Transcript GEO Resource Book : Regional Version

GEO Resource Book :
Regional Version
M. Lal – CESDAC, India
www.cesdac.org.in
Global Environment Outlook









GEO is the first and foremost a participatory and consultative
process for environmental assessment; it aims to facilitate the
interaction between science on the one hand and policy and
decision making on the other.
Each GEO assessment is multi-dimensional in scope,
incorporating environmental, policy, geographic and temporal
perspectives. Environmental dimensions include:
thematic (related to the state and trends of land, atmosphere, water and
biodiversity);
functional (related to the provision of environmental goods and services);
sectoral (relationships between the environment and activity areas such as energy
use, industry, tourism, agriculture and trade);
cross-cutting (relating to issues such as production, consumption, gender, poverty,
human security and vulnerability); and
interlinkages within and among all of the above.
DPSIR Framework for GEO Process
“IEA - Primary Objective”

IEA is a methodology used for assessment processes
and products following the GEO Framework,
irrespective of whether it is for a region, nation or a
city, for making policy relevant recommendations
about the environmental state and trends and their
links with human development and thus facilitate the
“community with improved access to meaningful
environmental data and information, and help increase
the capacity of governments to use environmental
information for decision making and action planning for
sustainable human development”.
INTEGRATED ASSESSMENT
Integrated refers to a number of aspects of
the assessment:• linking state of the environment analysis with policy
analysis;
•incorporating global and regional perspectives, as
appropriate;
•incorporating historical and future perspectives;
•covering a broad spectrum of issues and policies; and
looking at dynamic and complex interactions between
the environment and human well-being in placebased contexts (e.g., particular regions, countries,
ecosystems, watersheds).
IEA & the Regional Assessments
Assessments in relation to IEA
State of Environment (SoE) : Traditional SoE reporting provides information on the environment and
trends. It mainly focuses on the biophysical environment than the pressures humanity exerts on it.
IEA: IEA provides a participatory, structured approach to linking knowledge and action. It is a
participatory, integrated and multi-disciplinary process
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA): This is a tool or framework used to assess environmental
impacts of an activity. EIA is a process for evaluating possible risks or effects on the environment of
proposed activity or development. The purpose is to inform decisions-making and other stakeholders
of potential environmental impacts, and to suggest ways to reduce or minimize impacts that would
arise from proposed activities. An IEA is intended to drive decisions in the context of a given project.
IEA: IEA is used for assessment process to ensure that environmental problems receive appropriate,
adequate and timely consideration by governments. The IEA approach is necessary for making policy
relevant recommendations about the environmental state and trends and links with human
development. The results from EIA might serve as case studies to illustrate.
Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA): SEA is a systematic and comprehensive process of
evaluating the environmental effects of a policy, plan or programme and its alternatives at its earliest
possible stage. SEA represents a body of practice and methodology directly relevant to the policy
analysis component of IEA, but does not involve the reporting requirement.
IEA: SEA is ideally undertaken before policies, plans and programmes are put in place. It also
considers the environment as a system, looking at impacts on the interface between environment and
socioeconomic conditions. IEA looks linkage between human well-being and environmental trends.
IEA also extends its scope of assessment to the regular reporting.
Assessment Reports in Asia and the Pacific


Sub-regional level: Central Asia IEA report (published 2007)
Greater Mekong Environment Outlook (published 2007)
South Asia Environment Outlook (on-going)

National level:
Tajikistan IEA report (published 2007)
Cambodia IEA report (on-going)
Lao Environment Outlook (on-going)
Turkmenistan Environment Outlook (on-going)
Kyrgyzstan Environment Outlook (on-going)
Sri Lanka Environment Outlook (on-going)
Bhutan Environment Outlook (published 2008)
Vietnam Climate Change Report (on-going)
City level:
Dhaka IEA report (published 2007)
Kathmandu Valley IEA report (published 2007)
Shenzhen Environment Outlook (on-going)
Bangkok Climate Change Report (on-going)












Regional GEO Book: Contents








Module 1: The GEO Approach to Integrated
Environmental Assessment (IEA)
Module 2: National IEA Process Design and
Organization
Module 3: Developing an Impact Strategy
Module 4: Monitoring, Data and Indicators
Module 5: Asia - Regional Training Manual on
Reporting
Module 6: Scenario Development and Analysis
Module 7: Creating Communication Output
Module 8: Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning – for
Increased Impact and Improvement of the IEA
Process
The GEO Resource Book focuses on:
securing institutional commitment for an
IEA;
 identification of stakeholders and
defining their roles;
 instruments for conducting the process;
 allocation of required resources (time,
human, financial); and
 interactive process design and its
benefits.

