There is increasing awareness in the literature that the more commonly utilised approaches to measure wealth from assets are problematic. The theoretical foundations of sum-scores are weak and principal component analysis (PCA) is an inappropriate statistical method to apply to...

Cities are increasingly expected to provide impetus to the growth and development of their surrounding areas as well as to compete for economic activity with other cities. However, cities in developing countries are characterised by spatial differentiation and segregation due to widening...

This study performs a comprehensive evaluation of the objective quality of life (QOL) of the 31 provincial administrative divisions in Mainland China from 2006 to 2009 with principal component analysis (PCA). The objective QOL in China generally decreases gradually from the eastern coastal...

The synthesis of a number of single observed indicators into a unique composite indicator involves various subjective choices related, for instance, to the type of combination (linear, non-linear) and to the aggregation method (simple average, geometric average) used in its construction. Thus,...

It is not easy to determine whether water is really scarce in the physical sense or whether it is available, but people cannot get access to it, or use it better. This paper reviews selected physical water scarcity indicators, and criticisms made against them on several grounds. Under the...