The Baseline - Mining and the Environment: From Ore to Metal - page 346

Information

PRESSURE S TAT E RESPONSE

Pressures Information

Human Activities
Energy
Transport
Industry
Agriculture
Others

State of the Environment
and of Natural Resources
Air
Water
Land
Living resources

Economic and
Environmental Agents
Administration
Household
Enterprises
International

Resources Societal

Responses

FIGURE 8.1
The Pressure - State - Response
Framework

Societal Responses (Decisions - Actions)

The PSR approach examines human
activities which impact on components
of the environment and the subse-
quent human and natural responses to
these impacts.
Source:
OECD 1994

measure that it represents. Repeated measurements of the variables that comprise the
indicator in various places and times, and in a dei ned way, comprise the monitoring
programme for that indicator during mine operation. Comparison of this repeated set of
measurements with a benchmark set (the control site) or condition prior to mining pro-
vides the basis for detecting and quantifying change. Thus, environmental indicators are
measurable features that provide managerially and scientii cally useful evidence of envi-
ronmental quality and reliable evidence of trends in quality.
In selecting indicators, the goal is not only to dei ne the environmental baseline, but also
to be able to assess how mining activities affect the direction of change in environmental
performance, and to measure the magnitude of that change. Indicators that allow a quan-
titative evaluation of mining impacts are particularly useful, since they provide more infor-
mation than just whether mining is improving or degrading the state of the environment.
Information on the magnitude of a benei t is required to determine whether it is worth the
resources being expended to achieve it. Similarly, information on the magnitude of adverse
impacts might indicate whether the harm is justii ed given the other benei ts of the activi-
ties in question (Segnestam 1999, 2002).

In selecting indicators the
goal is not only to defi ne the
environmental baseline, but also
to be able to assess how mining
activities affect the direction
of change in environmental
performance, and to measure the
magnitude of that change.

The Concept of Indicator Frameworks

Two interpretive indicator frameworks are widely used to select environmental indicators.
The OECD (1994) based on work of Adriaanse (1993) introduced the pressure-state-
response (PSR) framework to select national-level indicator sets. The PSR approach
examines human activities which impact on components of the environment (usually at
the ecosystem level) and the subsequent human and natural responses to these impacts.
Typical stress factors are pollution loadings, land-use changes, or resource exploitation.
Ecosystem responses ( Figure 8.1 ) include changes in productivity, species composition,
and disease incidence. The framework provides the means to structure sets of indi-
cators in a manner that facilitates their interpretation; it also aids the understanding of
how different issues are interrelated. The PSR framework differentiates indicators that
describe pressures exerted on the environment, indicators of the environmental condi-
tion or state, and indicators of responses to the pressures, or to changes in the condition
or state.