Interactive training elements on case examples,
discussion questions and exercises.
Key attributes include: Participatory, Multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral, Integrated,
Multi-product and Institutionalized
The number of activities include: Establish an institutional framework for collaboration and
organization of IEA
 Establish and maintain an information base (i.e., set up
information system, gather and update high quality data)
 Discussion forum (common methodology, trends of the driving
forces and pressures, key environmental issues, policies, policy
options and scenarios)
 Capacity-building activities (workshops and other non-workshop
based interactions)
 Define and implement a communication and impact strategy
The GEO Approach - Key Questions
Key questions to be answered in
the GEO - IEA framework
Generic Institutional Framework
Identifying stakeholders, their roles and
interests
Information Processing, Analysis and
Writing (DPSIR logic)
Regional Assessment – Driving Forces
& Pressures
Dynamics of Demographics
 Land & Energy Resources
 Economic Activities
 Territorial Occupancy
 Water Availability & Demand
 Air Quality & Atmospheric Emissions
 Waste Production & Disposal
 Trans-boundary Issues, if any.

Importance of data and indicator
components
A larger number of issues may come up during a
stakeholder IEA process. One might find it useful to use
a set of criteria to narrow down the issues, using criteria
such as the following:
 Urgency and immediate impact
 Irreversibility
 Effects on human health
 Effects on economic productivity
 Number of people affected
 Loss of aesthetic values
 Impacts on cultural and historical heritages
Framework of Environmental Data Flows
Layers of Spatial Data

aerial photography
 satellite imagery
 country boundaries
 protected natural areas
 habitat regions
 rivers and other water bodies
 elevation contours
 climate data
 land use and soil type data
 wildlife populations
 administrative boundaries
Relationship between Data, Indicators and
Indices
Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
for IEA
A useful tool for
manipulating and
analysing data,
particularly to
examine spatial
relationships
among landscape
features, and in
monitoring longterm changes.
Example: Pattern of drying up of the
Aral sea between 1977 and 2006
Plausible Linkages between Database
and Report Development
Environmental Assessment:
Ecosystem vs. Political Boundaries
Case study of a ecosystem-based assessment
Indicator Development Process
Selecting appropriate INDICATORS to describe
environmental states, pressures and drivers
S
T
A
R
T
H
E
R
E
Impact Strategy Steps
An impact strategy builds on communication
activities in several key respects
Linking Values, Issues, Indicators and
Performance Criteria in a Participatory Process
A legal mandate and requirement to
produce an IEA helps initiation of process





legislation may call for collaboration among
government(s) and /or agencies that contribute to IEA;
a common methodology for data collection may be
identified among the regional authorities, private and
public organizations, and scientists or technical experts;
the legislation may refer to environmental reports to be
produced by a range of public and private organizations;
legislation may promote exchange of data and
harmonization of reporting initiatives; and
the lead agency’s role in preparing the way for
consultations and external participation.
Policy Analysis for IEA - Steps

Understanding the issue to determine what is
happening to the environment and why, and what the
impacts are.
 Preparing a policy commitment review to
understand the array of high-level strategies affecting
the environmental issue.
 Conducting a policy instrument scan to identify the
mix of policies influencing the environmental issue,
and the effectiveness of this mix.
 Performing a policy gap and coherence analysis to
determine if relevant policies are in place and focused
on the most important drivers and pressures.
Analysis of Existing Policies
Framework for Monitoring &Evaluation
in the IEA Process
Time Delivery - Key Activities & Outputs
Summary

A draft GEO Resource Book for Regional
Applications has been finalised by a team of
experts and will be made available at the end
of this workshop for review.
 Your constructive suggestions and inputs will
go in a big way in early finalisation of this
Resource Book.
 Deadline at UNEP-RRC for your valuable
inputs is Oct 15, 2008 or earlier.
Questions please ??
Thanks for your kind attention