The objective of PEARL (Prototype Environmental Assessment and Reporting Landscape) is to provide governments and the international community with a comprehensive overview from both a thematic and geographic perspective of the various environmental assessments completed or being undertaken globally. This web-based system is freely available on the internet (www.unep.org/pearl) to all interested stakeholders. It serves as a tool to provide timely, relevant, reliable and targeted information on what is being done by various institutions to keep the global environmental situation under continuous review.
Background
One of UNEP’s main functions since its inception at the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment in 1972 is to keep under review the world environmental situation, as mandated by UN General Assembly resolution 2997 (XXVII). The objective being to ensure that emerging environmental problems of wide international significance receive appropriate and adequate considerations by Governments. The increasing complexity of environmental degradation now requires an enhanced capacity for scientific assessment, monitoring and early warning.
For this reason UNEP’s Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum (GC/GMEF) has initiated a consultative process to identify gaps and needs in the current assessment structure, and the means to address them. In the latter half of 2003 the Executive Director initiated a consultative process with governments, inter-governmental organizations (IGOs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and scientific institutions (SIs) on ways and means to strengthen the scientific base of UNEP. This ongoing multi-stakeholder consultative process is referred to as the Science Initiative and a description of the process to date is available at "http://www.unep.org/scienceinitiative" . The first intergovernmental consultation on Strengthening the Scientific Base of UNEP was held on 14-15 January 2004.
Outcome of the intergovernmental consultation 14-15 January 2004
The intergovernmental consultation produced a number of key findings and it was suggested that UNEP could provide an umbrella for coordination by providing periodic stock of ongoing environmental assessment activities, while avoiding duplicating or interfering with existing mechanisms where those were working well.
The consultation highlighted the following questions to be answered:
1.Coverage:
- What does the “assessment landscape” look like, i.e.
- what assessments are under way and their geographic coverage?
- of what? (thematic coverage)
- by whom? (organizations, institutions and partners involved),
- for what purpose? (goal, scope and mandate)
2. Effectiveness:
This area draws on the work carried out at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University such as the Global Environmental Assessment (GEA) Project.(URL -http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/gea/index.html.
Are these assessments effective i.e. are they salient (relevant to decision-makers needs), scientifically credible and do they have legitimacy amongst the various stakeholder groups?
3. Impacts: Are these assessments having an impact and making a difference, i.e. positively influencing environmental policy making and implementation, human behavior and/or the state of the environment?
Objectives of Mapping the Assessment Landscape
The two main objectives of the exercise are:
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To provide a definitive baseline overview of the thematic and geographic coverage of and scope of the assessment at all levels (global, regional, sub-regional and national)
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To identify the gaps in information to assist in setting assessment priorities e.g. addressing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) Plan of Implementation.
Scope of the task
UNEP was asked to undertake a “mapping of the assessment landscape” by examining
various framework assessment processes, sub-processes, individual assessments and
their related outputs. For example, the Global Environment Outlook (GEO) is an example
of a global assessment process that has been led by UNEP and has evolved into many
sub-processes at regional, sub-regional, national and city level (GEO-LAC, Africa
Environment Outlook sub-process {AEO}, GEO for Cities, etc) and individual assessments
(GEO-1, GEO-3, AEO-1). The Global International Waters Assessment (GIWA) is another
example of a framework assessment process but one that was designed in a top-down
manner with 66 sub-processes covering all water related regions of the world.
After an initial examination of several global, regional, thematic and national
assessment processes, the following conceptual model was deemed to be the most suitable
for describing the complexity of the assessment landscape worldwide. It is a simple
hierarchical model whereby a lead institution (or institutions) is responsible for
driving and managing an overall assessment process which in turn is comprised of
one or more sub-processes under which individual assessments are undertaken, ultimately
producing various published outputs. Published outputs are usually the main assessment
report and a number of related reports such as executive summaries, technical studies,
data compendia and policy-relevant findings.
Fig. 1 Conceptual (hierarchical) model for mapping the assessment landscape
Four different metadata forms are used in capturing the essential data with respect
to the assessment processes, sub-processes, individual assessments and published
outputs. These forms follow the Dublin Core metadata standards. Each form has a
help file describing the type of data to be entered into each field. Samples of
completed forms for one aspect of the Global International Waters Assessment (GIWA)
are available for users to consult. Institutional information is provided by the
Environment Directory, which is linked with PEARL. Assessments are undertaken in
response to various mandates. It was thus found useful to link a mandate database
with PEARL in order to provide information regarding the various mandates that are
driving various assessments and related processes.
The global and regional assessment landscape
The complexity of the global assessment landscape is partly illustrated in the following
snapshot that shows processes driven primarily by UNEP.
