Hobart

Seminar Abstract

*Tuesday* 8 July 2008, 11.30am (Tas time)
CSIRO Auditorium, Hobart

Abdel H El-Shaarawi
National Water Research Institute
Environment Canada

Statistical perspectives on indicators and indices of ecological health

Environment indices are developed to summarize information on the health of an ecosystem including its status, trends and suitability for a specific purpose. So an index needs to be a meaningful multivariate data reduction that can be used to communicate information to appropriate stakeholders. I will discuss various statistical issues that need to be addressed when developing an environmental index. The recently developed Canadian Water Quality Index (CWQI) for reporting on water quality status and trend at the regional and national levels will be used to illustrate these issues. In particular, some shortcomings of the present formulation of CWQI will be highlighted and how its uncertainty can be measured. I will conclude by proposing some alternatives to the current index. Several numerical results will be presented to illustrate how the suggested alternatives provide more reliable results.

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Location:
CSIRO = Marine Laboratories Auditorium, Castray Esplanade, Hobart

For further information, or to schedule a seminar, contact:
To schedule a seminar, contact:
Bernadette Sloyan, (Oceanographic seminars) CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research (03) 6232 5152
Thomas Kunz, (Biological seminars) CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research
(03) 6232 5076
Natalie Dowling, (Fisheries Modelling) CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research
(03) 6232 5148
Jillian Enraght-Moony, (seminar administrator) CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research (03) 6232 5320
Communications Manager, Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC (03) 6226 2265
Margaret Hazelwood, Institute of Antarctic and Southern Ocean Studies (IASOS) University of Tasmania (03) 6226 2971

Last updated 21/07/09