Developing a Conceptual Framework for Environmental Health Tracking in Victoria, Australia

Abstract

Victoria’s (Australia) Environment Protection Authority (EPA), the state’s environmental regulator, has recognized the need to develop an Environmental Health Tracking System (EHTS) to better understand environmental health relationships. To facilitate the process of developing an EHTS; a linkage-based conceptual framework was developed to link routinely collected environmental and health data to better understand environmental health relationships. This involved researching and drawing on knowledge from previous similar projects. While several conceptual frameworks have been used to organize data to support the development of an environmental health tracking system, Driving Force–Pressure–State–Exposure–Effect–Action (DPSEEA) was identified as the most broadly applied conceptual framework. Exposure and effects are two important components of DPSEEA, and currently, exposure data are not available for the EHTS. Therefore, DPSEEA was modified to the Driving Force–Pressure–Environmental Condition–Health Impact–Action (DPEHA) conceptual framework for the proposed Victorian EHTS as there is relevant data available for tracking. The potential application of DPEHA for environmental health tracking was demonstrated through case studies. DPEHA will be a useful tool to support the implementation of Victoria’s environmental health tracking system for providing timely and scientific evidence for EPA and other decision makers in developing and evaluating policies for protecting public health and the environment in Victoria.

Conceptual frameworks regarding waterborne diseases in sub-Saharan Africa and the need of for a new approach to urban exposomes

“…From the literature, we have mainly three conceptual frameworks dealing with environmental issues: the Pressure-State-Response ( PSR), the Driving forces-Pressures -State -Impact -Response ( DPSIR) and the Driving Force -Pressures -State -Exposure -Effect -Action ( DPSEEA) [13].…”

“…Among all these frameworks, the DPSEEA is the most suitable to address urban waterborne diseases issues. Because " a conceptual framework is required to accurately and precisely identify relationship between sources that E p u b a h e a d o f p r i n t influence change in the environment, and health impacts that can be linked these causes support effective intervention" [13].…”

“…In addition, a conceptual framework provides a tool for assessing the systematic context that collects, visualises, and analyses the connections between the environment, human health, and potential intervention policies [ 9 , 10 ]. A suitable conceptual framework not only serves as an effective tool to display the relationships among the factors that have an impact on environmental changes and the underlying consequences on public health, but also shows potential interventions throughout a system [ 11 ].…”

Environmental Hazards and Behavior Change: User Perspectives on the Usability and Effectiveness of the AirRater Smartphone App

“…Given the app’s capacity to support both individual and public health outcomes, the Driving Force-Pressure-State-Exposure-Effect-Action (DPSEEA) framework represents a useful conceptual framework for the app (see Figure S3 in the Supplementary Material ). The framework is commonly used to understand linkages between the natural environment and individual or public health outcomes [ 33 , 34 ] and demonstrates how AirRater can be utilized to support environmental health objectives. Specifically, the DPSEEA framework depicts AirRater’s role as an intervention designed to support individuals, the community and government agencies in achieving positive health outcomes in the face of environmental hazards in a changing climate.…”

Urban green infrastructure health assessment, based on landsat 8 remote sensing and entropy landscape metrics

“…The WHO, the International Agency for Sustainable Development, the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements, and the International Joint Commission are the first to establish indicators of urban sustainable development and urban ecosystem health. The research literature shows that the health indicator system is constructed using the "Pressure-State-Response (PSR)" as the conceptual model, the "Driving Force-Pressure-State-Exposure-Effect-Action" (DPSEEA) as the mode, analysis on the model of the "Driving force-Pressure-State-Impact-Response" (DPSIR) (Edokpolo et al, 2019;X. Hu et al, 2021;Lima et al, 2017;Maria et al, 2019).…”