A multi-criteria evaluation of environmental databases using the Hasse Diagram Technique (ProRank) software

Data on chemicals detected in the environment are urgently needed to comply with the future policy in the European Union. We apply the Hasse Diagram Technique (HDT) (the software tool is named ProRank) which originates in discrete mathematics. It is a multi-criteria evaluation method which can be used as a tool to rank objects and is hence also applicable to decision making. The HDT reveals the best and the worst databases and conflicts among them, due to different information content. We evaluate 15 Internet databases with respect to the existence of data on 24 chemicals. The information in the database x is coded by 0 = not available or 1 = available. Subsets of the databases are evaluated: Single databases, European versus US databases, and databases which comprise 2001–10,000 chemicals.Only one database, ChemExper Catalog contains all 24 chemicals. The comparison of European and US databases revealed no marked difference in the quantity of the selected information base, thus refuting the widespread notion that US databases cover more chemicals than do European databases. To sum up it can be stated that the data availability on the chosen test-set of chemicals is far from being satisfactory.