| Despite the severity of the environmental challenges China faces, there is little understanding in terms of how well efforts by the Chinese government to address these issues are performing. Part of this lack of understanding is due to data availability and quality issues by which to assess environmental performance in China. However, despite acknowledgement of data quality and information uncertainty issues, there is a strong demand in China for more quantitative, evidence-based approaches to environmental policy.;This dissertation is comprised of four articles that examine data-driven approaches to decision-making, primarily in the form of environmental indicators and aggregate, composite indices, applied in the Chinese environmental policy context. The first paper examines the global context for environmental performance evaluation, taking a specific look at how country performance on environmental goals can be evaluated through aggregated composite indices. The second paper surveys the state of environmental information in China and the obstacles facing the Chinese government in terms of developing transparent, credible indicators and indices to track environmental performance. The third paper relies on qualitative data to understand how environmental data are collected and transferred in China's vertical governance structure as a means of explaining challenges described in the second paper. To fill information gaps, the fourth paper examines the use of satellite data to estimate air quality indicators and the potential for these data to be used in a decision-making context in China.;This work represents a first effort to systematically evaluate environmental data in China and its use for decision-making and governance. Through understanding baseline environmental data at the provincial level in China - their strengths and limitations, gaps in availability, as well as the socio-political context and institutions that surround data in China — the papers presented in this dissertation reveal the complexity and range of issues involved for China to develop credible and accurate indicators and other data-driven policy tools. |
