title: Hierarchical partial order ranking.
abstract: Assessing the potential impact on environmental and human health from the production and use of chemicals or from polluted sites involves a multi-criteria evaluation scheme. A priori several parameters are to address, e.g., production tonnage, specific release scenarios, geographical and site-specific factors in addition to various substance dependent parameters. Further socio-economic factors may be taken into consideration. The number of parameters to be included may well appear to be prohibitive for developing a sensible model. The study introduces hierarchical partial order ranking (HPOR) that remedies this problem. By HPOR the original parameters are initially grouped based on their mutual connection and a set of meta-descriptors is derived representing the ranking corresponding to the single groups of descriptors, respectively. A second partial order ranking is carried out based on the meta-descriptors, the final ranking being disclosed though average ranks. An illustrative example on the prioritization of polluted sites is given.
authors.affiliation: Awareness Center, Hyldeholm 4, Veddelev, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark. lc@awarenesscenter.dk
authors.forename: Lars
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Carlsen
mesh_terms: D004787:Environmental Pollution / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D052918:Environmental Restoration and Remediation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015233:Models, Statistical