Dynamic assessment of environmental damage based on the optimal clustering criterion - Taking oil spill damage to marine ecological environment as an example

Aim: ng at the evaluation of environmental damages, we proposed a dynamic evaluation approach based on the optimal cluster criterion. Firstly, a method for sample data standardization was introduced. After determining the measurement of damage grade, we applied the system cluster analysis approach to classify the grades of corresponding environmental pollution events. Then, the optimal cluster level was evaluated based on the optimal clustering criterion. By using the marine environmental damages caused by 17 marine oil spill events as a sample, we tested the dynamic evaluation method proposed in this article with its practicability. Further, by comparing it with some traditional damage evaluation methods, we found that their evaluation results were consistent. All these have shown that the dynamic evaluation approach proposed in this paper can meet the requirement of environmental damage evaluation. Finally, directions of future researches were pointed out. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.