Challenges of eEnvironmentChallenges of eEnvironment (CAHDE) in 2007, [Nagy, Legat, Hřebíček]. ICT-ENSURE Workshop, Prague, March 26, 2009 eEurope challenges for eGovernment;Governments,

Towards eEnvironment, Prague, March 27, 2009

Challenges of eEnvironmentChallenges of Challenges of eEnvironmenteEnvironment

Jiří HřebíčekJiří Hřebíček

ICT-ENSURE Workshop, Prague, March 26, 2009

CONTENTCONTENT

INTRODUCTION

DEVELOPMENT OF eENVIRONMENTSISE, the Single Information Space in Europe for the Environment , its history and development

SEIS, the Shared Environmental Information System, its history and development

GMES, the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security, its history and development

CONCLUSIONS


IntroductionIntroduction

“Information is the currency of democracy”. As it is stipulated in Directive 2003/35/EC: “Effective public participation in the taking of decisions enables the public to express, and the decision-maker to take account of opinions and concerns which may be relevant to those decisions ...”. To achieve effective public participation in the decision-making affecting the environment, the public must have access to environmental information, data and knowledge.

The White paper of eEnvironment (Electronic access to environmental information– an important fundament for e-democracy and environmental protection) was elaborated by the Ad hoc Committee on eDemocracy of the Council of Europe (CAHDE) in 2007, [Nagy, Legat, Hřebíček].


eEuropeeEurope challenges for challenges for eGovernmenteGovernment

Governments, in cooperation with other stakeholders are encouraged to use and promote ICTs as an instrument for environmental protection and the sustainable development and use of natural resources.Government, civil society and the private sector are encouraged to initiate actions and implement projects and programmes for sustainable production and consumption, energy efficiency and security, and the minimization of climate change with using ICTs.Establish monitoring systems, using ICTs, to forecast and monitor the impact of natural and man-made disasters, particularly in developing countries, large developed countries and small economies.


eEnvironmenteEnvironment

The eEnvironment is integrated into eParticipation and eGovernmentinitiative of European Union and it is going to be one of the fundaments of eDemocracy, see „Explanatory memorandum to Recommendation CM/Rec(2009)1 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on eDemocracy”, from 18. Februar 2009 with

Principle 40. “eEnvironment is the use…”, where is described:



87. eEnvironment includes the use of ICT-based systems for access to and the dissemination of environmental data and information as well as the establishment of ICT-supported monitoring systems and repositories for environmental knowledge. eEnvironment thus makes it possible to forecast and monitor the impact of natural and manmade factors and other pressures on the environment, and to determine the current state of the environment, which in turn makes it easier to formulate potential responses because it is possible to call on a broader, more widely disseminated knowledge base.



88. Spatial planning and spatial cohesionare both basic components of the eEnvironment field, and ones that constitute major challenges for nation states and regional and local authorities. In May 2008, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe adopted a report and recommendation on “Electronic democracy and deliberative consultation on urban projects”.



89. The UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Mattersincludes provisions calling on contracting parties to use electronic information tools to provide public access to environmental information. To this end, the Parties to the Convention set up a task force to facilitate implementation of the Convention through the effective use of electronic information tools designed to provide public access to environmental information.


GMES GMES andand eEnvironmenteEnvironment

Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) initiative of EUrepresents a concerted effort to bring data and information providers together with users, so they can better understand each other and make environmental and security-related information available to the people who need it through new enhanced services.


eEnvironmenteEnvironment legallegal basis basis

The eEnvironment legal basis is the Aarhus Convention, which is implemented in the European Community and supported by the EU Directives: 2003/4/EC: Public Access to Environmental Information;2003/35/EC: Public Participation;2003/98/EC: Re-use of Public Sector Information; 2007/2/EC: Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE)

andCOM(2008) 46 final: Towards a Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS)COM(2005)565: GMES From Concept to Reality COM(2008)748: GMES: We care for a Safer Planeti2010 and Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), SISEGEOSS (Global Earth Observation System of Systems) 10-Year Implementation Plan


eEnvironmenteEnvironment and its impact on and its impact on political democracypolitical democracy

