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Agreeing on an analytical framework: Module

? Helps position the environment in relation to issues of sustainable development; 5

? Helps establish cause-effect relationships qualitatively, and quantitatively supported by data and indicators;
? Provides a communication tool for engaging a multi-sectoral and multidisciplinary group in an
informed manner, by categorizing a set of complex issues and relations; and

? Provides a roadmap and systematic checklist for the IEA authors.

Several common analytical frameworks for environmental analysis exist (Table 2). Some, such as the Abu Dhabi, UAE
drivers-pressures-state-impacts-responses framework, have been developed and tested in national SoE

reporting. Others, such as the orientor framework, are more recent, but hold promise because they are
based on a systems view of ecosystems and economies (Bossel 1999).

Table 2 Alternative analytical frameworks and their advantages and
limitations.

Type Components Advantages and limitations
DPSIR Driver-Pressure-State- Advantage:
Impact-Response
? Simple, intuitive analysis for a single issue.
? Considers human-environment interlinkages.

? Integrated complex environment-socio-economic
issues, analysing the impact of environmental change
on human well-being.

? Brings together multi-stakeholders with disparate
expertise, e.g., social sciences, natural sciences, and
policy and law.

Disadvantage:
? Difficult to see linkages among environmental issues.
? Provides little guidance on the type of impacts that
can occur or the types of policy responses that
might be considered.

IEA Training Manual Workshop for the National Reporting Toolkit (NRT) 17