ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the technical tasks of developing an Environmental Audit (EA) strategy. It examines the background and evolution of approaches to EA. It explores how EA can be taken forward on a staged basis, keeping the tasks manageable while still maintaining the essential overview. It explains the types of audits, with the major distinction being between internal auditing (IA) and state of the environment (SoE) reporting. The process combining IA and SoE reporting is referred to as a full audit. The chapter elaborates on the specific requirements of each of the stages in the strategic process. It presents and evaluates a management framework that takes account of some of the realities of policy development, decision-making and action implementation and tries to direct these towards producing change in the right direction. It seeks to explain the role of targets and indicators in helping define local authorities operational objectives for EA.
