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More and more demands are being made at the United Nations and
European Community levels to inform and involve the public
community in national decision making. The public community is
understood as including the highest level politicians and
municipal governmental workers, the persons making governmental
decisions daily, and also ordinary workers. In Latvia this topic
has become important during the past three years, and especially
now, when the fourth Latvian State of Environment Report "Environmental
Indicators in Latvia 2002" (third in English) has reached
its audience in its new format.
The limited edition of the Report restricts the availability of
environmental information for readers. Therefore, Latvian
Environment Agency publishes an internet version. We also
offer to download the full version of "Environmental
Indicators in Latvia 2002" as pdf documents.
The Report is based on environmental indicators. An idea arose
in the 1970's to create reports according to the causal chain
principle, i.e. by grouping the data into logical phases. Raw data,
utilized in a stage of the cause-response structure, not only
shows the status quo, but also allows to view problems as a whole
and to observe trends.
The indicator approach in used in many sectors (e.g.
agriculture, education, health protection) in reports of
well-known international organizations, such as the Organization
for Economic Co-operation and Development, United Nations
Environmental Programme, Food and Agriculture Organisation, World
Health Organisation, and the International Bank of Reconstruction
and Development (IBRD).
Presently, the European Environmental Agency
utilizes the five-phase indicator model in reporting, whereby each
phase leads to the next:
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driving force indicators - social-economic
factors which promote changes in environmental quality;
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pressure indicators - represent pressure by
the economy on the environment, for example, air pollution
amounts, pollutant leakage, waste production, road density,
fishing catches, and wood and peat harvest;
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state indicators - represent the environment
both quantitatively and qualitatively, for example,
concentrations of pollutants, species richness, and forest
cover;
-
impact indicators - represent the impact of
environmental changes on ecosystems, human health, or the
environment as a whole, for example, number of lost species
and disease;
-
response indicators - represent state policy
and actions in improvement of environmental quality, lowering
of pollutant amounts, and sustainable national development,
for example, national programmes and strategies for
development of various sectors, investments, fines,
implementation of the principle the polluter pays via a tax
system.
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