Fig. 2 Processes in the global assessment landscape
The diagram also serves as the basic conceptual data model for the web-based system
called PEARL (Prototype Environmental Assessment and Reporting Landscape) designed
as a repository for information on framework assessment processes, individual assessments
and their related outputs.
UNEP’s Division of Early Warning and Assessment (DEWA)
is currently mapping the
assessment landscape at the global and regional levels where a number of important
processes have been undertaken by UNEP or are currently being undertaken by UNEP
either alone or in collaboration with other partners.
In addition, a number of national-level assessment outputs have been identified
via the web or through UNEP’s collection of assessment reports from various countries.
These reports are mainly national SOE reports (all countries were required to present
an SOE report to UNCED in 1992) but some are thematic while a few are city and district
SOE reports. UNEP/DEWA has also been involved with a number of national and sub-national
assessments.
National assessment landscape
Mapping the assessment landscape at the national level entails identifying and compiling
information about the overall process and sub-processes in place to
keep the national environmental situation under review. In addition there
are geographic and thematic aspects to take into consideration. Individual assessments
may be focused on thematic issues such as water quality, air quality and biodiversity
or they could be integrated assessments undertaken at the national (country-wide)
or sub-national level. Sub-national refers to provinces, states, districts, municipalities
or cities within a country. Thematic assessments could also be undertaken at the
sub-national level. Furthermore, all these assessments may be undertaken on either
an ad hoc or periodic basis in response to various legal mandates. Individual assessments
may produce a variety of different outputs (reports, studies etc.). Different institutions
may be involved in undertaking the assessments although, presumably, the principal
national environmental authority would have oversight of the entire assessment landscape
at the national level.
An initial examination of national level processes and sub-processes in place in
a number of countries (e.g. Australia, Indonesia, South Africa, Uganda, USA) to
keep the national environmental situation under review suggests that two distinct
classes of environmental assessment activities can be identified:
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activities that are country-wide and may cover one theme or multiple themes e.g. the national SOE assessment process or the national biodiversity assessment process
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activities that are carried out at the sub-national level e.g. a city SOE assessment
or a water quality assessment for a certain region within the country. Such activities
may be stand-alone i.e. not well integrated with the overall, country-wide environmental
review process.
The following generic model provides a snapshot of a typical national-level assessment
landscape:
Fig. 3 Generic processes in the typical national assessment landscape
UNEP/DEWA is planning to work with governments before undertaking a comprehensive
mapping of the assessment landscape at a national level in the respective countries.
However, before undertaking the exercise, UNEP/DEWA proposes to carry out a number
of country pilot studies starting early in 2006. More country pilots will be undertaken
in 2007.
National activities and outputs
For each country selected for the pilots, the following tasks will be undertaken:
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A review of the overall assessment framework in place to keep the environment of
the country under continuous review. An updated version of the diagram shown in
Fig. 3 above will be produced (without reference to specific published outputs).
The details of the overall assessment framework will be recorded on the respective
metadata forms describing the assessment process, assessment sub-process and individual
assessment.
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An inventory of published assessment outputs at the national and sub-national levels
using the metadata form for published outputs.
Upon completion of both tasks it may be necessary to organize a national stakeholder
consultation to consider gaps identified in the review process and to examine ways
to improve SOE reporting in the future. This exercise will be linked with the implementation
of the Bali Strategic Plan for Technology Support and Capacity Building.
Mapping the assessment landscape for each country will provide a definitive overview
of the assessment framework in place to keep the national environment under continuous
review, making it easy to disseminate information to the decision-makers, policy
formulators and the community so as to increase their knowledge and understanding
of the thematic and geographic coverage of the assessment process, highlight the
overlaps and gaps in the assessments and provide an indication of the assessment’s
effectiveness and impact(s) and how these could be assessed and improved upon in
subsequent assessments undertaken in the country.
Structure, management and operation of PEARL
UNEP/DEWA is responsible for the overall management of PEARL. The system is comprised
of five modules:
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Mandate database describing various mandates endorsed by the Governing
Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum of UNEP, the United Nations General
Assembly and various other decision-making fora such as the African Ministerial
Conference on Environment (AMCEN). The mandate database may be browsed directly
at URL
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Data entry module with restricted access for UNEP staff and staff
in partner institutions that have agreed to provide metadata to PEARL on assessment
processes, sub-processes, individual assessments and published outputs. A userid
and password is required from the PEARL system administrator.
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Browse module to enable internet users to browse through the information
available in the system and view different aspects of the assessment landscape.
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Search module to enable users to query the system by conducting
simple and advanced searches on PEARL. The search function is more powerful than
the browse function in that complex queries can be formulated to extract value added
information not immediately visible under the browse module.
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Report module to enable users to view reports based on the search
results of popular queries. A number of visualization tools will enable users to
import search results into other applications (including GIS applications) and view
different aspects of the assessment landscape using maps, charts and diagrams.
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