Lars Carlsen

The DPSIR (Driving forces, Pressures, State, Impacts, Responses) framework takes into account a chain of past and present situations as well as suggests future activities as responses aiming at improving the environmental health. Thus, DPSIR constitutes an advantageous directive for integrated environmental assessments. The driving forces are centered on economic sectors and human activities, i.e. activities in the society that directly or indirectly are causing the pressures on the environment. The pressures on the environment develop from the human activities that are associated with the above mentioned ‘needs’ (driving forces). The state refers to the environmental and human health as a result of the pressures. The impacts refer to environmental and economic factors changing the physical, chemical or biological states of the environment as well as impacts on human health. The responses comprise a priori the reactions by authorities, regulators or society in general to the changes induced through the other element in the DPSIR chain. The paper will discuss the qualification of the DPSIR approach by applying partial order ranking (POR) to the single stages of the assessment, eventually applying the hierarchical partial ranking (HPOR) methodology in order to select the more appropriate responses. Further the paper will describe the possible involvement of expert groups in the assessment process applying a partial order based DPSIR approach. Keywords: DPSIR, Integrated Environmental Assessment, Partial Order Ranking, Hasse Diagrams.