"Cities Environmental Report on the Internet (CEROI) is an international project
conducted within the framework of the Local Agenda 21.In June 1992, the United
Nations’ Earth Summit established Agenda 21 - the global plan of action to ensure
environmentally, socially and economically sustainable development. Recognising the key
role that Local Authorities will have in implementing Agenda 21, this plan includes a
special mandate to local governments to work together with local stakeholders in preparing
long-term strategic plans to achieve sustainable development i.e. ‘local Agenda
21s" .The CEROI
project contributes to the Local Agenda 21 process by facilitating access to environmental
information and promoting sound decision making, as well as contributing to general
awareness raising around sustainable development issues. The project is supported
financially by UNEP, The Norwegian Ministry of Environment and the Norwegian Industrial
and Regional Development Fund. Technical support is gained through a contract with
GRID-Arendal (Global Resource Information Database in Arendal) who in tern sub-contacted a
Norwegian software company: Ugland Publikit.
South Africa is in the fortunate position that
four cities were selected to take part in the CEROI initiative. The Cape Metropolitan
Council, Durban Metropolitan Council, Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Council and
Greater Pretoria Council were all selected on the basis of their existing Local Agenda 21
initiatives and past experience with State of the Environment reporting.
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GJSoE on
the Internet Reporting is designed to enhance decision making for environmental protection
and sustainability, as a baseline for future management decisions and as a benchmark
against international trends. It is also designed to improve environmental education and
training amongst decision-makers and the general public. Potential users of the GJSoE on
the Internet Report include National, Provincial and Local level government, environmental
advisory groups, environmental management practitioners, scientists, and interested
members of the public. GJSoE on the Internet Reporting for South Africa contains
information on:
- Driving Forces in environmental quality;
- Environmental pressures and influences;
- A Metropolitan Perspective on the current State
of the Environment;
- Impacts of these pressures on the
environment; and
- Responses from the local government to the
pressures and driving forces on the environment.
This information is presented using indicators for
monitoring environmental quality discussed in the table of content.
GJSoE on the Internet Reporting is
obviously of strategic importance, and contains relevant, scientifically accurate
information on all aspects of the environment. The information is presented in such a way
that can be readily understood by all user groups, and that can be easily revised, as
updated information becomes available.
The Land Development Objective Process
provides the Greater Johannesburg Council with the opportunity to prioritise selected
issues for environmental management. These are listed in the Table of Contents. The
project received assistance in analysis, compilation and presenting the information
Geographically for each issue.
All copyright of the final GJSoE on the
Internet Report and components thereof are vested with the Greater Johannesburg
Metropolitan Council.
SCOPE AND PHILOSOPHY
Available information are integrated and interactive (in terms of use and maintenance), in
use for decision making. This changes the attitude, use, value and management of
information.
This project makes information available to
the Internet user in an integrated and interactive (user and the administrator) manner for
decision making by the reader. The web page is done in a visual, easy to understand,
well-structured and internationally comparable report and is:
- Available day and night
- Not expensive to update and maintain
- In overlay form to avoid duplication or overload
- Easily found and cannot be lost
- Low in printing cost.
Greater Johannesburg SOE on the Internet
Reporting is considered necessary to have two different sets of indicators to evaluate
performance of both environmental and information standards. When analysed together, these
indicators determines project tolerance towards all users. This brings a new dimension to
the discussion and means that there are information technology statistics which determine
how many times the site is accessed, users reached, how many levels is accessed, time
spent/stayed on which pages and the date of access. These indicators are both quantitative
and qualitative in nature and informs the web administrator of the success or failure on
the ‘internet’ component. On the other side of the model (SOE), one determines
environmental sustainability indicators to measure and evaluate the six priorities and
their related actions. These indicators are also quantitative and qualitative in
nature. Each issue should reflect the local and internationally selected indicators,
recognizing the environmental quality and sustainability and reporting on the driving-forces,
pressures, states, impacts and responses - DPSIR.
DPSIR MODEL
The Driving force-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) model
reports on indicators of the selected issues. The DPSIR categories follows through
logically, making explicit the linkages between causes and effects. The purpose of using
DPSIR categories is to make the information interpretive, not merely descriptive, and
linkages between these categories are explained. In addition each chapter contains a
section which lists linkages to related issues in other chapters, and cross-references
with other driving forces, sources, impacts and responses. This assists in compiling the
chapters into an integrated report, which provides information for practical decision
making.
