ideas to implement effective emission reduction measures at local, regional, and
national level. This methodological point of view also allows to analyse the existing
integrated approaches.
2.1.1 The DPSIR Framework Concept
To comply with the above aims requires the key elements of an Integrated
Assessment Modelling (IAM) approach to be carefully defined. These elements will
be derived by the general EEA DPSIR scheme (EEA 2012) and a holistic approach.
The overall framework should:
• Be structured in a modular way, with data flows connecting each building block;
• Be interconnected to higher decision levels (i.e. national and European scales);
• Consider the approaches available to evaluate IAM variability (taking into
account both the concept of “uncertainty”, that is related to “variables/model
results” that can be compared with real data, and the concept of “indefiniteness”,
related to the impacts of future policy decisions)
• Be sufficiently general to include the current experiences/approaches (presented
in the next chapter) and,
• Show, for each module of the framework, different “levels of implementation
complexity”.
The last two points are quite important. The idea is that, looking at the different
“levels of complexity” defined for each DPSIR block, one should be able to grasp in
which “direction” to move to improve the detail (and, hopefully, the quality) of his
own IAM implementation. This should translate into the possibility to assess the
pros and cons for enhancing the level of detail of the description of each block in a
given IAM implementation, and thus compare possible improvement with the
related effort. The final idea is to be able to classify existing European plans and
projects, with the aim not to provide an assessment value of the plans themselves, but
to show possible “directions” of improvement, for each building block of each plan.
In the next section, at first, a general overview of the proposed framework will
be provided. Then, each building block will be described in detail, focusing on
input, functionality, output, synergies among scales, and uncertainty and defining
three possible tiers of different complexity.
2.2 A General Overview of the IAM Framework
The DPSIR analytical concept (Fig. 2.1) is the causal framework for describing the
interactions between society and environment, adopted by the European
Environment Agency. The building blocks of this scheme are:
10
N. Blond et al.
national level. This methodological point of view also allows to analyse the existing
integrated approaches.
2.1.1 The DPSIR Framework Concept
To comply with the above aims requires the key elements of an Integrated
Assessment Modelling (IAM) approach to be carefully defined. These elements will
be derived by the general EEA DPSIR scheme (EEA 2012) and a holistic approach.
The overall framework should:
• Be structured in a modular way, with data flows connecting each building block;
• Be interconnected to higher decision levels (i.e. national and European scales);
• Consider the approaches available to evaluate IAM variability (taking into
account both the concept of “uncertainty”, that is related to “variables/model
results” that can be compared with real data, and the concept of “indefiniteness”,
related to the impacts of future policy decisions)
• Be sufficiently general to include the current experiences/approaches (presented
in the next chapter) and,
• Show, for each module of the framework, different “levels of implementation
complexity”.
The last two points are quite important. The idea is that, looking at the different
“levels of complexity” defined for each DPSIR block, one should be able to grasp in
which “direction” to move to improve the detail (and, hopefully, the quality) of his
own IAM implementation. This should translate into the possibility to assess the
pros and cons for enhancing the level of detail of the description of each block in a
given IAM implementation, and thus compare possible improvement with the
related effort. The final idea is to be able to classify existing European plans and
projects, with the aim not to provide an assessment value of the plans themselves, but
to show possible “directions” of improvement, for each building block of each plan.
In the next section, at first, a general overview of the proposed framework will
be provided. Then, each building block will be described in detail, focusing on
input, functionality, output, synergies among scales, and uncertainty and defining
three possible tiers of different complexity.
2.2 A General Overview of the IAM Framework
The DPSIR analytical concept (Fig. 2.1) is the causal framework for describing the
interactions between society and environment, adopted by the European
Environment Agency. The building blocks of this scheme are:
10
N. Blond et al.