23
National environmental indicators: measuring what matters? Elisabeth A. Graffy ASU -- March 30, 2007

National environmental indicators: measuring what matters?

  • Upload
    peyton

  • View
    22

  • Download
    1

Embed Size (px)

DESCRIPTION

National environmental indicators: measuring what matters?. Elisabeth A. Graffy ASU -- March 30, 2007. Guideposts. Summarize a national initiative to design a national indicator system Purpose, Participants, Process Focus in on challenges, tensions, paradoxes - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Citation preview

Page 1: National environmental indicators:  measuring what matters?

National environmental indicators: measuring what matters?

Elisabeth A. GraffyASU -- March 30, 2007

Page 2: National environmental indicators:  measuring what matters?

Guideposts

Summarize a national initiative to design a national indicator system Purpose, Participants, Process

Focus in on challenges, tensions, paradoxes

Discuss current and potential role(s) for academia

Page 3: National environmental indicators:  measuring what matters?

Why design a system for national environmental indicators?

Respond to claims of unmet needs for national indicators in policy, management, and public discourse.

Despite many indicator efforts and assessments, knowledge remains Fragmented and incomplete Inaccessible Incomplete and/or not sufficiently relevant Of mixed quality and trustworthiness

Page 4: National environmental indicators:  measuring what matters?

Some leading U.S. indicator efforts

Heinz Center: State of the Nation’s Ecosystems

NAS Key National Indicator Initiative (aka State of the USA)

EPA’s Report on the Environment Sustainable Resource Roundtables (4) GAO and OSTP report dozens of federal

assessments, indicator systems (Global, state, local, corporate efforts)

Page 5: National environmental indicators:  measuring what matters?

Rationale for a national system

“The Nation does not now produce complete, consistent, and credible

statistics and indicators about environmental conditions and trends that are needed to guide government and business decisions and to inform

public discourse.”

Page 6: National environmental indicators:  measuring what matters?

Major participants in dialogue Federal agencies

CEQ, EPA, DOI, NOAA, USDA-NRCS, FS Indirect: GAO

Non-federal entities Heinz Center, State of the USA, NCSE State and local government University and Business

National Academy of Public Administration

Page 7: National environmental indicators:  measuring what matters?

Participants emerged over time

CEQInteragency Indicator

CoordinationFederal Agencies:

DOI, EPA, USDA, FS, NOAA

Collaborative Process

Roundtables:Forests, Rangelands

Minerals, Water

Heinz State of theNation’s Ecosystems

NAS KNIIStakeholders

& ExpertsStakeholders

& Experts

CorporateInputs

Agency Reports

AcademicInputs

Congressional Inputs

Collaboration on Indicators on the Nation’s Environment and Natural Resources (CINE) Planning Group

Page 8: National environmental indicators:  measuring what matters?

Common aspirational goal

Complete, credible, and consistently reliable National (scalable) Routinely used by policy-makers,

businesses, and citizens Increasingly trusted over time Match IT and use/access trends

Page 9: National environmental indicators:  measuring what matters?

Proposed operational goal

Primary Goal Achieve consensus among diverse

partners about selection of Core National Indicators and process for periodic review and updating

Ensure consistent production and reporting of these indicators

Ensure the reliability of related statistical and data activities

Core National

Indicators

Policy, Planning andManagement

Indicators

Inventory and Monitoring Data and Indicators

PublicDiscourse

Corollary Responsibilities Align priorities, protocols Support consistency of tiers Promote broad public access

Page 10: National environmental indicators:  measuring what matters?

Process of dialogue and design Several years of intermittent activity Now, coordinated series of meetings

Define federal interests and role(s) Define non-federal interests and role(s) Develop agreement on feasible options Develop implementation strategy that

successfully accommodates politics, Politics, organizational change….

Focus on institutions, not indicators

Page 11: National environmental indicators:  measuring what matters?

Implied design tensions

Conceptual Institutional Informational Political

Page 12: National environmental indicators:  measuring what matters?

Conceptual Tensions: What are indicators? (1)

Statistics Indices Aggregated data/bu Question-driven/td Science-based Values-based Policy-defined Valid, reliable Fact-based Comprehensive Selective

Progress markers Descriptive - status Diagnostic - problems Rational decision

tools “Truth to power” Dispute resolvers Myth-dispellers Collaborative origin Policy-relevant Apolitical

Page 13: National environmental indicators:  measuring what matters?

