1 EEA/UNECE Workshop on Core Environmental Indicators for EECCA 27-28 June 2003, St Petersburg

EEA Core set of indicators: methodological concepts and description of indicators

Andrus Meiner European Environment Agency

Management Board Members: Commission, Parliament, Governments Scientific Committee

2

Air and Climate Change Water Nature and Biodiversity 5 ETC’s Consortia Members EEA Copenhagen European Topic Centres Terrestrial Environment Waste and Material Flow EUROSTAT JRC NFP’s National Focal Points NRC’s National Reference Centres monitorings registers Other sourses EIONET public EEA

3

Countries cooperation

• Nominate Management board member • Nominate National focal point • Nominate National reference centres • Report data • Cooperate in preparation and revision of EEA reports and indicators • Contribute to the development of EEA working program • Can partitipate in meetings, European topic Centres, Scientific Commettee and send national ekspert to work in EEA

The EEA as a continuously updated information provider

4 • Packaged targeted information • Frameworks guidelines, databases • Broad integrated assessments 1999 Turn of the Century report (State of Environment in European Union) 2003 Europea’s Environment: the third assessment (Kiev report) 2004/5 state & outlook report • Indicator-based products Signals 2001, 2002 Transport and Environment reporting mechanism (TERM) 2001, 2002 • Experiences, practices, solutions

5

What is indicator

Indicator is something that provides a clue to a matter of larger significance or makes perceptible a trend or phenomena that is not imediately detectable (

Hammont et al, 1995

) Indicator should: Simplify information in a manner that promotes the understanding of environmental problems to both decision makers and public. Be practical and realistic;

About indicators

• Communication is the main function of indicators • To make this communication process work, simplicity is needed. Indicators simplify a complex reality . – An indicator distils information derived from analysing data obtained by monitoring and data collection. – Raw data or statistics do not make an indicator without the results of analysis and synthesis. • Linking to other indicators and telling the story about an environmental problem or pressures from a sector gives a much better understanding of the indicator.

• Many of the EEA indicators has to be seen in a context – together with other indicators on the same issue.

6

7

Role of the indicators in policy cycle

Problem definition Scale appropriate data collection EEA Other stakeholders Decision makers reaction Analyses Reports and Indicators

8

MDIAR: from monitoring to reporting

MONITORING REPORTING ASSESSMENT DATA INFORMATION

MDIAR and MDIAK What are the policy questions?

9

K A I D M

What do we need to

K

now?

What

A

ssessments are needed?

What

I

ndicators are needed?

What

D

ata is needed at European level?

What

M

onitoring is needed to deliver required data

10

Causality chain DPSIR

D RIVING FORCES e.g. causes P RESSURES e.g. pollutants S TATE e.g. quality I MPACT e.g. ecosystems, health, materials R ESPONSES e.g. policies and targets

Typology of EEA indicators

A – DESCRIPTIVE INDICATORS Share of organic farming in total agricultural area, % B – PERFORMANCE INDICATORS Distance-to-target: GHG emissions and Kyoto target C – EFFICIENCY INDICATORS Eco-efficiency: level of emissions per unit of GDP D – POLICY EFFICIENCY INDICATORS Link environmental change with policy effords (responses) E – TOTAL WELFARE INDICATORS Sustainable development indicators 11

Why to develop indicators?

• To guide the policies • monitor the changes in State of Environment, emerging issues, effects of policies..

• To compare the countries and regions • To raise awareness • To help investigate links with sectors, cause effect chain, synergies 12

13

Two faces of indicators

1. POLICY 2. DATA

14

1

st

face: Indicators and Policy

Development of EEA CSI is policy driven CSI guides the policy … and The aim is to develop

the (coherent) core set of policy relevant indicators

which support • State of environment reporting in EEA and • EU environmental policy processes: EU Environmental Action Programme, EU sustainable development strategy, EU reporting directives, INSPIRE....

15

2

nd

face: Indicators and Data

EEA CSI drives the collection of data • More stable and regular

data flows

• 9 priority data flows at moment • Indicator documentation • fact sheets • Connect CSI with

reporting system

• Web accessibility • 96 indicators currently on the web

Steps in indicator design

• Development of core set of indicators • criteria, purpose • Construction • data collection and harmonization • Presentation

• http://ims.eionet.eu.int/

• Usage 16

Consultation of indicator core set

• First compilation • 1 st consultation round • Refinement • 2 nd consultation round • Approval on management level 17

POLICY QUESTIONS

AND INDICATORS

Generic question Policy question Indicator title DPSIR Priority

18 Are the abstractions from our water resources sustainable over the long term ?

Are we using less water?

Are some areas of Europe facing unsustainable trends i.e. overexploitation of water resources?

WQ1 Water exploitation index Are eutrophication and organic pollution decreasing?

Are we reducing the impact of nitrate on our groundwater?

Are nutrients concentrations in our surface waters decreasing?

WEU1 Nitrate in groundwater WEU2 Nutrients in rivers WEU3 Phosphorus in lakes WEU4 Nutrients in coastal waters Are indicators of pollution with organic matter decreasing ?

