Overview
LEDAT® is a Legal-Ecological Damage Assessment Tool developed within the Universitat Jaume I as part of the CrimiClima project. It quantifies material environmental damage through the IDPAm index, producing a value on a 0–12 scale from a structured combination of legal and ecological variables together with a limited set of qualifying circumstances (“triggers”).
The tool is designed as an academic and technical support instrument for environmental criminal law, criminology, and environmental assessment. It helps users organise case information in a systematic way and compare the material seriousness of environmental damage across cases.
What the tool does
The calculator implements the LEDAT® methodology by combining four legal variables and six ecological variables, plus qualifying triggers, in order to generate the Material Environmental Damage Index (IDPAm).
The result is an orientative index. It does not determine by itself whether a case must be classified as a criminal offence or as an administrative infringement. Rather, it offers a structured basis for assessing the material relevance of the environmental harm under analysis.
- 0.0 – 3.9
Predominantly administrative. - 4.0 – 6.9
Grey area. - 7.0 – 10.0
High material relevance. - Above 10
Exceptional range.
These interpretative bands are indicative and non-binding. Their purpose is to support legal professionals, administrative authorities, criminologists, and environmental investigation teams in the objective comparison of cases before legal classification.
How to use it
Users assign a score from 0 to 3 to each variable according to the descriptions integrated in the app. They then mark any applicable triggers. The calculator generates the IDPAm value in real time.
The app also allows users to save cases, review a case history, compare cases visually, and export working material in a practical format for research or case analysis.
Open the tool here: Launch LEDAT® / IDPAm calculator.
LEDAT app
The interactive version of the tool is embedded below for direct use within this page. It can also be opened separately in a standalone view.
Open the app in a separate page
Methodological basis
LEDAT® is based on the published methodological framework on ecological harm and criminal thresholds developed in the context of environmental crime judgments and legal-ecological coding.
The current web application is based on the published reference article:
Morelle-Hungría, E. Ecological harm and criminal thresholds: A pilot legal-ecological coding framework for environmental crime judgments. Open Research Europe, 2026, 6:209. https://doi.org/10.12688/openreseurope.24170.2
The method is presented as part of the CrimiClima project and linked to ongoing research on environmental harm, ecological evidence, criminal-law thresholds, and interdisciplinary environmental assessment.
Institutional framework
LEDAT® is presented here as a research and transfer tool connected to the Universitat Jaume I and the CrimiClima project. It forms part of a broader academic agenda at the intersection of environmental criminal law, green criminology, blue criminology, and ecological justice.
In this sense, the calculator should be understood not only as a digital utility, but also as a methodological contribution to the assessment of material environmental damage in legal and criminological contexts.
The method used by LEDAT® and the LEDAT trademark are registered in the name of Universitat Jaume I.