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Environmental Assessment of Development Plans: Interim Planning Advice
Appendix H
Further guidance on monitoring
Criteria for the Selection of Development Plan Environmental Indicators
H.1 This appendix is particularly relevant to stage 14 of the assessment process.
H.2 Identifying indicators for monitoring the effectiveness of development plans has proved to be perhaps the most difficult of all the method steps in recent assessments. Various attempts to define indicators have considered a wide range of possible indicators for monitoring the environment but there appears to be no consensus or standard practice emerging.
H.3 The difficulties have revolved around the need to identify indicators that meet appropriate criteria and selecting indicators relevant to the monitoring purpose and for which information is or could be made available. It should be left for local decision by the planning authority as to which indicators should be selected and what targets may be appropriate. However, it may be helpful to give some idea as to how to select the indicators. The following is an example of a list of criteria for selecting indicators [with acknowledgement to Stirling and Clackmannanshire Councils and Scottish Natural Heritage for agreeing to the reproduction of these criteria].
- The indicator, or the information it is calculated from, should be readily available at reasonable cost
- The indicator must be about something measurable.
- An indicator should be meaningful: it should measure or represent something believed to be important or significant in its own right.
- The indicator should be resonant ie. cogent, appealing and compelling to the public and understandable.
- There should only be a short time-lag between the state of affairs referred to and the indicator becoming available.
- The indicator should be based on information, which can be used to compare different geographical areas both inside and outside the plan area.
- The availability of the indicator information should be reliable over the whole plan period, the information should be manageable with analysis capable of drawing conclusions about the significance of changes, and although judgements are inevitable, they should be as objective as possible.
- The indicator should be relevant and appropriate to the scale and purpose of the plan.
- Indicators should concentrate monitoring on objectives, policies or proposals the effects of which are uncertain.
- Indicators should monitor cross-compliance between objectives, policies and proposals, which may potentially conflict - policy divergence within the plan.
H.4 Indicators may be:
a] measures of the state of the environment, or
b] measures of pressures on the environment, or
c] measures of the environment's responses to pressures for change.
H.5 Indicators need not be absolute measures of these conditions but should reflect directions of desirable or undesirable change, in our progress towards development that is more sustainable. Targets, limits or thresholds should be set in relation to each indicator that would act as "warning lights" indicating whether decisions or changes are moving towards or away from sustainable development. Indicators should directly reflect the environmental tests used in the environmental assessment.
H.6 Monitoring should be a useful and cost effective process. It should be comprehensive without being unmanageable; rigorous without being complicated and meaningful without being complex, esoteric or inaccessible. Preference should be given to indicators that may monitor more than one aspect of environment. Different aspects of the environment may be grouped to reduce the monitoring effort, without reducing its inclusiveness or effectiveness. Lessons should be learned from other monitoring projects, elsewhere, but monitoring projects need to be developed that reflect local priorities, issues, pressures and environment.
H.7 It is also important to accept that a full scale monitoring programme is not likely to be feasible at the start. A modest beginning, with a small number of effective indicators, is better than no monitoring at all. Any programme can be extended, modified and refined with experience and as more information becomes available. The frequency of monitoring can be increased as more experience or resources become available.
H.8 Targets may be set so that monitoring can check to see whether they have been met or missed, and why. Targets should be demanding and worthwhile, clearly beneficial and meaningful, but they should also be feasible and realistic. Nothing is gained by setting targets that can never be achieved, because they are out of reach. However, not every indicator needs to have a specific target. Sometimes there are important indicators of trends and directions that do not necessarily have specific stages or measurements, but nevertheless clearly point to whether we are sustaining or diminishing the environmental resource.
H.9 Finally, indicators and any related targets should always reflect the values, aspirations and attitudes of all sections of the community. As many people as possible, representing as many views as possible, should have an opportunity to contribute to the selection of indicators and the setting of targets. This is very much in line with the inclusive approach of the Directive.
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