WEU5 BOD and Ammonium in rivers P S S S S S ST ST ST ST ST ST

Linking policy objectives and indicators

Water prices

Water use 225 Member States shall ensure by 2010 - that water-pricing policies provide adequate incentives for users to use water resources efficiently ,

Water Framework Directive, Article 9

200 175 150 Price 30 25 20 15 10 125 5 100 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 0

Is water pricing used as a tool for more efficient water use?

In Denmark household water prices tripled during the 1990s with a marked effect on the water use.

Linking policy objectives and indicators

To achieve levels of water quality that does not give rise to unacceptable impacts on, and risks to, human health and the environment

6EAP

Indicators

Nitrate in groundwater Nutrients in rivers Phosphorus in lakes

Are nutrients concentrations in our surface waters decreasing?

Nutrients in coastal and marine waters Nitrate in drinking water

Are impacts related to nutrients being reduced?

Water transparency in lakes Chlorophyll in coastal and marine waters Harmful phytoplankton in coastal waters Low oxygen concentrations in bottom layers of marine waters

What is on the indicator FACT SHEET?

• Title • Graph with messages • Short assesment • Data used • Metadata: data sources, spatial and temporal coverage, methodology, quality of information 21

What is indicator STORYLINE?

• The main function of the “story” around each indicator subset or cluster of indicators is to communicate what is the framework within which the indicators will be assessed in broad terms. The storyline describes the environmental issue and the main sources/activities being responsible for the problem including cause effect relationships.

• This text of the story line, together with the policy questions should serve to ensure the “right” focus of the selected indicators.

22

Criteria for distinguishing between short, medium and long term indicators

Short term ST

Operational 2003/04

Mid term MT

Operational 2005/6

High policy relevance

+ existing fact sheet; Methodology well developed and in many cases also in other international sets.

Indicator can illustrate temporal trend and comparability between countries.

Data are available for most countries in 2003.

Data expected for all countries 2004/05.

High policy relevance

+ descriptive/fact sheet; Methodology understood but not fully tested Data available for some countries (less than 7) in 2003 Data available for most countries by 2006

Long term LT

Under development

High policy relevance

(e.g. halting the decline of biodiversity) Methodology little developed or unclear, Data are either scarce, or difficult to aggregate, or yet to defined; Indicator is under development and foreseen to be included in work programmes in the coming years.

23

Examples: Short, Medium and Long Term indicators

• Waste – – –

ST

Generation of municipal waste WMF6

MT

Generation of industrial waste WMF7

LT

Generation of construction and demolition waste WMF8 • Agriculture – – –

ST

Fertiliser consumption AGRI7

MT

Area planted with GMO crops AGRI12

LT

Environmental training of farmers AGRI18 • Biodiversity – – –

ST

Species diversity (in proportion to countries area) BDIV2(a)

MT

Agricultural land in designated areas BDIV13 (<- Agriculture)

LT

Deadwood (in forest) BDIV14 24

Main and sub-indicator

• In many cases issues being described by indicator are broad and have several aspects • Main indicator can be supplemented by several related sub-indicators • Sub-indicators based on the same data set (type 1) • Sub-indicators describe different aspects of an issue (type 2) 25

Examples: main indicator and sub-indicator type 1

CC12 CC12a Impacts on human health Seasonal Change of allergenic pollen (onset and duration) Vector-borne diseases (e.g. encephalitis) (distribution) CC12b Deaths (number of) due to heat waves CC12c Deaths (number of) due to floods CC12d CC12e Food and water-borne diseases (distribution) 26

27

Examples: main indicator and sub-indicator type 2

CC7 CC7a State of Cryosphere Mountain glaciers (extent and mass balance) CC7b Arctic sea ice (extent or duration) CC7c CC7d Snow cover Lake and river ice CC7e Permafrost

The goal: coherent set of indicators

28 • CSI is based on policy questions, DPSIR framework and storylines around them • Timeframe for indicators become operational • short term, medium term, long term • Cross-references to other issues in CSI • Descriptive/Fact sheets • Interlinkages with other relevant international indicator inititatives • Future plans and usages

Some suggestions for CSI development

• Indicator has to be seen as part of the story. The cluster of indicators chosen is important.

• Indicator development has both to be driven from bottom but also by more focus on the story/message we want to tell.

• Indicators are partial reflections of reality, based on uncertain and imperfect models. Simplification.

• Indicators can take many forms. They don’t have to be graphs. They can be signs, conceptual drawings, pictures etc.

• The process of finding, implementing, and improving indicators will not be done right at first. Nevertheless it is important urgently to begin and learn from the process.

29

Input from EEA core set of indicators 1. Air pollution + Ozone layer depletion 2. Climate change 3. Waste & material flows 4. Water + Water ecological quality 5. Biodiversity 6. Terrestrial environment I. Agriculture II. Energy III. Transport

Total

Main indicators 14 4 13 22 38 8 15 17 18 16 28

193

Main and sub indicators 29 4 36 28 46 27 54 22 19 16 28

309

ST: short term; MT: Medium term and LT: Long term 30 Main indicators ST/MT/LT 11/ 3/ 0 4/ 0/ 0 12/ 1/ 0 5/10/ 7 14/17/ 7 1/ 1/ 6 5/ 8/ 2 4/10/ 3 8/ 7/ 3 16/ 0/ 0 21/ 6/ 1

101/63/29

31

http://ims.eionet.eu.int/