State of Environment Reporting
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About State of Environment Reporting
The goal of state of the environment reporting is to provide the basis for informed decision making so that individuals and agencies can take positive action.
State of environment reporting:
- provides a comprehensive analysis of environmental conditions and trends;
- measures progress towards sustainability;
- contributes to informed and open decision-making;
- contributes to public awareness about environmental health and what they can do about it;
- serves the public's right to know by providing scientific information about the environment in an easily understandable form.
What is an Environmental Indicator?
Indicators reflect causes, processes or results of impacts on different aspects of the environment. They tell us what impacts our activities have and show the results of measures intended to respond to problems.
The most effective environmental indicators are:
- Scientifically credible and accepted by experts in the field
- Representative of key issues and broader impacts or effects
- Responsive to changes within a useful reporting time scale
- Useful for prediction
- Relevant to needs of policy-makers or enable individuals to make meaningful decisions
- Compatible with other indicators to present an overall picture
- Readily communicable, interesting, clear and easy to understand.
The development of meaningful environmental indicators is not easy. A set of indicators must be broad enough to represent the overall environment, yet be few enough to present an understandable picture of environmental quality. Developing good indicators is in a continuous process of improvement.
Canadian Environmental Indicators
International State of Environment Sites
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