Core Target 4: Environmental Quality

Where BC Ranks, Provincial Comparison

Core Target Four, environmental quality, is derived from BC's ranking under three environmental performance indicators (PI 14-PI 16): air quality, greenhouse gas emissions, and protected areas. Environmental Quality rankings are the simple average of each province's rank on the three indicators.

Overall, BC ranked first in Canada on environmental quality, with a fifth place rank on air quality, a second place rank on greenhouse gas emissions and a first place rank on protected areas.

The "environment" is not easily summarized, especially in cross-jurisdictional comparisons, in any single indicator. For this reason, the Progress Board uses an index to measure environmental quality in its core measurement framework. This index is based on indicators available by province or by cities across Canada.

There are a number of additional measures without direct comparison in other jurisdictions that may enhance our understanding of BC's overall environmental performance. Some of these are discussed briefly on the opposite page.

Additional Environmental Measures

Air Quality Measures

Particulate matter based air quality measures provide a good method of benchmarking pollution levels, both between jurisdictions and across time. Using additional measures of air quality to enhance the information provided by traditional particulate matter statistics provides a more comprehensive view of the current quality of the air we breathe.

British Columbia recently piloted the World's first Air Quality Health Index for fourteen communities throughout BC in the summer and fall of 2006. The Index provides a number between one and ten to indicate the level of risk from a community's air quality. Based on the level of the index, health information is available for the at risk population and the general population. Indicators in the index include: ground-level ozone; particulate matter; nitrogen dioxide; and, sulfur dioxide.

Water Quality Measures

Assessing water quality is a way to provide a comprehensive picture of the overall state of the environment, and especially in determining the effects that industrial pollutants, pesticides, fertilizers, and wastewater are having on our environment and health. A variety of water quality related measures are available to monitor water sources including, among others: measurements of the amount of wastewater treated in a jurisdiction to reduce environmental stress; number of boiled water advisories issued in response to contamination threats; waterborne human disease outbreaks caused by parasites; changes in groundwater levels; extent and/or alteration of freshwater ecosystems; sea surface temperature; clarity; changing stream flows; and, withdrawals for human use.

The Water Quality Index ranks bodies of water against a set of provincial objectives that take into account user needs and demands (human and other organisms). Rankings against these objectives range from Excellent (close to natural) to Poor (most uses threatened, impaired or lost). Of 55 monitored bodies: 20 rated as Excellent; nine as Good; eight as Fair; six as Marginal (borderline); and, three as Poor.

Land Quality Measures

Land-based environmental measures are a final important component in ensuring overall environmental quality.

Indicators include changes in total areas of cropland, forest, grasslands and wetlands; species at risk; forest age; forest disturbances including fire frequency, insects, and disease; timber growth and harvest; cattle production; agricultural inputs and outputs including pesticides and fertilizers; industrial toxic waste releases; municipal waste; soil biological condition; and, near surface temperature, an indicator of climate change.

The soon-to-be-released Environment Trends 2007 will provide a detailed overview of BC's recent environmental performance.