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Measuring the vulnerability of populations susceptible to lead contamination in the Dominican Republic: evaluating composite index construction methods

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Abstract

There are several suspected sources of lead contamination in the Dominican Republic (DR) to which populations, to a greater or lesser extent, may be exposed. These sources include: a lead battery recycling plant, a gold mine and vehicles using leaded gasoline. In this paper we create and compare indices of spatial vulnerability using different index construction methods including: the weighted average, ordered weighted average, and Data Envelopment Analysis. The vulnerability attributes used to create these indices include: exposure to lead effluents in water from the gold mine as measured by distance from potentially contaminated water, point source lead air emissions from the battery recycling plant estimated by air plume analysis; and mobile source exposure to lead emissions from road transportation measured by potential traffic impacts. The intensities of vulnerability to lead of the towns and cities in the DR, produced by each of the different index construction methods, are compared and evaluated.

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Notes

  1. The descriptions of the WA and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) indices are adapted from Ratick et al. 2009.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Environmental Science and Policy Program, Clark University, 950 Main Street, Worcester, MA, 01610-1477, USA

    Samuel J. Ratick

  2. Department of Geography, University of Connecticut, 215 Glenbrook Road, U-4148, Storrs, CT, 06269-4148, USA

    Jeffrey P. Osleeb

Authors
  1. Samuel J. Ratick
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  2. Jeffrey P. Osleeb
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Correspondence to Samuel J. Ratick.

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Ratick, S.J., Osleeb, J.P. Measuring the vulnerability of populations susceptible to lead contamination in the Dominican Republic: evaluating composite index construction methods. GeoJournal 78, 259–272 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-011-9414-x

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