Identification of theme/issues

The initial stages in the indicator development process include the recognition of broad societal goals related to environmental sustainability, the determination of themes, and environmental and social issues that have significant impacts on the environment.

Stakeholder workshops usually contribute to the refinement of both themes and issues for which indicators are to be selected. Refinement of themes and issues should be based on consultative dialogue between the public, policy-makers, the science community and research institutions.

During the selection process, themes must take into consideration the widest possible range of social, economic, political and natural phenomena that condition the environment.

The generally agreed themes include land, biodiversity, freshwater, marine and coastal resources, socio-economy, atmosphere, forests and woodlands, and human settlements. However, themes and issues for SoE reports differ depending on the geographical scope of the report. The principal point to note is that key issues are those that impact, or have a high potential for impacting on ecosystems functions and sustainability, human health and wellbeing, and the economy.

Critical environmental issues in the SADC region include land degradation and desertification, deforestation, water scarcity and pollution, and loss of biodiversity.

Reporting framework
Following agreement on the main environmental issues, consensus should be sought on the framework to be used in the selection of appropriate indicators for the issues. The major indicator development models have been shaped by four approaches:

• issue framework;
• environmental economic framework;
• economic process framework; and,
• the cause-effect approach (commonly known as the Pressure-State-Response [PSR]) approach or the more elaborate Driving force-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR).

The PSR framework is the most widely used approach to indicator development. The PSR framework was first introduced by the OECD in 1994.

The more elaborate DPSIR framework considers demography and economic developments as major drivers of environmental change. Human activities (consumption and waste generation) exert pressure on environmental resources, with such pressures inducing change to the state or condition of the environment, which impacts on the society and environment. The society responds to such impacts with policies and programmes to prevent, mitigate or repair environmental damage.

With climate change, for example, ambient levels of greenhouse gases would be recognised as state measures, while sea level rise would be regarded as an impact.

Frameworks bring order and convergence to the structure of the presentation and analysis of SoE information. They provide a methodology of organising, analysing and presenting data and indicators in a highly accessible way. Frameworks can be the building block for trend analysis, providing an insight on the performance of the environment over time. Integration in the data collection process occurs simultaneously, taking into account vertical, horizontal and temporal scales.

The DPSIR is holistic in its analysis of cause and effect as shown in Figure 1.