Knowledge Framework
Purpose
This section documents the analytical taxonomy used throughout the platform.
Rather than describing the processing methodology, it explains the conceptual framework used to organize environmental knowledge.
It provides the reference definitions for every analytical entity used across the platform, ensuring that dashboards, maps, project profiles and statistical analyses all rely on a common semantic model.
The Knowledge Framework is intended as a reference manual. Users may consult individual sections independently rather than reading the document sequentially.
The Analytical Model
Each project is organized through a multidimensional analytical model.
Each analytical dimension describes a different aspect of the same development intervention.
Together, these dimensions provide a richer representation than a traditional single-axis sector classification.
The analytical model is composed of:
- Environmental Themes
- Thematic Focus
- Intervention Areas
- Cross-cutting Flags
- Donor Classification
- Geographic Entities
- Financial Concepts
These dimensions complement one another rather than forming a hierarchical taxonomy.
Environmental Themes
The Environmental Theme represents the principal environmental or climate-related challenge addressed by an activity.
Each project is assigned to one primary Environmental Theme.
This represents the highest-level analytical classification used throughout the platform.
Current Environmental Themes are:
- Water
- Ocean
- Climate
- Biodiversity
- Agroecology
Water
Definition
Activities primarily addressing water resources, water services, water governance and sustainable water management.
Typical interventions
- Drinking water
- Water supply
- Sanitation
- Irrigation
- Groundwater
- Watershed management
- Water governance
Related Intervention Areas
- Water
- Agriculture
- Governance
- Health
Ocean
Definition
Activities supporting marine and coastal ecosystems together with sustainable blue economy initiatives.
Typical interventions
- Marine conservation
- Coastal resilience
- Fisheries
- Blue economy
- Marine science
Climate
Definition
Activities whose principal objective is climate adaptation, resilience, mitigation, climate services or climate finance.
Typical interventions
- Climate adaptation
- Climate mitigation
- Early warning systems
- Disaster risk reduction
- Climate finance
- Desertification
Biodiversity
Definition
Activities protecting ecosystems, habitats and biological diversity.
Typical interventions
- Conservation
- Protected areas
- Forests
- Wildlife
- Ecosystem restoration
- Nature-based solutions
Agroecology
Definition
Activities supporting sustainable agricultural production and resilient food systems.
Typical interventions
- Sustainable agriculture
- Agroforestry
- Food systems
- Soil health
- Seeds
- Agricultural water
- Climate-resilient agriculture
Thematic Focus
Within each Environmental Theme, projects may be classified into a more specific analytical category.
Thematic Focus provides additional analytical detail whenever sufficient evidence exists.
Unlike Environmental Themes, Thematic Focus is intentionally conservative.
When evidence is insufficient to support a more specific assignment, projects remain classified as Other.
This should be interpreted as:
Sufficient evidence for the Environmental Theme exists, but insufficient evidence exists for a more specific specialization.
The distribution of Other therefore represents an indicator for future refinement of the analytical knowledge base rather than a quality issue.
Intervention Areas
Environmental objectives and implementation sectors are intentionally separated.
The Intervention Area identifies where project activities primarily take place.
Examples include:
- Water
- Agriculture
- Forestry
- Ocean
- Biodiversity
- Energy
- Health
- Education
- Governance
- Humanitarian
- Transport
- Urban
- Livelihoods & Employment
- Digital Technology
- Multi-domain
- Other
This separation allows users to distinguish between:
“What environmental challenge is addressed?”
and
“In which development sector is the intervention implemented?”
Cross-cutting Flags
Many development projects include transversal components extending across several Environmental Themes and Intervention Areas.
These transversal characteristics are represented through Cross-cutting Flags.
Current flags include:
- Governance
- Capacity Building
- Research
- Data, Statistics & Information Systems
- Finance & Investment
Projects may contain multiple Cross-cutting Flags simultaneously.
Flags are complementary analytical dimensions and never replace the Environmental Theme.
Donor Classification
The platform distinguishes between the environmental profile of a project and the institutional characteristics of its funding organizations.
Donor Classification identifies the nature of the reporting or funding organization.
Typical categories include:
- Bilateral
- Multilateral
- NGO
- Foundation
- Private Sector
- Academic Institution
- Government Agency
- Other
These categories support comparative portfolio analysis across funding sources.
Geographic Entities
The platform distinguishes several geographic concepts.
Country
Activities implemented within one specific country.
Multi-country
Activities involving more than one country.
Regional
Activities explicitly reported as regional or analytically aggregated at regional level.
Examples include:
- West Africa
- East Africa
- Central Africa (Middle Africa)
- Southern Africa
- Continental Africa
Regional portfolios therefore represent analytical groupings rather than administrative reporting structures.
Financial Concepts
The platform uses standardized financial indicators.
Total Budget
Reported project value.
Annualized Budget
Analytical distribution of total budget across implementation years.
Allocated Budget
Budget proportion assigned to individual countries when multi-country allocations are available.
Reference Currency
Normalized euro value used for comparison.
Analytical Relationships
The analytical dimensions are complementary.
This profile describes one project from multiple independent perspectives.
Why This Framework Matters
Traditional reporting structures generally classify projects using only one or two dimensions.
The semantic framework instead keeps environmental objectives, implementation sectors, institutional characteristics and transversal dimensions independent but interconnected.
This allows users to answer analytical questions such as:
Which Environmental Themes receive the largest investments? Which Intervention Areas contribute most to climate resilience? Which donors invest primarily in biodiversity? Which Cross-cutting Flags are most frequently associated with water governance? How do different environmental themes overlap with implementation sectors?
The result is a more flexible, transparent and explainable analytical model capable of supporting portfolio analysis, strategic planning and evidence-based decision making.