Jurado & Daniela Thiel-Ellul

  3. School of Economics and Business, Universidad Nacional de San Martín (UNSAM), Caseros 2241, 1650, San Martín, Prov. Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Daniela Thiel-Ellul

Authors
  1. José M. Cabello
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  2. Enrique Navarro-Jurado
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  3. Beatriz Rodríguez
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  4. Daniela Thiel-Ellul
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  5. Francisco Ruiz
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Correspondence to Francisco Ruiz.

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Cabello, J.M., Navarro-Jurado, E., Rodríguez, B. et al. Dual weak–strong sustainability synthetic indicators using a double reference point scheme: the case of Andalucía, Spain. Oper Res Int J 19, 757–782 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12351-018-0390-5

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