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Water Accounting Indicators: Communicating the Environment-Economy Relationship

This course on water accounting indicators explores the relationship between the environment and the economy, and how indicators can be used to communicate complex information. It covers the key questions, characteristics of indicators, and the use of standard and supplementary SEEAW tables. The course is aimed at public politicians, policy makers, strategic planners, accounting professionals, researchers, and other stakeholders.

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Water Accounting Indicators: Communicating the Environment-Economy Relationship

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  1. Indicatorsand SEEAWTraining Course on Water AccountingAmman, Jordan10-13 March 2008 Michael Vardon United Nations Statistics Division

  2. Outline • Audience for indicators • Relationship of environment to economy • Pressure-State-Response (Driving forces) • Key questions • Indicators • Characteristics • SEEAW indicators • SEEAW supplementary tables and information • Communication and analysis

  3. Audiences for information Public Politicians Policy Makers Strategic planners Accounting SNA, SEEA, SEEAW Researchers Indicators are part of communicating information

  4. Need to communicate complex information about the relationships between the environment and the economy • Environment provides • Economic resources to production process (e.g. minerals, timber, water, energy) • Non-economic resources to production process as well as other uses for mankind • Environment receives wastes from the economy

  5. A model of the relationships between the environment and economy: Pressure – State – Response

  6. Concerns over the level impact the economy is having on environment • Depletion of natural resource (e.g. oil, forests, biodiversity) • Degradation of natural resources (e.g. air and water pollution) • Potentially catastrophic effects (e.g. climate change)

  7. Questions • Are environmental endowments being used responsibly. • Is their use posing a treat to economic development now? • Will their unchanged use into the future pose future threats? • Who benefits from use, who bares the cost of use? What indicators can help answer the questions, simply and accurately?

  8. Indicators need data • Much of the information needed to address these questions can be drawn from the standard SEEAW tables • To answer some questions additional information is needed. In some cases the standard tables can be expanded to include more detailed industry breakdowns or a lower level of geographic reference (e.g. province instead of state) • Some of these data can be drawn from the supplementary SEEAW tables

  9. Supplementary tables • SEEAW identified 12 supplementary tables • Most are expansions of the standard tables or re-presentations of some of the data in the standard tables (e.g. the matrix of flows within the economy) • Two new tables are added • Water quality accounts • Social indicators – Access to water and sanitation (the MDG indicators)

  10. Further information • The international recommendations for water statistics currently being drafted by the UN will include other data items, not included in the water accounts • The additional data items will support indicators as well as help in the production of the water accounts and the analysis of data in the water accounts

  11. Characteristics of indicators • Focus on outcomes • Have an unambiguous 'good' direction • Be supported by timely data of good quality • Be available as a time series • Be sensitive to changes • Be summary in nature; • Be capable of disaggregation • Be interpreted easily by the general reader. • Adapted from Measures of Australia’s Progress 2002 http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/94713ad445ff1425ca25682000192af2/aa16f6e99c3078bfca256bdc001223f6!OpenDocument.

  12. Millennium Development GoalsOfficial list of MDG indicators after the 2007 revision http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Host.aspx?Content=Indicators/OfficialList.htm Goal 7:Ensure environmental sustainability NEW INDICATOR 7.4 Proportion of total water resources used 7.7 Proportion of population using an improved drinking water source (formally target 30)7.8 Proportion of population using an improved sanitation facility(formally target 31)

  13. MDG: Target 30 – access to improved drinking water

  14. MDG: Target 31 – access to improved sanitation

  15. Challenges to monitoring and achieving MDG 7 ‘Countries face many difficulties in monitoring the MDG 7 indicators, as well as in the overall goal of making progress on environmental sustainability.” “Insufficient availability of data and disaggregated data, lack of baseline data to act as references, and uncoordinated data collection inhibit the monitoring of targets set.” Source: Making Progress on Environmental Sustainability, http://www.unep.org/poverty_environment/PDF_docs/mdg7english.pdf

  16. MDG 7:Steps for improvement “While the MDG framework is best managed as a group of interrelated targets, MDG 7 warrants particular attention given the weaknesses both in monitoring and in overall progress. This report presents specific steps to be used in tailoring targets and indicators for MDG 7. The steps can be followed in the order offered here or in a different sequence: 1) assess country environmental issues; 2) identify existing priorities; 3) use analytical frameworks to determine additional critical parameters; 4) set country-specific and verifiable targets; 5) select indicators and establish a baseline to track progress; 6) implement monitoring and data gathering systems; 7) analyse and interpret results; and 8) communicate the results to policy makers and the public. Source: Making Progress on Environmental Sustainability http://www.unep.org/poverty_environment/PDF_docs/mdg7english.pdf

  17. So for MDG (and other reporting frameworks) we need….. • An analytical framework for understanding the relations between the environment and the economy • Indicators of these relationships • Monitoring and data systems to support the framework and indicators • To be able analyse and interpret results and communicate results to policy makers and the public Environmental and economic accounting provides this!

