Document Actions
Development of an indicator based approach for the state of the environment report and environmental impact assessment
Up one level
2.2.2 Development of an indicator based approach for the state of the environment report and environmental impact assessment
It is important that detailed information is gathered on the consequences of each of the transboundary issues in the Dnipro Basin. The approach should (a) describe the issue itself (using available survey data showing changes over time, etc.); (b) examine the impact of the issue from an environmental perspective (e.g. high concentrations of chemical pollutants may be an issue but what is the evidence of impact on the natural environment?); and (c) examine social and economic impacts of the issue (e.g. How many people have their health impaired by chemical pollution? What is the economic cost of the damage to health and the natural environment?).
It was therefore necessary to develop a set of status/impact indicators that would reflect this approach. The development of pressure indicators was also required for the immediate cause/causal chain analysis. Some of the indicators developed would also be used as important monitoring tools in the SAP. The starting point for the development of indicators relevant for the Dnipro river Basin was the GIWA environmental impact methodology.
The GIWA methodology includes a suite of indicators, the information of which was thought to be accessible throughout all the 66 GIWA sub-regions. The GIWA methodology defines each of these indicators, gives units of measure, sources of information, errors associated with their measurement and use and reporting forms. Inevitably, many of the indicators developed for GIWA are specific to a particular feature of a biogeographical region and are not applicable to others (e.g. coral reefs, mangroves, boreal wetlands).
The GIWA methodology was found to be very generic and not designed as a tool for TDA development. Therefore the focus was concentrated on screening the GIWA indicators using the following criteria:
- Is the indicator relevant to the Dnipro Basin?
- Is the information required for this indicator in the existing chapters?
- If not, is the information/data readily available?
Further, all indicators were scored in the following manner:
+ Relevant to the Dnipro Basin
+ + Relevant to the Dnipro Basin/information available
+ - Relevant to the Dnipro Basin/information not available
- Not relevant to the Dnipro Basin.
The indicators selected from this process were then categorised as pressure, state, impact or response indicators according to the Driver/Pressure/State/Impact/Response (DPSIR) approach (Figure 2.1). The status indicators are used in the TDA to describe the Dnipro Basin and the priority transboundary issues in the Basin (Chapters 3 and 4). Impact indicators are used to quantify the impacts of each transboundary issue in the Basin (Chapter 4). The pressure indicators are used to substantiate each causal chain developed for the priority transboundary issues (Chapter 4). The full list of indicators is shown in Annex 1.
Previous:
Identification of the priority transboundary issues