Ecoinformatics Indicators workgroup

1. EcoinformaticsIndicators workgroup Research Triangle Park North Carolina 8-10 April, 2008 David Stanners

2. Reporting on topics & follow up (June 2007) • SD indicators – attempt to bring together actors in SD area or get an overview. Streamlining the data experiences and link to stat offices….(toil issue) • Uncertainty – how to manage and integrate – process under IA – take our points back to this group • Uncertainty – how to communicate – not dealt with….future topic…. • Pre-publication notes on SOER/indicator reports to help link / brief each other about the reports (USEPA SOER, Belgrade, GEO-4, Heinz report (early 2008), OECD Outlook, CEC N American SOER (early 2008)…) • Composites (they wont go away) • initiate process to generate the support for develop of a SD composite? No! Track and identify instead criteria or principles for judging acceptability/quality…methods and a good process for developing. • policy use – understand better why they are liked how they are used so we can perhaps design something better? How are policy makers using this info…. • Urban sprawl and land accounting – process under Implementing Arrangement. Towards indicators – how? (SCP…) • What is Q for an indicator/assment/model - Methods of analysing indicators their robustness, sensitivity – and principles for judging usefulness (high uncertainty doesn’t mean low Q) • Training - related to many points above. Pool experiences or joint training (uncertainty) • Id other areas (cfw land accounting) that would benefit from in depth exchanges: air Q, bathing water, land, wetlands. • New business model implications on indicators….. (basics vs services) • Towards a joint paper on common challenges we face? • Id ideas that link with the technical group.

3. Summary points of last meeting • Indicator quality • Uncertainty • SD indicators & composites • SOERs & indicators • Urban sprawl and land accounting (other themes?) • Towards a joint paper on common challenges we face? • Training – combine efforts? • Improve links to Implementing Arrangement and technical projects workgroup

4. Current challenges • To fully establish a regular, efficient & effective indicator-based assessment process to: • Track progress with existing commitments • Be a signal to identify new issues • To improve knowledge of European-global-European interactions • To improve learning & uptake of knowledge on HOW to tackle problems (”good” practice) • To professionalise the whole indicator, SOER, assessment (craft) practice

5. Indicators’ cycle of instability • Signals – windows into a complex world • A cycle of instability • Growth – Inflation – Devaluation • Instability – Lost trust – Promiscuity  Need improved understanding of science-policy dialogue (the use of knowledge in decision making)

6. Indicators create discipline In the tension between Policy-relevant & Science-based: • Indicators force practical trade-offs to get information into decision making • Indicators help move from self-service to self-discipline (in the use of environmental data) • ... and can thus help stabalise knowledge-based decision making

7. Indicators zip-up & lever • Indicators can “zip-up” the whole interactive science-information-policy support process, and through this: • contribute to policy learning, and • help build-up effective policy-relevant information systems • Indicators can increase the leverage and effectiveness of the whole environmental policy enterprise to protect and improve the environment

8. Indicators are important! Multiple roles. • Indicators encourage discipline and learning by focusing attention on policy priorities and science issues; • Building indicators can forge alliances since, if done well, indicators represent compromises between the different players involved; • By focusing attention on important signals, indicators help improve understanding of data needs from among the vast array of requests for information; • In turn, indicators support the identification of priority data collection, increasing the value and support given to information collection and production activities, promoting long-term consistency; • If successfully built, indicators can act as a fulcrum between science and policy makers, helping to lever increasingly relevant information out of both to improve understanding of the problem and the response; • Overall, indicators help to communicate and translate signals back and forth between expert and non-expert, scientist and policy maker, analyst and member of the public.

9. Some ideas • Set up a SOER network/conference/journal... • Exchange notes on SOERs when they come out • Document case studies in the use of indicators • Quality ”vs” fuzzy sets – understand better