INDICATORS OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY Environmental Science Research Editorial Board Alexander Hollaender Biology Division Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge, Tennessee and University of Tennessee, Knoxville Ronald F. Probstein Department of Mechanical Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, Massachusetts E. S. Starkman General Motors Environmental Activities Staff General Motors Technical Center Warren, Michigan Bruce L. Welch Director, Environmental Neurobiology Friends Medical Science Research Center, Inc. and Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Baltimore, Maryland Volume 1 - INDICATORS OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY Edited by William A. Thomas· 1972 Volume 2 - POLLUTION: ENGINEERING AND SCIENTIFIC SOLUTIONS Edited by Euval S. Barrekette • 1973 Volume 3 - ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION BY PESTICIDES Edited by C. A. Edwards • 1973 Volume 4 - MASS SPECTROMETRY AND NMR SPECTROSCOPY IN PESTICIDE CHEMISTRY Edited by Rizwanul Haque and Francis J. Biros. 1974 INDICATORS OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY Proceedings of a symposium held during the AAAS meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, December 26-31, 1971 Edited by William A. Thomas Group Leader, Environmental Indices Environmental Program Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge, Tennessee 9? PLENUM PRESS· NEW YORK-LONDON • 1972 First Printing - September 1972 Second Printing - August 1973 Third Pri nting - July 1974 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 72-86142 ISBN-13: 978-1-4684-2858-2 e-ISBN-13: 978-1-4684-2856-8 DOl: 10.1007/978-1-4684-2856-8 © 1972 Plenum Press, New York Softcover reprint of the hardcover I st edition 1972 A Division of Plenum Publishing Corporation 227 West 17th Street, New York, N. Y. 10011 United Kingdom edition published by Plenum Press, London A Division of Plenum Publishing Company, Ltd. Davis House (4th Floor), 8 Scrubs Lane, Harlesden, London, NW10 6SE, England All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher "Our discussion will be adequate if it has as much clearness as the subject-matter admits of, for preci- sion is not to be sought for alike in all discussions ... [I] t is the mark of an educated man to look for precision in each class of things just so far as the nature of the subject admits ... " ARISTOTLE, 384-322 B.C. Nicomachean Ethics Book 1, Chapter 2 PREFACE Researchers and agencies collect reams of objective data and authors publish volumes of subjective prose in attempts to explain what is meant by environmental quality. Still, we have no universally recognized methods for combining our quantitative measures with our qualitative concepts of environ- ment. Not all of our environmental goals should be reduced to mere numbers, but many of them can be; and without these quantitative terms, we have no way of defining our present position nor of selecting positions we wish to attain on any logically established scale of environmental values. Stated simply, in our zeal to measure our environment we often forget that masses of numbers describing a system are insufficient to understand it or to be used in selecting goals and priorities for expending our economic and human resources. Attempts at quantitatively describing environmental quality, rather than merely measuring different environmental variables, are relatively recent. This condensing of data into the optimum number of terms with maximum information content is a truly interdisciplinary challenge. When Oak Ridge National Laboratory initiated its Environmental Program in early 1970 under a grant from the National Science Foundation, the usefulness of environmental indicators in assessing the effects of technology was included as one of the initial areas for investigation. James L. Liverman, through his encouragement and firm belief that these indicators are indispensable if we are to resolve our complex environmental problems, deserves much of the credit for the publication of this book. Unfortunately, the scientific literature is not abstracted or indexed with appropriate keywords that allow rapid dissemination of these new ideas and methodologies. To encourage cooperation among persons with diverse profes- sional interests and to review the state of the art, the American Association for the Advancement of Science sponsored a two-day symposium entitled "Indica- tors of Environmental Quality" during its annual meeting in Philadelphia from December 26 to 31, 1971. The authors of the first 18 of the 21 chapters of this book prepared their papers for presentation at that symposium. The concluding three chapters were added to broaden even more the book's coverage of environment. Due to time limitations, not to a restricted viewpoint of what constitutes our environment, we had to restrict the symposium's scope primarily to the physical, chemical, and biological aspects. The social consequences of our actions are recognized throughout the volume, and one author directly addresses the social aspects of environment. The symposium emphasized the need for public participation in decisions concerning environmental quality, and all speakers agreed that indicators vii viii PREFACE facilitate the required communication among public officials, scientists, and the public. A total of 86 members of the audience submitted written questions for consideration during the panel discussions that followed each half-day session. All of the speakers had the opportunity of responding to the applicable questions before SUbmitting the final revisions of their manuscripts. Speakers alone do not make a symposium successful, and the active participation of the audience contributed greatly to the success of this one. Special acknowledge- ment is due the individual authors who cooperated in many ways; their promptness in meeting the necessary deadlines ensures a timely volume. Designing and testing indicators of environmental quality are not mere academic exercises - scientists have a responsibility to make "environment" comprehensible to all segments of society that justifiably demand a greater participatory role in determining the habitability of our planet. It is in the spirit of interdisciplinary action toward providing objective measures of environmental quality that this volume is published. W.A.T CONTENTS Indicators of Environmental Quality: An Overview William A. Thomas . ....................................... . Why Environmental Quality Indices? Thomas L. Kimball. