This ebook on "The development, use and abuse of indicators and indices in sustainability and environmental management" was commissioned as a result of our mutual interest in the use of and abuse of indicators and indices in environmental and sustainability debates and policies.

This was in part driven from purely statistical concerns about the validity and reliability of some commonly used indicators, and also by their practical application as tools to inform decision making and management.

Indicators and indices are widely and increasingly used tools in official statistics, management, policy evaluation and communication. They attempt to capture quantitative aspects of many aspects of society, the economy and the environment, in relation to regulation and policy. More "latent" elements such as sustainability, environmental performance, ecosystems services and functions, and their valuation are also captured in a variety of indicators or 'footprints'. Development of indicators and indices offers a framework for management and decision making. Subject to their scientific robustness and significance they can have great policy utility in terms of indicating progress towards key performance and policy objectives and, increasingly, high level environmental outcomes. They may also, in integrative policy terms, combat or be a reaction to compartmentalised policy, acting as surrogates and composites on the journey to integrated co-dependent policy objectives from one where issues were visible and seemingly simpler—dirty, coloured water and air. They are thus important communication and strategic tools, and have seen recent resurgence in terms of the "beyond GDP" debate, with organizations such as OECD and Oxfam, and the EU-Open project developing indices of well-being, international development as well as water stress and many many others. While indicators and indices offer many benefits, they do also have drawbacks, for example combining "apples and oranges", and there is much debate about how composite indices should be created. They are powerful tools that serve many purposes, including performance evaluation and public information. They are numerical, thus lending themselves to apparently precise measurement.

In the series of papers in this ebook, the authors consider the methodological basis of indicators and indices, describe their robustness and sensitivities (to e.g. sampling), and consider how they are communicated and interpreted.