Andrus Meiner European Environment Agency

1. EEA/UNECE Workshop on Core Environmental Indicators for EECCA27-28 June 2003, St PetersburgEEA Core set of indicators: methodological concepts and description of indicators Andrus Meiner European Environment Agency

2. Management Board Members: Commission, Parliament, Governments Scientific Committee EEA Copenhagen EUROSTAT JRC 5 ETC’s European Topic Centres Consortia Members NFP’s National Focal Points NRC’s National Reference Centres Air and Climate Change Terrestrial Environment EIONET Water Waste and Material Flow monitorings public registers Nature and Biodiversity EEA Other sourses

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

4. 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 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;

6. 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.

7. Role of the indicators in policy cycle Problem definition Decision makers reaction Scale appropriate data collection EEA Other stakeholders Analyses Reports and Indicators

8. MDIAR: from monitoring to reporting MONITORING REPORTING ASSESSMENT DATA INFORMATION

9. MDIAR and MDIAK What are the policy questions? KWhat 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

10. RESPONSES e.g. policies and targets IMPACT e.g. ecosystems, health, materials DRIVING FORCES e.g. causes PRESSURES e.g. pollutants STATE e.g. quality Causality chain DPSIR

11. 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 EFFICIENCYINDICATORS Link environmental change with policy effords (responses) E – TOTAL WELFARE INDICATORS Sustainable development indicators

12. 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

13. Two faces of indicators 2. DATA 1. POLICY

14. 1st face: Indicators and Policy Development of EEA CSI is policy driven - … and CSI guides the policy The aim is to develop the (coherent) core set of policy relevantindicatorswhich 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. 2nd face:Indicators and Data EEA CSI drives the collection of data • More stable and regulardata flows • 9 priority data flows at moment • Indicator documentation • fact sheets • Connect CSI with reporting system • Web accessibility • 96 indicators currently on the web

16. Steps in indicator design • Development of core set of indicators • criteria, purpose • Construction • data collection and harmonization • Presentation • http://ims.eionet.eu.int/ • Usage

17. Consultation of indicator core set • First compilation • 1st consultation round • Refinement • 2nd consultation round • Approval on management level

18. 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 POLICY QUESTIONS AND INDICATORS

19. Linking policy objectives and indicators Water prices 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 In Denmark household water prices tripled during the 1990s with a marked effect on the water use. Is water pricing used as a tool for more efficient water use?

20. 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 environment6EAP Indicators Nitrate in groundwater Nutrients in rivers Phosphorus in lakes Nutrients in coastal and marine waters Are nutrients concentrations in our surface waters decreasing? Nitrate in drinking water Water transparency in lakes Chlorophyll in coastal and marine waters Harmful phytoplankton in coastal waters Low oxygen concentrations in bottom layers of marine waters Are impacts related to nutrients being reduced?

21. 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

22. 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.

23. 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 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. Criteria for distinguishing between short, medium and long term indicators

24. Examples: Short, Medium and Long Term indicators • Waste • STGeneration of municipal waste WMF6 • MTGeneration of industrial waste WMF7 • LTGeneration of construction and demolition waste WMF8 • Agriculture • STFertiliser consumption AGRI7 • MTArea planted with GMO crops AGRI12 • LTEnvironmental training of farmers AGRI18 • Biodiversity • STSpecies diversity (in proportion to countries area) BDIV2(a) • MTAgricultural land in designated areas BDIV13 (<- Agriculture) • LT Deadwood (in forest) BDIV14

25. 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)

26. Examples: main indicator and sub-indicator type 1

27. Examples: main indicator and sub-indicator type 2

28. 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

29. 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.

30. Input from EEA core set of indicators ST: short term; MT: Medium term and LT: Long term

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