Measuring the Implementation of Sustainable Development …
235
4 Conclusions
WeGIx is tailored designed for Portugal, however it is quite an ambitious endeavour,
even for a country small in territory and in population, but with a considerable
geographic diversity either on the mainland and the archipelagos. This diversity is
clearly translated by the variability of the individual indicators’ values (Table 8—
Appendix) and by WeGIx scores, of which a sample is presented in Table 4.
4.1 The Benefits and Limitations of WeGIx
The most limiting difficulty in WeGIx construction is the scarcity of updated official
data in national databases, especially concerning the archipelagos of Açores and
Madeira. For these regions, data related to forest fires (40 RFF) and to health care
infrastructures services (7 H, 8 PHC) is not available. Açores archipelago population
still suffers from lack of specialized health care services, such as oncology treatments,
which forces patients to move to the country capital for treatment. This is also a
marked inequality within the country (SDG 10): some regions of the archipelagos
still suffer from the consequences of geographical isolation, mirrored in the absence
of statistical data (Vidal et al. 2018).
Another data limitation concerns pollutants emissions, which are vital parameters
to evaluate air quality, and therefore the wellbeing conditions: as listed in Table 1,
official data is absent, except for 2009 and 2015. WeGIx periodicity of calculation
is also restrained by variables availability in time. Data availability limitation is the
cause of a certain unbalance among SDGI: for some dimensions such as “education”
or “health” there is substantial information while for others, such as SDG 2, official
statistics were not found. Scarcity of official data is, however, a restriction of extrinsic
cause to the WeGIx concept.
One of the index strengths, common in composite indices, is the simplicity of
providing a single score to rank a municipality, although it addresses the complex
multidimensional nature of sustainable development. The cartographic representation of WeGIx scores translates, in an even easier way, these results: the country
is evolving at different velocities with the majority (65%) of the population living
under the average national reference level.
An abridged SWOT analysis of WeGIx is presented in Fig. 5.
WeGIx aims to be useful as a simple communication tool to inform the status
of Portuguese populations’ life conditions within the context of the SDGs and the
UN 2030 Agenda, thus there is no presumption to replace any other existing index.
WeGIx enables the ranking of all municipalities, in a relative position to the national
average and allows the identification of each region’s strengths and weakness within
the index dimensions. This simple and easily understandable measure of a region
status, calculated for each year of analysis, keeps track of public policies in a prompt
way, eventually assisting local government stakeholders’ decisions. The value and
235
4 Conclusions
WeGIx is tailored designed for Portugal, however it is quite an ambitious endeavour,
even for a country small in territory and in population, but with a considerable
geographic diversity either on the mainland and the archipelagos. This diversity is
clearly translated by the variability of the individual indicators’ values (Table 8—
Appendix) and by WeGIx scores, of which a sample is presented in Table 4.
4.1 The Benefits and Limitations of WeGIx
The most limiting difficulty in WeGIx construction is the scarcity of updated official
data in national databases, especially concerning the archipelagos of Açores and
Madeira. For these regions, data related to forest fires (40 RFF) and to health care
infrastructures services (7 H, 8 PHC) is not available. Açores archipelago population
still suffers from lack of specialized health care services, such as oncology treatments,
which forces patients to move to the country capital for treatment. This is also a
marked inequality within the country (SDG 10): some regions of the archipelagos
still suffer from the consequences of geographical isolation, mirrored in the absence
of statistical data (Vidal et al. 2018).
Another data limitation concerns pollutants emissions, which are vital parameters
to evaluate air quality, and therefore the wellbeing conditions: as listed in Table 1,
official data is absent, except for 2009 and 2015. WeGIx periodicity of calculation
is also restrained by variables availability in time. Data availability limitation is the
cause of a certain unbalance among SDGI: for some dimensions such as “education”
or “health” there is substantial information while for others, such as SDG 2, official
statistics were not found. Scarcity of official data is, however, a restriction of extrinsic
cause to the WeGIx concept.
One of the index strengths, common in composite indices, is the simplicity of
providing a single score to rank a municipality, although it addresses the complex
multidimensional nature of sustainable development. The cartographic representation of WeGIx scores translates, in an even easier way, these results: the country
is evolving at different velocities with the majority (65%) of the population living
under the average national reference level.
An abridged SWOT analysis of WeGIx is presented in Fig. 5.
WeGIx aims to be useful as a simple communication tool to inform the status
of Portuguese populations’ life conditions within the context of the SDGs and the
UN 2030 Agenda, thus there is no presumption to replace any other existing index.
WeGIx enables the ranking of all municipalities, in a relative position to the national
average and allows the identification of each region’s strengths and weakness within
the index dimensions. This simple and easily understandable measure of a region
status, calculated for each year of analysis, keeps track of public policies in a prompt
way, eventually assisting local government stakeholders’ decisions. The value and