Composite Indicators

Decision-making problems are commonly based on multiple criteria and require to account for trade-offs between them before reaching a comprehensive evaluation of the alternatives under consideration. For this purpose, the use of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) methods is well established. It provides a formal process that supports decision-making by leading the development/identification of the alternatives, the selection of the evaluation criteria (called also indicators) and the elicitation of the preferences of the stakeholders. A main family of MCDA methods is represented by composite indicators (CI), or indices, which lead to a score of the alternatives that can then be easily ranked. In the context of sustainability and resilience assessment, PSI developed different tools to calculate CI for comparing the performance of selected alternatives. For example, the tools allow interested stakeholders to (1) study the effects of different normalization and aggregation methods, (2) establish their own weighting profiles, and (3) account for the influence of the correlation among indicators on the weights imposed by the stakeholder. For more information on our tools please visit our separate tool pages:

• MCDA Index Tools
• CIAO Tool
• MightyMCDA

A select list of references on the topic are shown below, furthermore, other publications can be found here.

Cinelli, M., Spada, M., Kim, W., Zhang, Y., Burgherr, P., 2020. MCDA Index Tool: an interactive software to develop indices and rankings. Environment Systems and Decisions. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10669-020-09784-x

Gasser, P., Suter, J., Cinelli, M., Spada, M., Burgherr, P., Hirschberg, S., Kadziński, M., Stojadinovic, B., 2020. Comprehensive resilience assessment of electricity supply security for 140 countries. Ecological Indicators 110. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2019.105731

Volkart, K., Bauer, C., Burgherr, P., Hirschberg, S., Schenler, W., Spada, M., 2016. Interdisciplinary assessment of renewable, nuclear and fossil power generation with and without carbon capture and storage in view of the new Swiss energy policy. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control 54, 1-14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2016.08.023

Hirschberg, S., Burgherr, P., 2015. Sustainability Assessment for Energy Technologies, Handbook of Clean Energy Systems. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781118991978.hces070

Roth, S., Hirschberg, S., Bauer, C., Burgherr, P., Dones, R., Heck, T., Schenler, W., 2009. Sustainability of electricity supply technology portfolio. Annals of Nuclear Energy 36(3), 409-416. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2008.11.029