For making good decisions about the state of the environment, relevant information is needed. Indicators can help to obtain this information and are used for measuring, sorting and structuring information and for monitoring different issues.

What are the environmental performance indicators (EPI's)?

Indicators are informational tools. They can be quantitative (e.g. distance, weight, target, amount) or qualitative (type, colour, presence or absence of something) measures against which some aspects of environmental policy performance can be assessed. With the help of indicators data on complex environmental issues can be summarised and trends of these issues can be shown. Indicators can be used to assess local, national and global performance, show its improvement and serve as a signal in case the situation is getting worse.

Why do we need indicators?

Indicators are very useful for measuring, because they simplify, qualify and communicate trends in environmental data. There are several reasons why we need indicators. The first reason is that indicators can measure the extent to which environmental goals are being achieved. Second, indicators help us to monitor environmental change at local level. In case of environmental problems indicators can help to focus attention on key issues, influence the behaviour of people and help governments to set appropriate policy goals.

Limitations for indicators

In spite of the fact that indicators are widely used and help us a lot in assessing environmental information and solving environmental problems, they do have limitations. The most important limitations are:

• Indicators are, by their nature, simplifications of observations. They cannot describe all aspects of every environment. Nor should they be taken to imply causes of environmental trends
• Many indicators will be sensitive to short-term environmental changes
• Sometimes the information for best indicators is not available, that makes data less representative
• Quantitative indicators can be sometimes more representative and easy to apply than qualitative. But quantitative indicators can be associated with rather difficult measures
• In some cases indicators can be interpreted in different ways depending on conditions of the environment.

Useful documents from EoPorts Foundation

Throughout the duration of ECOPORTS project, 2 teams of students have worked on presenting a final list of indicators ready to be used by port managers. The following reports have been produced:

1. Environmental Performance Indicators in European Ports, May 2003
Writers: Antonis Michail, Alexis de Leffe, Sofiya Lukyanchuk, Sviatlana Panasevich, Ksenia Shelest, Nadiya Shevchenko, and John van Duursen

2. Evaluation of Environmental Performance Indicators in European Ports, April 2005
Writers: Stavros Stamatoukos, Dario Paolo Cavalcoli, Gabrielle van Durme, Michael Berends, Krisztina Lendvai, Sanila Velikeloth

3. Selecting and Using Environmental Performance Indicators: A Guide for Port Environmental Managers, April 2005
Writers: Stavros Stamatoukos, Dario Paolo Cavalcoli, Gabrielle van Durme, Michael Berends, Krisztina Lendvai, Sanila Velikeloth

The reports are available to download for the Network Partners.
Learn how to become a Network Partner.