Quantitative Analysis of Environmental Indicators in South American Countries for 2020: Trends and Associations

Abstract

The analysis of environmental indicators is fundamental to understand relationships between society and environment, especially in a region of contrasts such as South America. The objective of the research was to quantitatively analyze trends and associations between environmental indicators in South America with 2020 data, applying multivariate statistical tests. Data reported by the World Bank on air pollutant emissions and natural resource use and management were collected. The trends of the indicators and their associations were analyzed descriptively by multivariate correlation. The results highlighted the contribution of pollutant emissions from Argentina and Brazil (64.9%), with a majority in nitrous oxide and methane. Colombia and Venezuela contributed 8.3 and 9.3 % respectively, with CO2 and methane being the most important. The largest freshwater withdrawals were from Argentina and Brazil (65.5 %). Venezuela has the highest percentage of protected areas (39.0 %) and Uruguay has 80.4 % of its land as agricultural. The indicators of pollution are directly associated (moderate to perfect), the indicators of resource use and management have a low association, with the exception of water extraction, protected areas and agricultural land (moderate) and agricultural land and protected areas (high inverse). Among the groups, only indicators of air pollution and water extraction had very high direct relationships. It is concluded that greenhouse gas emissions are directly associated with each other, but not with the use of natural resources, with the exception of water extraction; likewise, the inverse relationship between protected areas and agricultural lands is evident.