(from: the letter from the Centre to the National Research Council (CNR), concluding the delivery of the results concerning the update of the INDI-AMB-1 research)

The Planning Studies Center, after having concluded the “first systematic review” of – urban and natural – environmental indicators in relation to the programmes of the “Ten-Year-Plan-For-the-Environment” (INDI-AMB-1 research / DECAMB), whilst being aware of, on the one hand, the importance of the studied subject and, on the other hand, the almost permanent need to update the results of the research, has requested a grant from the National Research Council (CNR) in order to keep them from having to stop the research project and to enable them to continue the exploration of the environmental indicators, which was initiated by a contract with the Ministry of Budget. The research project has been entitled: “Long Term Environmental Planning: Indicators and Parameters” and classified as INDI-AMB-2.

The proposed research dealt with delivering an organic and systematic set of parameters and indicators (used or to-be-used) by means of different experiments of environmental planning in the medium and long term (in various countries and by various international bodies).

The CNR has been asked for a grant equivalent to the cost of a research scholarship for one year at low expenditures.

The CNR has assigned a scholarship (1993) amounting to less than a third of the requested amount. The grant received was not sufficient to even start the previously projected work.

The scientific council of the Planning Studies Center decided to wait for possible further funds in the coming year in order to achieve an appropriate level of grants to make a sufficient research possible.

After having proposed the same project again in the years 1994 and 1995 without having received the desired response, the Center proceeded to revise the project with the aim of keeping that year's deadline.

Fortunately, the theme, which was proposed by the Planning Studies Centre to the Environment Committee of the CNR and consisted of the environmental impact indicators in the medium and long term, has been carried forward (by the Planning Studies Centre) in the framework of other researches performed for the European Economic Community.

These researches allowed the Centre to encompass an important dossier on environmental indicators, which was widely unknown and marginal even within international literature. Hence, the means received by the CNR in 1993 have been used to achieve a joint result by applying new funds that later were received from other sources.

Concluding this research Report, the results of the joint research on the Environmental Indicators , effectuated by the CNR, the Ministry of Environment and the European Union, are reproduced. These results have expended means as well as human and material resources far beyond the amount of the grants of the institution's donors; therefore, voluntary work, for which the Centre – being a non-profit organisation – usually acts as a catalyst, accounts for a major part of the means.

The grants received, however, have helped to constitute an interesting basis for the approach of the research. For all that, the Center is very grateful.

The research following the structure of the one performed in 1992 for the Ministry of Environment has been divided into three parts:

•  General aspects about the use of environmental planning indicators;

•  Environmental indicators in different sectorial programmes;

•  Use of environmental indicators for specific purposes related to environmental economic accounting;

It would be very opportune if the CNR gave us the financial means to enable the publication of the results of this joint research, thus making room for the much-proclaimed process of putting the research findings into practice, which is something we have always been hoping for.