Driving Forces

This Part describes the more fundamental and ubiquitous environmental pressures, known as Driving Forces. Understanding the driving forces of environmental change is essential to the design of interventions and strategies for reducing their impacts. These ‘driving forces’, are Climate Change, Population Growth & Settlements and Economic Growth & Consumption.

Driving forces are indicative precursors of change and may be well defined, and closely associated with the implications under consideration (such as local rainfall on fire risk), or they may involve more complex and diffuse interactions arising from institutional or cultural influences. A direct driving force unequivocally influences ecosystem processes and can therefore be identified and measured to differing degrees of accuracy. Climate Change is a direct driver.

An indirect driver operates more diffusely, often by altering one or more direct drivers, and its influence is established by understanding its effect on direct drivers. Population Growth & Settlements and Economic Growth & Consumption are indirect drivers. Although we know they are having some level of effect, current economic and decision-making structures mean that it is difficult to quantify the precise level of impact these drivers have on ecosystem services, and therefore on human well-being.

Environmental changes usually result from multiple, interacting drivers operating across a range of geographic and time scales. This Part provides an overview of the key vulnerabilities for Victoria that arise from these three key drivers, as well as exploring key barriers to reducing negative environmental impacts caused by these drivers.

Driving Forces (PDF - 589 KB)