Waimakariri project trial
Project trial: using the PSR framework
Purpose and process
Waimakariri District Council held a one-day workshop to trial the Pressure-State-Response (PSR) framework for developing indicators to monitor urban amenity. The workshop focused on developing indicators for Rangiora, a township of 10,000 people.
Two priority AERs were chosen for the workshop, and the PSR framework was used to develop indicators for each one. The AERs were:
- housing density and the maintenance of low density
- the character of the business area
Choosing these two AERs enabled a focus on the business and the residential environment.
Using the framework
The workshop went through the following steps for each AER:
- defining the issue
- identifying policy goals related to the issue
- identifying policy gaps related to the issue
- identifying the state (condition) of the urban environment affected by the issue
- identifying the pressures that gave rise to the issue
- identifying the responses—the potential methods that could be used to manage the issue
- identifying possible indicators to measure the state, pressures, and responses
- ranking the possible indicators against indicator criteria
- checking whether the best-ranked indicators are policy relevant
- assessing the policy relevant indicators against indicator criteria
- writing draft indicators
- choosing a possible indicator
- checking the chosen indicator against selection criteria
- filling out the nuts and bolts for using the indicator
The workshop showed that developing indicators is an integral part of managing urban amenity. The PSR framework includes the step of choosing methods (responses) to manage urban amenity, and indicators need to be chosen to measure these methods.
Lessons learned
These techniques helped make the workshop effective:
- using outcome-focused AERs as a starting point
- following each step in a systematic process
- avoiding getting too ‘bogged down’ in the detail of each step
- thinking outside the statutory planning area
- describing each indicator in a very clear and unambigous way
Resource: PSR framework [Word doc 195kb]
