Environmental quality: outline for a national index for Canada

Abstract

I have presented an approach to constructing an EQI for Canada. The index was divided into air, water, land, and miscellaneous sections. By noting individual subindices, it is possible to study how environmental conditions vary across the country. By combining the subindices, one can obtain a more crude gauge of the broad state of the environment. As indices and mathematical methods are improved, it may eventually be possible to measure this state in the same way as the economic state of the nation is measured now. The work described herein can be viewed as a simple guide to this measurement.