  18. SEEAW and Indicators • The SEEAW standard tables and commonly collected statistics on the population and economy can be combined to produce a wide range of water indicators • Population size and national accounts are two of the most commonly uses sources of other data

  19. Indicators: economic growth and water pollution Netherlands: water pollution and economic growth, 1999-2001

  20. Indicators: economic growth and water use Botswana: water use and economic Growth, 1993-1998

  21. Environmental Economic Profiles Sweden 1995

  22. International transport of pollution Share of pollution in rivers in the Netherlands originating abroad

  23. The SEEAW Indicators (pages 169-183) SEEAW provides an annex on indicators • Water availability • Water intensity and productivity • Opportunities to increase water supply • Cost and price of water supply and wastewater treatment services

  24. Additional UNSD Guidance on compiling indicators • As part of the development of the International Recommendations of Water Statistics, UNSD will prepare guidance on the construction of policy relevant indicators • A draft should be available mid-2008

  25. Indicators of water availability • Per capita renewable resources • Ratio between Total renewable water resources and population size. (WWDR 2003, Margat 1996) • Annual Withdrawals of Ground and Surface Water as a Percent of Total Renewable Water/Exploitation index • The total annual volume of ground and surface water abstracted for water uses as a percentage of the total annually renewable volume of freshwater. (UN, 2001) • Consumption Index • Ratio between Water Consumption and Total Renewable Resources. (Margat, 1996)

  26. Per capita renewable resources from SEEAW SEEAW Asset account Total renewable water resources 2. Returns + 3. Precipitation + 4. Inflows – 6. Evaporation – 7. Outflows ________________ = ________________ Population Population

  27. Annual Withdrawals of Ground and Surface Water as a Percent of Total Renewable from SEEAW SEEAW Physical Use Table Withdrawals of ground and surface water 1.i.1 Abstraction from surface water +1.i.2 Abstraction from ground water ________________ ________________ = SEEAW Asset account Total renewable water resources 2. Returns + 3. Precipitation + 4. Inflows – 6. Evaporation – 7. Outflows

  28. Consumption Index from SEEAW SEEAW Physical Supply Table Water consumption 7. Consumption = ________________ ________________ SEEAW Asset account Total renewable water resources 2. Returns + 3. Precipitation + 4. Inflows – 6. Evaporation – 7. Outflows

  29. Indicators for water intensity and productivity from SEEAW

  30. Indicators for opportunities to increase water supply from SEEA

  31. Indicators for cost and price of water supply and wastewater treatment

  32. Indicators of access to and affordability of water and sanitation services E.g. from household expenditure surveys

  33. Links between the World Water Development Report Indicators and SEEAW • World Water Assessment Programme 2006 • 21 of 38 Indicators can be directly derived from the water accounts • An 5 indicators can be partially derived • 12 cannot be derived but can be included as supplementary information. Of these • 4 are social indicators (e.g. urban and rural population) • 3 are related to land areas and could be derived from land accounts • 3 are related to energy and could be derived from energy accounts • Remaining 2 relate to ISO 14001 certification

  34. Data, accounts, indicators and analysis • All of these level are needed to have a complete information system • Because policy makers are not yet familiar with environment accounts, you may find it useful to conduct your own analysis of the accounts or to encourage others to do an analysis Accounting SNA, SEEA, SEEAW

  35. Valuation and indicators • Valuation is the most contentious part of environmental accounting • The hybrid accounts are the starting point for valuation • Compile these using standard SNA techniques • Some other approaches are described in Part II of SEEAW • When presenting data and indicators that rely on valuation you must provide some guidance on interpretation Approach issues of valuation cautiously

  36. Summary • Indicators are important communication tools. They summarise complex information • Indicators are only as good as the data and accounts that underpin them • Indicators need to be interpreted and analysed in the context of other data • Indicators need to built on solid foundation of data

  37. Audiences for information Public Politicians Policy Makers Strategic planners Accounting SNA, SEEA, SEEAW Researchers Indicators are part of communicating information

  38. Contact details Michael Vardon Adviser on Environmental-Economic Accounting United Nations Statistics Division New York 10017 USA Room DC2 1532 Phone: +1 917 367 5391 Fax: +1 917 963 1374 Email: vardon@un.org

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