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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

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Management Board Members:Commission, Parliament, Governments

EEA CopenhagenScientific Committee EUROSTAT JRC

NFP’s National Focal Points

5 ETC’sEuropean Topic Centres

Consortia MembersNRC’s

National Reference Centres

Waste and Material Flow

Air andClimate Change

Nature and Biodiversity

Water

Terrestrial Environment

EIONET

monitorings

registers

Other sourses

public

EEA

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• 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

Countries cooperation

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The EEA as a continuously updated information provider

• 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 productsSignals 2001, 2002

Transport and Environment reporting mechanism (TERM) 2001, 2002

• Experiences, practices, solutions

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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;

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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.

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Role of the indicators in policy cycle

Problem definition

Scale appropriate data collection

Analyses Reports and Indicators

Decision makers reaction

EEA

Other stakeholders

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MDIAR: from monitoring to reporting

MONITORING

INFORMATION

ASSESSMENTDATA

REPORTING

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MDIAR and MDIAK What are the policy questions?

K What do we need to Know?

A What Assessments are needed?

I What Indicators are needed?

D What Data is needed at European level?

M What Monitoring is needed to deliver

required data

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Causality chain DPSIR

DRIVING FORCESe.g. causes

PRESSURES e.g. pollutants

STATE e.g. quality

IMPACT e.g. ecosystems, health, materials

RESPONSES e.g. policies and targets

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Typology of EEA indicators

A – DESCRIPTIVE INDICATORSShare of organic farming in total agricultural area, %

B – PERFORMANCE INDICATORSDistance-to-target: GHG emissions and Kyoto target

C – EFFICIENCY INDICATORSEco-efficiency: level of emissions per unit of GDP

D – POLICY EFFICIENCY INDICATORSLink environmental change with policy effords (responses)

E – TOTAL WELFARE INDICATORSSustainable development indicators

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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

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1. POLICY 2. DATA

Two faces of indicators

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Development of EEA CSI is policy driven - … and CSI guides the policy

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....

1st face: Indicators and Policy

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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

2nd face: Indicators and Data

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Steps in indicator design

• Development of core set of indicators• criteria, purpose

• Construction• data collection and harmonization

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

• Usage

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Consultation of indicator core set

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

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POLICY QUESTIONS AND INDICATORS

Generic question Policy question Indicator title DPSIR Priority 

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 P ST

Are eutrophication and organic pollution decreasing?

Are we reducing the impact of nitrate on our groundwater?

WEU1 Nitrate in groundwater S ST

Are nutrients concentrations in our surface waters decreasing?

WEU2 Nutrients in rivers S ST

WEU3 Phosphorus in lakes S ST

WEU4 Nutrients in coastal waters

S ST

Are indicators of pollution with organic matter decreasing ?

WEU5 BOD and Ammonium in rivers

S ST

Linking policy objectives and indicators

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

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

100

125

150

175

200

225

1982 1986 1990 1994 1998

l/per

son/

day

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Wat

er p

rice

(kr)

Water use Price

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

Water prices

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

Are nutrients concentrations in our surface waters decreasing?

Are impacts related to nutrients being reduced?

Nitrate in groundwater

Nutrients in rivers

Phosphorus in lakes

Nutrients in coastal and marine waters

Nitrate in drinking waterWater transparency in lakesChlorophyll in coastal and marine watersHarmful phytoplankton in coastal watersLow oxygen concentrations in bottom layers of marine waters

Indicators

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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

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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.

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Criteria for distinguishing between short, medium and long term indicators

Short term ST

Operational 2003/04

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.

Mid term MT

Operational 2005/6

High policy relevance + descriptive/fact sheet; Methodology understood but not fully testedData available for some countries (less than 7) in 2003Data 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.

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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

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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)

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Examples: main indicator and sub-indicator type 1

CC12 Impacts on human health

CC12a

Seasonal Change of allergenic pollen (onset and duration)

CC12b

Vector-borne diseases (e.g. encephalitis) (distribution)

CC12c

Deaths (number of) due to heat waves

CC12d

Deaths (number of) due to floods

CC12e Food and water-borne diseases (distribution)

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Examples: main indicator and sub-indicator type 2

CC7 State of CryosphereCC7a Mountain glaciers (extent and mass balance)

CC7b Arctic sea ice (extent or duration)

CC7c Snow cover

CC7d Lake and river ice

CC7e Permafrost

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The goal: coherent set of indicators

• 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

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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.

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Input from EEA core set of indicators

ST: short term; MT: Medium term and LT: Long term

Main indicators Main and sub indicators

Main indicators ST/MT/LT

1. Air pollution 14 29 11/ 3/ 0 + Ozone layer depletion 4 4 4/ 0/ 0 2. Climate change 13 36 12/ 1/ 0 3. Waste & material flows 22 28 5/10/ 7 4. Water 38 46 14/17/ 7 + Water ecological quality 8 27 1/ 1/ 6 5. Biodiversity 15 54 5/ 8/ 2 6. Terrestrial environment 17 22 4/10/ 3 I. Agriculture 18 19 8/ 7/ 3 II. Energy 16 16 16/ 0/ 0 III. Transport 28 28 21/ 6/ 1 Total 193 309 101/63/29

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