Decision Making for Sustainable Use and Development - Coastal Lagoons: Ecosystem Processes and Modeling for Sustainable Use and Development - page 342

sustainable management plan is developed for a lagoon system, certain goals and
objectives are set. If the correct variables are not identified and measured, then the
resulting information is of no use or is misleading to decision makers. It is essential
to select and agree upon the appropriate variables and how to measure them in order
to develop an effective monitoring program. Guidelines and more information on
the various aspects of monitoring are described in Chapter 7.

8.4.3 I D -M T

NDICATORS AS ECISION AKING OOLS

Indicators have been used extensively as a tool for gauging the ecological status of an
ecosystem as well as the effectiveness of lagoon management efforts. However, little
progress has been made in the development of measures for sustainable development,
and there is no general agreement on what parameters should be used to measure
sustainability. Efforts to formulate a set of sustainability criteria that can be used to
indicate whether a path is sustainable have recently commenced. Recent attention has

been focused on the need to develop indicators of sustainable development.

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The

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term has been given various definitions, but it generally refers to a measure

of something. The OECD defines an indicator as “a parameter, or a value derived from
parameters, which points to, provides information about, or describes the state of a
phenomenon, environment, or area with a significance extending beyond that directly
associated with a parameter value.”

indicator

Indicators include both measures of environmental
quality and anthropogenic pressures resulting from social and economic activity. Eco-
logical indicators are also essential in determining what to monitor and how to interpret
what is found as well as assessing the effectiveness of management actions. The exist-
ence of indicators helps to facilitate and to stimulate long-term protection of the envi-
ronment and to foster sound environmental decision making through credible science.
The OECD developed a systematic framework for environmental indicators com-
monly referred to as “pressure-state-response” or driving force-pressure-state/impact-
response (DPSIR),

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which is based on the following causality chain: Human activities
(SES) exert pressures on the environment (“pressure”) and change its quality and the
quantity of natural resources (NC)(“state”). Society responds to these changes through
environmental, general economic, and sectoral policies (the “societal response”). This
format has also been adopted as a feedback loop by the Global International Water
Assessment Committee and European Environment Agency (EEA) to pressures result-
ing from human activities.

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Indicators of pressure (P) can also be called indicators of driving forces or
stressors. In the case of eutrophication or contamination, pressure on the lagoon is
caused by the direct input from point and diffuse sources of anthropogenic matter.
The pollution load can be regarded as a primary pressure indicator. However, the
original cause of pressure is sometimes created far from the lagoon. The identifica-
tion of pressure requires knowledge of SESs within the catchment basin. The reason
for the original pressure might be poor governance or economic or social problems.
A causal chain analysis is needed to identify the original source of pressure. There-
fore, we might have primary pressure indicators or secondary pressure indicators.
The following examples of the pressure indicators are related only to primary (direct)
pressure.