Conceptual Tensions: What are indicators? (2)

Dispute enhancers Translated scientific knowledge Co-produced/joint knowledge Boundary objects Serviceable truths Usable knowledge Metaphoric, symbolic

Page 14: National environmental indicators:  measuring what matters?

A problem

Indicator practitioners may be only loosely aware of the broader (and potentially very broad) intellectual context.

Disciplinary theorists may be only loosely aware of potentially broad intellectual context and opportunities to contribute.

Page 15: National environmental indicators:  measuring what matters?

Conceptual Tensions: What are indicators for?

Policy, Planning and Management

Indicators

Inventory and Monitoring Data and Indicators

Public Understanding Social Learning, Action

Parameters of legitimized common knowledge

Accountability to specified

goals

Salient Topics

CoreNational

Indicators

Public UnderstandingSocial Learning, Action

Synthesis, narrativeFusion of technical, cultural,

economic, spiritual, …

Data collectionExpand frontiers

of knowledge

Relation of Indicator Type to Potential Social Functions

Page 16: National environmental indicators:  measuring what matters?

Conceptual Tensions: Who are indicators for?

Inventory And Monitoring Data and Indicators

Public and People withTopic or Issue Interests

ManagersAnd

Policy Wonks

Core National Indicators

Generally Informed Public

Scientists

Policy, PlanningAnd Management

Indicators

Salient Topics

Relation of Indicator Types to Potentially Interested People

Page 17: National environmental indicators:  measuring what matters?

Conceptual Tensions: Independence, relevance, & politicization

Do environmental condition indicators relate to program planning, performance?

Should indicators address “hot” issues? Should indicators be about ecological only

or economic and social aspects, too? Should indicators encompass condition

only or causes and implications, too? “Build it & they will come” or “build to

suit”? What are the real risks and for whom?

Page 18: National environmental indicators:  measuring what matters?

Institutional Tensions: Hydra

Existing programs are dispersed, autonomous 58 Heinz national indicators used data from 20

Federal programs in 15 agencies in 6 departments Decentralized by historical design (eg., fires)

Many co-existing missions with constituencies How much change is needed and acceptable?

Federal and non-federal interests exist What roles, rights, authorities can/do each assume?

Science and policy domains are inevitable What model(s) guide(s) this interface or boundary?

Page 19: National environmental indicators:  measuring what matters?

Institutional Tensions: Language Institutional arrangements: defined roles

and responsibilities, not an “agency” Vision: the aspiration Goal: the concrete results to be achieved Critical Functions: tasks/abilities/activities

that are minimally necessary for goals Design: the process of defining roles and

responsibilities Criteria: enables goal-based comparison

and evaluation of design options

Page 20: National environmental indicators:  measuring what matters?

Informational Tensions: DRIP A lot of information --uncoordinated,

fragmented, unaligned, incomplete Heinz Center Report:½ of 103 indicators

w/data More data are collected than analyzed

Redundancy and inquiry vs. targeted needs and scarce resources?

What is “national” about an indicator? Geographic scale, iconic value, ecological

uniqueness, “sentinel”, constituency Everglades, bald eagle, children, mercury, bees,

Lake Tahoe, Sky Islands

Page 21: National environmental indicators:  measuring what matters?

Political Tensions: First Steps Poor understanding of conditions for

Acceptance by involved entities Legitimacy in all relevant sectors Authority sufficient for functional capacity Ability to weather administrations,

Congresses, and controversies Lessons from other cases, literature,

and consultations is inconclusive Default stance: incremental, low-risk

Loss of relevance or long-term viability?

Page 22: National environmental indicators:  measuring what matters?

Role(s) for academia Take a broad view of whose research matters:

natural sciences, organizational change & strategy, sociology, public affairs, law, political theory, science policy, resource management, communication, history, media

Help develop common concepts, terminology, methods

Promote innovation and experimentation that links theory and practice

Page 23: National environmental indicators:  measuring what matters?

Role(s) for academia Why bother?

Growth areas for research Differentiates and prepares students May have real-world impact