Control effect: An effective legal protection for citizen implies that decision-relevant information is available for all of them. Access to environmental information provides each individual with the possibility to control the compliance with environmental legislation and to point out deficits in the implementation. Participation effect: The right to access environmental information increases transparency and allows a better public participation in governmental decisions. Education effect (awareness effect): Knowledge regarding the state of the environment is not limited to public authorities; hence this leads to an increased public acceptance of measures for environmental protection. Prevention effect: The general right of publication of environmental information should discourage potential polluters of the environment, because this bears the risk of negative image effects or legal problems.Standardization effect: The European acquis and initiatives dealing with access to environmental and spatial information (INSPIRE and GMES) together with the development of SEIS provide EU-wide comparable principles regarding access to environmental information.


eEnvironment eEnvironment in relationship within relationship withSISESISE,, SEISSEIS, , andand GMESGMES

The proposal of a development of a Single Information Space for Europe in the Environment (SISE) was specified by DG INFSO in the Work Programme for ICT research in the 7th European Research Framework Programme (FP7) for 2007/08. Thus, SISE realisation could substantially support the development of implementation tools for SEIS and eEnvironment.SEIS supported by FP7 research projects developing SISE will provide a kind of an integrated environmental information spacein which environmental data and information will be combined with knowledge for decision support of environmental protection and sustainable development.


eEnvironment eEnvironment in relationship within relationship withSISESISE,, SEISSEIS, , andand GMESGMES

2005 communication COM(2005)565 GMES From Concept to Reality, the EC clearly positioned users as the drivers of GMES.

The communication COM(2008)748 GMES: We care for a Safer Planet reaffirmed COM(2005)565.

The EC, itself an important user of GMES, was assigned to coordinate user requirements and identify and develop services relying both on in-situ and remote sensing data.

Thus, GMES realisation could substantially support the development of monitoringtools for SEIS and eEnvironment.


eEnvironmenteEnvironment ssynergiesynergies ofof SISE with SISE with GMES, GEOSS, INSPIRE and SEISGMES, GEOSS, INSPIRE and SEIS


Evolution of environmental information flowEvolution of environmental information flow(EEA)(EEA)

AcquisEnv./Sector

Policy(TERM, EERM,AERM,

CSI, SDI)

Strategic Policies

6th EAP SDS(Climate Change/Adaptation

Biodiversity / EcosystemsEnvironment & Health

Sustainable Use of Resources)

1970s 2020

Complianceassessments

Indicatorassessments

(DPSIR)

Integratedassessments

InIn-- situ situ statistics statistics

geospatial geospatial modelling modelling

InspireInspireGMESGMES


History of SISEHistory of SISEIn 2005 the i2010 strategy: A European Information Society for growth and employment was launched by the Commission as a framework for addressing the main challenges and developments in the Information Society and media sectors up to 2010. It promotes an open and competitive digital economy and emphasises ICT as a driver of inclusion and quality of life. The first objective of i2010 is to establish a Single European Information Space offering affordable and secure high-bandwidth communications, rich and diverse content and digital services. Action in this area combines regulatory and other instruments at the Commission’s disposal to create a modern, market-oriented regulatory framework for the digital economy.The history of SISE began in 2005 with the formulation of the objective “ICT-2007.6.3: ICT for Environmental Management and Energy Efficiency” in EU’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). Here, the Single Information Space in Europe for the Environment (SISE) was introduced, in which environmental institutions, service providers and citizens can collaborate or use available information without technical restraints. This also constituted a platform for eEnvironment.


History of SISEHistory of SISE

The aim of SISE bases on an ICT research vision for real-time connectivity between multiple environmental resources, which would allow seamless cross-system search as well as cross-border, multi-scale, multi-disciplinary data acquisition, pooling and sharing. Furthermore, it would allow for service-chaining on the web, thereby stimulating data integration into innovative value-added web services. Targets of SISE were specified during several workshops organised by the Commission in 2007 and 2008.To support the ambitious efforts for integration of environmental information in Europe several projects are now in progress. Examples from the FP7 ICT Work Programme are the GIGAS project (GEOSS, INSPIRE and GMES Action in Support) and ICT-ENSURE, a support action in the area of “ICT for Environmental Sustainability Research”. The mission of ICT-ENSURE is to better network national and international environmental research programmes and build up a web based information system for access to the contents of environmental informatics literature and programmes and to ICT relevant sustainability research.

