Dependent Indicators for Environmental Evaluations of Desalination Plants
133
that are widely used have been discussed in this study. The main difficulty in
handling environmental indicators is dealing with incomplete datasets, primarily
because industries are usually interested in measuring operational parameters that
are directly related to the product quality and profitability, not those related to
environmental performance. An effective approach has been proposed for filling
missing values of the indicators. The approach is based on identifying dependencies
between indicators and utilizing such dependencies in correlating the missing values
using a number of proposed models. In case there are no dependencies, exclusion of
indicators is possible with little risk of incorrect decisions only when the numbers
of indicators are relatively high compared to the numbers of studied objects.
Results derived from the case studies showed that exclusion of indicators would
not have drastic effect on the assessment or decision-making as far as the number of
indicators is more than twice the number of objects.
Acknowledgments This work is supported by the Kuwait-MIT Centre for Natural Resources and
the Environment CNRE, which is funded by the Kuwait Foundation for Advancement of Sciences
(KFAS) Project no. P31475EC01.
References
Al-Sharrah, G. (2011). The Copeland method as a relative and categorized ranking tool. Statistica
& Applicazioni Special Issue, 81–95.
Al-Sharrh, G., Lababidi, H. M. S., & Al-Anzi, B. (2017). Environmental ranking of desalination
plants: The case of the Arabian Gulf. Toxicological & Environmental Chemistry, 99(7–8),
1054–1070.
Alvarez-Bastida, C. V., Martínez-Miranda, M., Solache-Ríos, G., de Oca, F.-M., & TrujilloFlores, E. (2013). The corrosive nature of manganese in drinking water. Science of the Total
Environment, 447, 10–16.
Boerlage, S. (2011, November–December). Measuring seawater and brine salinity in seawater
reverse osmosis. Desalination & Water Reuse, 26–30.
Bu-olayan, A., & Bivin, V. (2006). Validating ctenophore pleurobrachia pileus as an indicator to
harmful algal blooms (HABs) and trace metal pollution in Kuwait Bay. Turkish Journal of
Fisheries and Aquatic Science, 6, 1–5.
California Environmental Protection Agency, State Water Resources Control Board.
(2016).
https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/drinking_water/certlic/drinkingwater/documents/
drinkingwaterlabs/AlkalinityConversions.pdf. Accessed 2 Aug 2018.
Copeland, A. (1951). A “reasonable” social welfare function. Mimeographed notes from a
Seminar on Applications of Mathematics to the Social Sciences. University of Michigan.
Danoun, R. (2007). Desalination plants: Potential impacts of brine discharge on marine life.
Project Report, The Ocean Technology Group, University of Sydney.
Dawoud, M., & Al Mulla, M. (2012). Environmental impacts of seawater desalination: Arabian
gulf case study. International Journal of Environment and Sustainability, 1(3), 22–37.
El-Dessouky, H., & Ettouny, H. (2002). Fundamentals of salt water desalination. Amsterdam:
Elsevier Science.
Fondriest: Environmental Learning Center. (2015). Conductivity, salinity & total dissolved solids.
http://www.fondriest.com/environmental-measurements/parameters/water-quality/. Accessed
5 June 2016.
Guttman, L. (1977). What is not what is statistics. The Statistician, 26(2), 81–107.
133
that are widely used have been discussed in this study. The main difficulty in
handling environmental indicators is dealing with incomplete datasets, primarily
because industries are usually interested in measuring operational parameters that
are directly related to the product quality and profitability, not those related to
environmental performance. An effective approach has been proposed for filling
missing values of the indicators. The approach is based on identifying dependencies
between indicators and utilizing such dependencies in correlating the missing values
using a number of proposed models. In case there are no dependencies, exclusion of
indicators is possible with little risk of incorrect decisions only when the numbers
of indicators are relatively high compared to the numbers of studied objects.
Results derived from the case studies showed that exclusion of indicators would
not have drastic effect on the assessment or decision-making as far as the number of
indicators is more than twice the number of objects.
Acknowledgments This work is supported by the Kuwait-MIT Centre for Natural Resources and
the Environment CNRE, which is funded by the Kuwait Foundation for Advancement of Sciences
(KFAS) Project no. P31475EC01.
References
Al-Sharrah, G. (2011). The Copeland method as a relative and categorized ranking tool. Statistica
& Applicazioni Special Issue, 81–95.
Al-Sharrh, G., Lababidi, H. M. S., & Al-Anzi, B. (2017). Environmental ranking of desalination
plants: The case of the Arabian Gulf. Toxicological & Environmental Chemistry, 99(7–8),
1054–1070.
Alvarez-Bastida, C. V., Martínez-Miranda, M., Solache-Ríos, G., de Oca, F.-M., & TrujilloFlores, E. (2013). The corrosive nature of manganese in drinking water. Science of the Total
Environment, 447, 10–16.
Boerlage, S. (2011, November–December). Measuring seawater and brine salinity in seawater
reverse osmosis. Desalination & Water Reuse, 26–30.
Bu-olayan, A., & Bivin, V. (2006). Validating ctenophore pleurobrachia pileus as an indicator to
harmful algal blooms (HABs) and trace metal pollution in Kuwait Bay. Turkish Journal of
Fisheries and Aquatic Science, 6, 1–5.
California Environmental Protection Agency, State Water Resources Control Board.
(2016).
https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/drinking_water/certlic/drinkingwater/documents/
drinkingwaterlabs/AlkalinityConversions.pdf. Accessed 2 Aug 2018.
Copeland, A. (1951). A “reasonable” social welfare function. Mimeographed notes from a
Seminar on Applications of Mathematics to the Social Sciences. University of Michigan.
Danoun, R. (2007). Desalination plants: Potential impacts of brine discharge on marine life.
Project Report, The Ocean Technology Group, University of Sydney.
Dawoud, M., & Al Mulla, M. (2012). Environmental impacts of seawater desalination: Arabian
gulf case study. International Journal of Environment and Sustainability, 1(3), 22–37.
El-Dessouky, H., & Ettouny, H. (2002). Fundamentals of salt water desalination. Amsterdam:
Elsevier Science.
Fondriest: Environmental Learning Center. (2015). Conductivity, salinity & total dissolved solids.
http://www.fondriest.com/environmental-measurements/parameters/water-quality/. Accessed
5 June 2016.
Guttman, L. (1977). What is not what is statistics. The Statistician, 26(2), 81–107.