This page answers a question "What is happenning?", presenting facts about environmental quality and conditions expressed in terms of e.g. air or water quality levels, crime rate, etc. (The page corresponds to the "S" part of DPSIR, and in some cases may be merged with information about impacts, see discussion of the DPSIR framework.)


Presentation on this page will normally consist of text explaining the situation, and (preview) graphics such as trends, maps, diagrams etc. displaying specific indicators. For each indicator, a preview can be linked to a separate page where a full-screen graphic and information about this indicator are, ideally with links to related data tables and sources of information.

It is a challenge to reach here a balance between the amount of text and graphics (not too much or too little of either), as well as to make sure that text and graphics are not separate from each other but are used in a complementary way to explain each other.

At a later stage, a list of possible indicators for each ISSUE will be included into this tool to help CEROI cities to select or develop their own indicators for their reports. Below is an example of how a list of possible "state" indicators may look for the Air Quality chapter (here for illustrative purposes only):

• number of days per annum that WHO standards are exceeded, and average annual measured concentrations for SO2, Nox, CO, O3, SPM, PB (UNCHS 1995)
• ambient air quality (ESD 97)
• cover of lichens on tree branches, concentration of sulphur in needles (M.Hakanen 1995)