Composite Index for Measuring Italian Regions’ Environmental Quality Over Time

Many socio-economic phenomena have a multidimensional nature and require the definition of a set of individual indicators in order to be properly assessed. The application of a specific statistical technique, called composite index, allows to synthesize the phenomenon making it one-dimensional. One of the main problems in constructing composite indices is the choice of a method that enables to assess changes over time. According to this target, in the paper, we apply a variant of the Mazziotta- Pareto Index (MPI) which allows spatial and time comparisons across units to be made. An application to a set of individual indicators of environmental quality in Italian regions is presented and the reference years are 2006 and 2011. According to the selected indicators, the results show, for a five-year period, an improving trend of environmental quality in all Italian regions.