1. NRC Soil working group on contaminated sites and brownfields EC JRC, Ispra, Italy – 10-11 March 2015 EEA approach to setting indicators Geertrui Louwagie European Environment Agency (EEA) Ecosystems assessment group – Natural systems and vulnerability programme

2. EEA environmental indicators “The EEA aims to support sustainable development and to help achieve significant and measurable improvement in Europe's environment through the provision of timely, targeted, relevant and reliable information to policymaking agents and the public.” (EEA Mission statement) “The EEA is an important source and custodian of environment ‑ related data and indicators, and a key provider of environmental knowledge and information services.” (MAWP 2014-2018) Indicators an appropriate context to data bridge between data & assessments

3. EEA indicators & policy making EEA indicators designed to answer key policy questions support all phases of environmental policy making (design, target setting, policy monitoring & evaluation, communication) Typology depending on the policy phase: Type A: descriptive indicators (What is happening to the environment and humans?) Type B: performance indicators (Are we reaching targets?) Type C: efficiency indicators (Are we improving?) Type D: policy effectiveness indicators (Are measures working?) Type E: total welfare indicators (Are we on the whole better off?)

4. EEA indicators & policy making Driving forces – Pressure – State – Impact – Response (DPSIR) framework Source: EEA, 2002

5. EEA indicators by theme & their updates EEA indicators by theme ThemeIndicators Air pollution11 Biodiversity27 Climate change45 Energy11 Environmental scenarios2 Fisheries3 Green economy1 Household consumption1 Land1 Soil1 Transport20 Waste2 Water11 Total136 EEA currently maintains 136 indicators, all made public via the EEA website www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators 72 indicators (53%) have an annual frequency 64 indicators (47%) have a multi-annual frequency (13 every two years, 5 every three years, 38 every four years, 3 every five years and 5 every six years)

6. The core set of indicators (CSIs) ThemesIndicators Air pollution, transp. and noiseCSI 004, CSI 005, CSI 037 + 4 indicators under development Climate change and energyCSI 012, CSI 013, ENER 028 + 4 indicators under development Freshwater resourcesCSI 018, CSI 019, CSI 020, CSI 022 + 3 indicators under development Marine and maritimeCSI 021, CSI 023, CSI 032, CSI 034, CLIM 012, CLIM 013, MAR 001 Biodiversity and ecosystemsCSI 008, CSI 014, SEBI 001, 4 indicators under development Waste and resourcesCSI 028, SCP 013 + 5 indicators under development CSI 2004 (37 indicators, 10 thematic areas, 4 sectors) Purpose: prioritise improvements in the quality and coverage of data flows streamline contributions to other indicator initiatives in Europe and beyond provide a basis for indicator-based assessments of progress (environmental policy) CSI 2014 (42 indicators, 6 thematic areas) Purpose: produce an indicator set with a more balanced structure and improve alignment with current policy priorities (7EAP) and the EEA's MAWP 2014-18 More info: http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/digest-of-eea-indicators-2014http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/digest-of-eea-indicators-2014

7. 7 Thematic cluster ‘Land & soil indicators’ (LSIs) Existing and under development Indicator codeIndicator nameUpdate/Comments LSI 001/CSI 014Land takeFollowing CLC updates, every 6 years LSI 002Imperviousness/Soil sealing Following HRL updated, every 3 years – first publication in 2015 LSI 003* Progress in management of contaminated sites To be revised to increase comparability across countries LSI 004/CSI xxxFragmentation of habitats and ecosystemsUnder development Cf. SEBI 013*Fragmentation of (semi-)natural areas Assessment published May 2010; update expected Q1/2015 (CLC 2006) LSI 005/CLIM 027* Soil organic carbon Ideally following EEA climate change impact indicator reporting cycle, every four years LSI 006/CLIM 028* Soil erosion LSI 007/CLIM 029 Soil moisture * Produced in cooperation with EC-JRC

8. The Indicator Management System (IMS) IMS: to manage EEA indicators in a consistent way gives a framework to maintain & publish indicators structures and archives the indicator content keeps core expert knowledge provides a quick reference and helps daily work tracks relationships indicators / other web content ensures traceability and transparency allows automated exchange with partners Specification 2005 2007 2014 Logical structure: Specification = standard part related to metadata (definition, data sources, etc.) Assessment = more narrative part, which is produced whenever new data becomes available from the source data sets

9. New versions of specifications & assessments Specification version 2 20xx 2005 2007 2014 Specification version 1

10. Indicator specification - Structure Title Assessments versions Justification for indicator selection Scientific references Indicator definition Policy questions (key and specific) Policy context and targets Related policy documents Methodology for indicator calculation Methodology for gap filling Methodology references Data specifications Uncertainties Related items General metadata Specification version 1 2014 Specification = standard part related to metadata (definition, data sources, etc.)

11. Indicator assessment - Structure Specification version 1 2014

12. Indicator assessment – Key policy question and assessment Specification version 1 2014

13. Indicator assessment – Specific policy questions and assessments Specification version 1 2014

14. Indicator relation to data and metadata Indicator = specification + assessment Data visualisation (with metadata) Graphs Maps Daviz Eye on Earth Map viewers

15. Automate data collection and visualisation (e.g. from Eurostat) Layout harmonisation and ensured consistency Attractive interactive visualisations which enable data exploration Better sharing of data and its visualisation in multiple formats Enforce data transparency and traceability Allows public scrutiny, verifiability and reproducibility Purely web-based, no extra software needed Graphs and maps – Interactive visualisation

16. Data and metadata http://www.eionet.europa.eu/gis/ Metadata: important information to the end-user(No) metadata

17. Metadata – Excel template

18. Published – PDF on demand! Created on-the-fly in one click! Just selected a theme. Live Demo http://www.eea.europa.eu/soer-2015/europe/energy SOER 2015 Thematic briefing EEA Report

19. LSI 003 in European briefings on ‘Soil’ and ‘Industry’

20. Thank you geertrui.louwagie@eea.europa.eu http://www.eea.europa.eu

21. Indicator assessment – Structure (long view) Specification version 1 2014