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Diversity indices: Which ones are admissible?

1979; Elsevier BV; Volume: 76; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/0022-5193(79)90015-8

1095-8541

Richard Routledge,

Economic and Environmental Valuation

Many indices have been proposed for measuring diversity. If we demand that any index satisfy a few basic properties, including that it contain hierarchical components, then only the subset, {Na for a > 0} of Hill's family need be considered. (This subset includes indices related to the Shannon-Wiener index, H′ = log N1, and Simpson's index of concentration, λ = 1/N2.) Ecological components can also be defined for any of these indices. Only N2, however, can be used consistently to define local diversity and segregation components. These observations suggest that N2 is the best, single measure of diversity, and that the only other index worth considering is N1 .