Drivers and pressures - Untangling the terms commonly used in marine science and policy.
In the marine sciences an increasing number of studies on environmental changes, their causes, and environmental assessments emerged in recent years. Often authors use non-uniform and inconsistent definitions of key terms like driver, threats, pressures etc. Although all of these studies clearly define causal dependencies between the interacting socio-economic and environmental systems in an understandable way, still an overall imprecise wording could induce misunderstanding at higher policy levels when it comes to integrated ecosystems assessments. Therefore we recommend using unified definitions for a better communication between science and management within national, regional and international environmental policies, for example the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). With this article we provide definitions compatible with the driver-pressure-state-impact-response (DPSIR) approach. Although most examples are MSFD related and thus have a marine focus the definitions are intended to be equally applicable for other systems and are usable world-wide. We suggest sticking to these definitions for an easy and simplified knowledge transfer from science to management, since DPSIR model is already accepted as a helpful tool for structuring and communicating ecosystem analyses.
Thünen Institute of Baltic Sea Fisheries, Alter Hafen Süd 2, 18069 Rostock, Germany. Electronic address: daniel.oesterwind@thuenen.de.
Daniel
D
Oesterwind
Thünen Institute of Baltic Sea Fisheries, Alter Hafen Süd 2, 18069 Rostock, Germany. Electronic address: andrea.rau@thuenen.de.
Andrea
A
Rau
Klaipėda University, Marine Science and Technology Centre, H. Manto str. 84, LT 92294 Klaipėda, Lithuania; Coastal and Freshwater Group, Cawthron Institute, 98 Halifax Street East, 7010 Nelson, New Zealand. Electronic address: anastasija.zaiko@jmtc.ku.lt.
Anastasija
A
Zaiko
D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D058735:Environmental Policy; D006801:Humans; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D009626:Terminology as Topic
DPSIR; Definition; Ecosystem-based management; MSFD; Policy