Each chapter contains and describes each issue clearly and concisely,
in terms of the DPSIR categories, as follows:
The severity of the driving forces, according to the colour-coded
classes below. The selection of one of these classes must be substantiated, preferably in
terms of the selected indicator of environmental quality or stability, if used. These
levels of severity may be reported on spatially (i.e. using maps coloured accordingly), or
in tabular form (i.e. listing the colour selected for each driving force), depending on
the nature of the data used. For example:
1. Blue (Ideal)
2. Green (Good)
3. Yellow (Acceptable)
The driving forces are exerting pressures, but the systems or
resources are not showing detrimental effects at this point in time.
4. Orange (Not Acceptable)
The driving forces are resulting in pressures that are too high for
the system or resource to tolerate.
5. Red (Bad)
The driving forces must be addressed immediately to reduce the
pressures on the system or resource.
These are the human influences and activities which, when combined with
environmental conditions, underpin environmental change (positively or negatively). For
example, the driving forces behind Air Pollution include increased burning of fossil fuels
for transport, and industrial and domestic energy production.
This category should include:
- past driving forces, which still exert influence on the current state
- present driving forces
- predicted future trend in driving forces, in the short term (1-2 years), medium term
(2-10 years), and long term (10+ years) . The trend in driving forces must be reported in
terms of its direction (i.e. will the force increase or decrease) and by how much (e.g.
will it be a linear increase/ decrease, exponential increase/ decrease?)
- the geographic location, and extent of influence of driving forces
- the nature of the influence of the driving force (e.g. is it a linear relationship
between force and impact?)
- Pressures
These are the pressures on the functionality and quality of the system or
resource, resulting from the driving forces mentioned above. For example, in the chapter
on Air Pollution, increased emissions of SO2, NOx, CO2,
and CH4 constitute pressures on the natural system.
This category should explain:
- synergistic or cumulative pressures resulting from diverse driving forces, where
applicable
- the spatial scale of the pressure (i.e. which provinces, regions, magisterial districts,
or urban centres are affected?)
- the expected future trend in pressures, in the short, medium and long term, in terms of
direction, and magnitude
- State
This refers to the current status of the system or resource, in terms of quality of
the environment, and quantity and quality of natural resources. In the chapter on Air
Pollution, for example, current gaseous and particulate concentrations in the atmosphere
may be used to describe the state, together with current climatic variables such as
minimum, mean, and maximum temperatures, mean annual precipitation and precipitation
distribution.
This category should include:
- a description of the current state
- recent trends in resource or system health, for as long as data are available
- Impacts
Impacts are environmental responses to pressures on the current state. Impacts of
climatic and atmospheric change, for example, include human health impacts, changes in
agricultural productivity and quality of yield, and higher incidence of corrosion of
infrastructure.
Impacts should be reported in terms of:
- changes in quantity and/or quality of the resource or system
- changes in functionality of systems
- knock-on effects on other systems or resources (including social and economic systems)
- synergistic or cumulative environmental impacts
- the time frame of the impacts (i.e. short, medium & long term)
- the time required to repair any environmental damage, reverse negative trends, or
improve environmental quality should be reported
- the spatial extent of the impacts
- Responses
These are society’s responses to environmental changes and concerns.
Responses include actions (a) to mitigate, adapt to, or protect human induced negative
impacts on the environment, (b) to halt or reverse environmental damage already inflicted,
and (c) to preserve and conserve natural resources. Responses to climatic and atmospheric
change include ratification of the FCCC, drafting of a white paper on climate change,
formation of the National Committee on Climate Change, etc.
This category should include:
- international agreements signed by South Africa
- national laws
- management strategies required by law (such as EIAs, EMPRs)
- recommendations for sustainable policies and strategies
- levels of compliance and enforcement
- the effectiveness of current management strategies and policies
Reference should be made to national and international standards, laws, treaties, and
agreements wherever applicable, particularly when reporting on the current state and
recent trends in environmental quality, and human responses to environmental change.
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