[1] http://www.ict-ensure.eu


Development of SISEDevelopment of SISE

In addition to research activities, the Commission has recognized that ICTs and ICT-based innovations may provide one of the potentially most cost-effective means for MSs to achieve the 2020 target. There are two Communications adopted in May 2008 [COM(2008) 241] and in March 2009 [COM(2009) 111]. They are a first step towards creating a policy framework that will allow proposing in the research of SISE, that the energy-saving potential of ICTs will be widely recognized and exploited. Call 4 of the FP7 with its topic 4.6 Challenge 6: ICT for Mobility, Environmental Sustainability and Energywas announced in November 2008. In addition, there is another objective ICT-2009. 6.4 ICT for Environmental Services and Climate Change Adaptation with a special sub-topic:

b) Flexible discovery and chaining of distributed environmental services.


Development of SISEDevelopment of SISEThe following prioritisation of topics in the 4th calls of ICT for Sustainable Growth Unit in FP7, CIP and other instruments (such as Calls for Tender) were identified to progress future research and innovation actions on SISE:Flexible chaining of distributed environmental services

Methods and protocols for service discovery and chainingAutomated data fusion, services and quantitative quality assessmentSemantics, thesauri, ontology services and standardisationChaining of models, predictive tools, including the characterisation of the propagation of uncertainty in chained modelsOn-demand distributed geo-processing and servicesInteractive, Web-based 3D/4D analysis and visualisation toolsIntegration of heterogeneous geo-spatial sources, Web 2.0 collaborative community and semantically enhanced services.Tools for interactive usable and useful contextualised user interfaces.


Development of SISEDevelopment of SISEICT tools for an easy discovery of environmental service nodes on the web and their on demand adaptive chaining (or composition) taking full advantage of international open standards will be essential elements for SISE. These will include generic semantics frameworks and dynamic ontology services for the discovery of and the access to distributed environmental resources in a multilingual multi-domain context. SISE will also include methods and protocols for service chaining and for the management of the effects of uncertainty propagation through service chaining.


Development of SISEDevelopment of SISEGenerally, projects should be driven by the possibility for a range of users, including non ICT-skilled users, to plug-in their own use cases and get access to customised information and decision support. Solutions shall be validated over different scenarios and allow for continued collaborative development by federated user communities.The expected impact of projects is a contribution to a SISE in which environmental actors, service providers and citizens can collaborate through improved systems connectivity and semantic interoperability. At the same time, they should contribute to the development of SEIS and support the implementation of the INSPIRE Directive(2007/2/EC).


History of SEISHistory of SEIS

Preparatory discussions with EU Member States on possible approaches to improve environmental monitoring and reporting started in 2004 at meetings of the Environment Policy Review Group (EPRG). In 2005 the Commission outlined a vision for a Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS). It addressed increased sharing and access to environmental information, improvements in monitoring and modernised and streamlined reporting systems.Activities at EU level to implement this vision have continued jointly led by the Group of four (Go4)[1] in consultation with Member States mainly through the European Environment Agency (EEA) and Eurostat structures. The involved organisations agreed on a Technical Arrangement on the establishment of 10 environmental data centres.In February 2008, the Commission adopted aCommunication Towards a Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS), COM(2008) 46 final.

[1] DG Environment, European Environment Agency (EEA), Eurostatand the Joint Research Centre (JRC)


Scope of SEISScope of SEIS

Improve

Modernise

Streamline

the present

information

systems


Principles of SEISPrinciples of SEIS

Data and information should be:

managed as close as possible to its source;

collected once and shared with others for manypurposes;

readily available to public authorities and enable them to easily fulfil reporting obligations;

accesible to enable end-users to make comparisons at the appropriate geographic scale and to participate meaningfully in the development and implementation of environmental policy;

available to the general public after due consideration of the appropriate level of aggregation, given possible confidentiality constraints, and at national level in the national language(s).


