Pavla Chyská Budapest 12 November 2004 EEA Water indicators Core set and candidate indicators under development Pavla Chyská Budapest 12 November 2004

Core set and candidate indicators under development You will learn about ... 1) Core set indicators: what, why, how, when 2) New format of indicator profile 3) On-line indicator management service

What do we mean by a core set? A core set of indicators is in essence a set of story lines by theme/sector, clusters of indicators by theme/sector grouped by policy questions, and cross-reading tables showing the inter-linkages between indicators across themes/sectors. It implies the production of a limited number of indicators that are necessary to monitor and to guide policies, such as sectoral integration and thematic strategies. The core set does not need to address all details of all policies, but can either address issues on an aggregate level or focus on current priorities.

The purpose of Core Set of Indicators to provide a stable and manageable basis for indicator reporting by EEA (EEA Signals) to prioritise improvements in data quality from countries to European level to streamline contributions to other indicator initiatives (eg structural indicators) in doing so, to strengthen environmental dimension alongside economic and social dimensions

EEA core set of indicators History (1) The EEA and ETCs have been working since the beginning of the 2001 ETC subventions on the development of core sets of indicators for environmental themes. In parallel, work has been ongoing inside the Agency on the development of core sets of indicators for sectors.

EEA core set of indicators History (2) 1st phase  July 2002: 400 indicators relevant to policy objectives and distributed across DPSIR submitted for country consultation 2nd phase.  May 2003: 350 indicators relevant to policy objectives and distributed across DPSIR 3rd phase.  March 2004: 37 indicators relevant to policy targets and data availability finally chosen and approved by EEA Management Board. Wide consultation with EIONET community

Getting from 350 to 37 The criteria (1) Be policy relevant - support EU policies’ priority issues of increasing policy relevance (on the basic of available EU policy documentation, DG environment work programme..) Monitor progress toward the quantified targets (if there is no targets, then use thresholds) Be based on ready available and routinely collected data for EEA countries within specified timescale (to be determined country by country) at reasonable cost-benefit ratio

Getting from 350 to 37 The criteria (2) Be consistent in space coverage and cover all or most of EEA countries Time coverage – sufficient/insufficient time trends (exemptions of general nature to be verified – e.g. situation of candidate countries) Primarily be national in scale and representative for countries (countries benchmarking) Be understandable and simple Be conceptually and methodologically well founded and representative (to be used by at least one community or international organization) and on the bases of well established consultation with countries

Getting from 350 to 37 The criteria (3) Be of priority in EEA management plan Be timely (be produced in reasonable and “useful” time) Be well documented and of known quality

2004: Number of CSI per topic Air quality (6) Ozone depletion (1) Climate change (4) Biodiversity (4) Terrestrial (2) Water (7) Waste (2) Agriculture (2) Energy (5) Fishery (3) Transport (3) Total: 37 Total W&F: 10

W&F: Core set indicators Water Use of freshwater resources Nutrients in freshwater Nutrients in TCM waters Oxygen consuming substances in rivers Fisheries Fishing fleet capacity Status of marine fish stock Aquaculture production (not updated in 2004) Chlorophyll in TCM waters Bathing water quality Urban WW treatment

W&F: Candidate indicators Water Hazardous substances in groundwater Hazardous substances in rivers Hazardous substances in lakes Hazardous substances in transitional, coastal and marine waters Hazardous substances in marine organisms Introduced species in marine and coastal waters

2004: Changes in EEA indicator management Essential task - CSI requires regular reviews of content to ensure quality criteria New indicator profile replaced the factsheets in 2004 indicator update Indicator management servis designed to handle CSI profiles in 2004

New indicator profile (1) Designed to underpin the quality of indicator metadata and the automated processes (IMS) Concept: CSI presented at 2 levels – European and national (countries benchmarking) Content: 2 parts – specification (recipe) and assessment (dish)

Example Dish 1 Dish 2 S2004 A2005 A2004 Recipe Ingredient A Ingredient B Ingredient C Ingrendients Two assessments based on the same specification S2004 A2005 A2004 Dataset 2003 Dataset 2004 Data sources

New indicator profile (2) Specification: static, contains the metadata for the indicator used by Management Board to ensure relevance and quality of CSI used by countries to evaluate reporting burden of indicator used by other organisations for capacity building and to avoid overlap Assessment: dynamic, contains the calculated indicator + message updated after each data cycle compilation according to specification departure from specification needs explanation

Why on-line indicator management service? Avoids ”fat” Word documents (a standard webbrowser is enough) Automates processes Integrates with other web-based services Publishing easy and flexible Concentrate on content rather than layout details Generate reports on-line: follow progress and act quickly Not loose know-how when somebody is away Share and see what others are doing

IMS – on-line tool for managing indicator processes Development Regular calculation & assessment Review Publication

Water core set and candidate indicators in 2005 February: publishing CSI on the web June: first CSI review by EEA Management Board (new proposals - candidates, modifications, cancellations) In cooperation with NFP/Eionet!

Changes in the next country review process Only 7+3 CSI and 6 candidates CSI: New indicator profile Candidates: „old“ factsheets IMS or CIRCA – not yet decided EEA feedback to your comments

Relevant points for Eionet Water EEA Water Core set indicators Relevant points for Eionet Water More effective use of data Substantial improvement in indicator metadata quality (new profile) CSI presented at both European and country levels Use the country review process to submit general comments and suggestions (uncertainity, future work) Communicate with your NFP to ensure that the important messages are passed on

EEA Water Core set indicators Summary CSI stable but not static – annual review process Known quality European and national level presentation (country benchmarking) New indicator profile (static metadata + dynamic assessment) On-line management (incl. country review) CSI quality depends on your cooperation!