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Uses of Environmental Indices in Policy Formulation Gordon J. F. MacDonald . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 15 Urban-Environmental Indicators in Municipal and Neighborhood Policy Planning and Decision Making John Berenyi ............................................. 23 The Uncommunicative Scientist: The Obligation of Scientists to Explain Environment to the Public Peter Hackes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 31 Evaluation of Natural Environments Martin Murie ............................................. 43 Indicators of Environmental Quality of Urban Life: Economic, Spatial, Social, and Political Factors Chester Rapkin and Robert W. Ponte. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 55 Establishing Priorities Among Environmental Stresses Howard Reiquam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 71 Pollutant Burdens in Humans: A Measure of Environmental Quality John H. Finklea, Douglas I. Hammer, Kenneth M. Bridbord, and Vaun A. Newill ........................................ 83 Aquatic Communities as Indices of Pollution Ruth Patrick. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 93 Plants as Indicators of Air Quality C. Stafford Brandt ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 101 Biochemical Indicators of Environmental Pollution Gerald Goldstein .......................................... 109 Use of Sense of Smell in Determining Environmental Quality Trygg Eirgen .............................................. 133 ix x CONTENTS Development of Environmental Indices: Outdoor Re.creational Resources and Land Use Shift Robert P. Pikul, Charles A. Bisselle, and Martha Lilienthal . .......... 147 A Water Quality Index - Crashing the Psychological Barrier Robert M. Brown, Nina I. McClelland, Rolf A. Deininger, and Michael F. O'Connor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 173 Indices of Air Quality Lyndon R. Babcock, Jr. and Niren L. Nagda . ................... " 183 Statistically Based Air-Quality Indices W. D. Shults and John J. Beauchamp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 199 Indicators of Environmental Noise David M. Lipscomb ........................................ 211 Developing a Soil Quality Index Richard H. Rust, Russell S. Adams, Jr. and William P. Martin ................................................ 243 Environmental Indices for Radioactivity Releases Paul S. Rohwer and Edward G. Struxness ....................... 249 Plant Indicators in Ecology David F. Grigal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257 Index ....................................................... 269 INDICATORS OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY: AN OVERVIEW* William A. Thomas Leader, Environmental Indices Group Environmental Program, Oak Ridge National Laboratoryf Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830 A concerted effort to enhance habitability of our planet is unlikely to succeed unless we know "where we are" and "where we want to go." To answer these questions, we first must consider exactly what we include in the term "environment." If we restrict our consideration to overly simplified definitions, such as the amount of a specified pollutant in air, we have very little difficulty in measuring environment. However, as we broaden our definition to include all the physical components, or all the physical and biological, or all the physical, biological, and cultural ones, environment becomes exponentially more difficult to describe. Nonetheless, I believe we must take the holistic approach at the outset and define environment as that complex of interacting physical and cultural factors which routinely influences the lives of individuals and communities. This indeed is a broad definition, but we should not forget when we study the individual components that the entirety functions as a system of interacting components. A major difficulty in describing environment is that all of its components cannot be measured directly. The challenging field of social indicators2 ,3,9,1 0 provides ample evidence of the problems involved in assigning values to the social or cultural aspects of environment such as education, public order, and recreational opportunities. However, we can measure certain variables that indicate the presence or condition of phenomena that cannot be measured directly. These indicators reflect the state of any aspect or component of the environment. The method of selecting the indicator varies with the character- istics of the component, but they all share one requirement. The indicator must respond to changes in the component it is scaling in such a manner that it accurately reflects the magnitude of those changes. Objective aspects such as meteorological conditions seldom require an indicator because they can be measured directly, but indicators usually are necessary to assign quantitative values to subjective aspects such as public health. Several indicators may be integrated into one index for the more complex components if data are available. An index is a composite value for an *Research sponsored by the National Science Foundation RANN Program. t Operated by Union Carbide Corporation for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.