eReportingeReporting

The Commission in collaboration with the Member States (MSs) and the EEA, is currently preparing a legal proposal focusing more specifically on modernising the way in which reporting obligations from environmental legislation are made available using cutting-edge ICT Internet technology.The proposal will offer a legal basis for an integrated and sustainable EU-wide eReporting System in partnership between the European Institutions (Commission/EEA) and the MSs. The concept for the EU eReporting system is based on the SEIS principles of a decentralised system and builds on the experience with the implementation of the INSPIRE. It will be composed of web-based registers providing access to the information at national level, and of a web-portal operating at EU level. MSs will have the flexibility to build their national registers on a centrally operated content repository or to interconnect existing decentralised informationsystems and content repositories, held in various locations. The implementation of the eReporting System shall make use of already available infrastructures, both at EU and Member States levels.


Live Information SystemsThe current data flows

Member states Organisations Member states Organisations

MS

MS

MS

MS

MS

EEA

OECD

UNEP

Data reporting

Data reporting

Data reporting

Data reporting

Data reporting

MS

MS

MS

MS

MS

EEA

OECD

UNEP

From Reporting to Online ServicesFrom Reporting to Online Services


Development of SEISDevelopment of SEISThere are 10 data centres working on specific tasks of the

SEIS. European data centres have specific functions: Expert services; Applications; System-to-system servicesand Data hosting


Development of SEISDevelopment of SEIS

AirClimate Change

WaterNature & Biodiversity

Land use

SoilsForests

WastesNatural ResourcesIntegrated Product Policy

Environmental PolicyDG ENV

Environment Directorate-General

EEAEuropeanEnvironmentAgency

JRCEuropeanCommission -JointResearchCentre

EurostatStatistical Office of the European Communities

Go4

Gro

up o

f fou

r

EIONETEuropean

Environment Information and

observation Network

i2010A European

Information Society for growth and employment

ICT PSPInformation and Communication Technologies Policy support Programme

REPORTNET

ETC’sEuropean

TopicCentres

FP7Seventh European

Research Framework Programme

DG INFSOInformation Society& Media Directorate-General

FP7 Projects

CIP

Competitiveness and Innovation

Framework Programme

GIGASGEOSS, INSPIRE and GMES an Action in Support

Informatic aspectsInformation SystemsGeographic Information Systems Information managementDatabasesInteroperabilityWeb technologiesSemantic WebService oriented architecturesMultilingual ThesauriMobile SystemsSimulation and modellingVisualisationLocation based content etc.

NESISNetwork to enhance European Environmental Shared and Interoperable Info mation Systemr

other topics:Energy efficiencyEnergy ManagementEnvironment managementRisk managementLocation based environment and health serviceSustainable use of natural resourcesSensor networks

GIGASGEOSS, INSPIRE and GMES an Action in Support

ICT-ENSURE European ICT for Environmental SustainabilityResearch

Dat

a C

entre

s

GeodataInfrastructure


Elements for SEISElements for SEIS

A key step in implementing SEIS and reaping its benefits will be to modernise the legal provisions on the way, in which information required by environmental legislation is made available. This will be done by revising the Standardised Reporting Directive (91/692/EC), which needs to be updated and brought in line with the SEIS principles.The EEA has a crucial role to play in implementing SEIS. As its mandate is to provide timely and reliable environmental information, it is essential that EEA continues making SEIS the centre of its strategy. EEA is coordinating the implementation of SEIS with the help of its European Environment Information and Observation Network (EIONET).

Towards eEnvironment, Prague, March 27, 2009

Data and information services

ICT, Inspire, GMES, Reportnet...

SEIS components – EEA nodeSEIS components SEIS components –– EEA EEA nodenode

em

vir

on

men

tal

data

cen

tres

EEA Data and Information products

Air

Lan

d u

se

Ch

em

icals

Cli

mate

Ch

an

ge

Bio

div

ers

ity

So

il

Fo

rest

s

Wast

e

Wate

r

Natu

ral

reso

urc

es

...

Networking, Eionet, Group of 4, EPAs,agreements, country visits...


