The Baseline - Mining and the Environment: From Ore to Metal - page 347

Segnestam (1999 and 2002) developed an indicator framework based on project cycles
to derive project-level indicators, classifying indicators quite similar in nature to the PSR
framework as follows:
● Input indicators - monitor the project-specii c resources provided;
● Output indicators - measure goods and services provided by the project; and
● Impact indicators.
While the input-output-outcome-impact approach distinguishes between project out-
comes (measuring immediate, or short-term, results of project implementation) and
project impacts (monitoring longer-term or more pervasive results of the project) outcome
and impact indicators are not easily differentiated in practice; hence they are often bun-
dled together and jointly referred to as impact indicators.
Environmental indicators are commonly divided into i ve categories.
1. Input indicators measure resources in terms of people, equipment, and materials that
go into environmental and social management. Examples of input indicators include
funding of various environmental management activities, establishment of the envi-
ronmental management organization, installation of environmental controls, or the
provision of monitoring hardware and software. In addition there are project input
indicators such as materials used, money spent, or people employed in the mining
project or, at a more detailed level, for any activity within the mining project, includ-
ing environmental protection measures.
2. Process indicators measure the change in quality and quantity of access and cover-
age of the activities and services. Examples of process indicators include Standard
Operating Procedures, information campaigns for communities or local government,
and the creation of emergency response plans.
3. Output indicators measure the results of activities and services that are produced with
the inputs. Examples of output indicators include environmental monitoring results or
the creation of a database for tracking employment or numbers of people trained.
4. Outcome indicators measure environmental changes. Examples of outcome indica-
tors include the changes of biodiversity, i sh populations, family and individual income
levels, and overall employment rates.
5. Impact indicators measure medium and long-term changes in selected environmental
attributes. Examples of impact indicators are demographic and ethnographic changes
compared against the baseline.
Indicators of both outputs (e.g. gaseous project emissions) and impacts (e.g. ambient air
quality at project area) are typically required to properly evaluate project impacts.
Output indicators alone are often insufi cient because the link between output and con-
sequent environmental impact may be ambiguous or of unknown magnitude. This point
is important because it is the end result that is of most concern to people. People care about
emissions primarily because emissions increase air pollution and hence affect people's
health.
Impact indicators alone are also often insufi cient because changes in environmental con-
ditions depend on the combined effect of multiple pressures (and on random natural fac-
tors). Unless the project's contribution to change is measured, the project might be blamed
for problems it did not cause or credited for improvements to which it did not contribute.
Table 8.1 summarizes these and other commonly used indicators. One common
approach, for example, is to develop one set of alarm indicators, and one set of diagnostic
indicators. In this approach, the i rst priority of monitoring is to provide sufi ciently early
warning about impending adverse environmental change so that corrective action can be