NEIP: NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATORS PROGRAMME

Phase 3: Selection of Indicators

Phase 3 considered the selection and development of indicators for state of the environment reporting in South Africa. Once the key environmental issues had been identified through Phase 2 and existing indicator sets throughout the world had been reviewed, the process of indicator selection and development began. Indicators were assessed for their suitability for use in South African conditions, and only those indicators considered suitable for our particular environment were considered further. In those cases where no suitable existing indicators could be found, appropriate new indicators were considered for development.

	Indicator Level	Description	No.
	1	Adequate data available	34
	2	Additional data required	57
	3	No data available	11
	Total		102

The core set of environmental indicators for South Africa were divided into eight different themes - largely related to the National SOE Reporting themes - each theme addressing several issues for which indicators have been developed.

The indicators were also categorised into three different levels based on the availability of data for each particular indicator. The indicator levels are defined as follows:

Level 1: adequate data are available now for all components of the indicator and can be used to support the indicator without significant additional costs;

Level 2: the indicator is presently feasible, but cannot be provided without additional investment in the data collection process; and

Level 3: no data currently exists for the indicator, and there is no immediate intention to collect the data.