Memorandum to SEISMemorandum to SEIS

European conference Towards Towards eEnvironmenteEnvironment, organised under the Czech Presidency presents the memorandum on the SEIS which could become the basis for Presidency conclusions on this issue. It recommends that the future development of SEIS should concentrate on:

further incorporation of monitoring, electronic reporting collection, local and regional SEIS data – monitoring,eReporting, INSPIRE related data interlinking, sectorial projects, support for evaluation of policies, euro-regional indicators, euro-regional assessments, support of euro-regional assessment evaluation and benchmarking.


Recent history of GMESRecent history of GMES

Three GMES Service areas based on Earthcompartments:

Marine Monitoring

Atmosphere Monitoring

Land Monitoring

Recent milestones:2006 Graz Dialogue: phased implementation approach

FP7 Research programme: R&D funding. € 1,2 billion allocated in FP7 to GMES (period 2007 –13)

2007 Munich Roadmap: GMES Architecture

Lisbon Process: GMES and Africa

EC/ESA Agreement on the Space component


Recent history of GMESRecent history of GMES

2008: key milestone for GMES implementation

EC CommunicationSpace Council Resolution & Competitiveness Council Conclusions on GMESESA Ministerial Council with positive decisions on Segment 2 of the GMES Space Component programme & EUMETSAT Meteosat 3rd GenerationEUMETSAT Council decision on data access for GMES servicesEuropean Council: space activities & derived services among the 5 priority areas for European innovation strategy


Roadmap 2009Roadmap 2009 of GMESof GMES

Beginning 2009: Interim governance & management schemeMid-2009: detailed milestones for GMESimplementationEnd 2009:

funding approachuser involvement & consultation mechanismGMES service access & dissemination policyfoster implementation of global change (inc. climate) & security servicesanalyse integration of European geographical reference information & applicability of GMES to Outermost Regions & Overseas Countries & Territoriesapproach & measures for stimulating the downstream sector


Space Infrastructure In Situ Infrastructure

Value multipliers

Security

Atm

osphereE

mergency M

arineLand

GMES Services

OBSERVATIONINFRASTRUCTURE

GMESSERVICES

DOWNSTREAM SECTOR

Downstream Services

Users

GMES ArchitectureGMES Architecture


Next milestones of GMESNext milestones of GMES

2011 operational readiness of GMES Services

Initial Operation approach (funding & governance)

Preparation of the next EU Financial Framework

2014fully operational phase for GMES Services

towards a “steady state” governance & funding approach


CONCLUSIONSCONCLUSIONS

The current working plan for the development of SEIS for 2009 to 2010 together with the work programme for the ICT theme of FP 7 Cooperation, which defines the priorities for calls for proposals closing in 2009/10, show a new synergy approach.

SEIS and ICT calls for SISE are not antipodes they are tending to join efforts.

The objectives for SISE research announced in FP7 with its call 4.6 Challenge 6: ICT for Mobility, Environmental Sustainability and Energyare focused on the support of SEIS development.



GMES will enable to sustainably and operationally monitor long-term trends of global change -> long, uninterrupted time series of intercomparable, quality data and to ensure a free and open access to the GMES services and data to support eEnvironment.GMES will enable downstream services in a variety of areas at national, regional and local level (GMES economy) and address the policy needs of member states and their institutions (not only needs at EU policy level) to support SEIS.GMES will help member states to meet their reporting obligations under EU laws (e.g. marine directive) and their international obligations (e.g. Kyoto, Montreal) of eReporting.GMES will be an effective means of supporting national agencies, NGOs, and citizens in assessing and understanding environmental and related problems.



Therefore, SISE together with SEIS andGMES can be considered as advanced associated partners who are on the right track to implement eEnvironmentin practice.


ffgf

40

Thank you for your attention

Ouestions?Contact:Prof. Dr. Jiří HřebíčekE-mail: [email protected]

Thank you for your attentionThank you for your attention

OuestionsOuestions??ContaContacct:t:Prof. Dr. Jiří HřebíčekProf. Dr. Jiří HřebíčekEE--mail: mail: [email protected]@iba.muni.cz

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Documents

Challenges of eEnvironmentChallenges of eEnvironment (CAHDE) in 2007, [Nagy, Legat, Hřebíček]. ICT-ENSURE Workshop, Prague, March 26, 2009 eEurope challenges for eGovernment;Governments,