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Challenges of eEnvironment

Challenges of eEnvironment. Prof. Jiří Hřebíček Masaryk University , Czech Republic Rudolf Legat Umweltbundesamt, Austria. CONTENT. INTRODUCTION DEVELOPMENT OF eENVIRONMENT eEnvironment legal basis eEnvironment impact on eD emocracy

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Challenges of eEnvironment

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  1. Challenges of eEnvironment Prof. Jiří Hřebíček Masaryk University, Czech Republic Rudolf Legat Umweltbundesamt, Austria

  2. CONTENT • INTRODUCTION • DEVELOPMENT OF eENVIRONMENT • eEnvironment legal basis • eEnvironment impact on eDemocracy • SISE, the Single Information Space in Europe for the Environment • SEIS, the Shared Environmental Information System, • GMES, the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security, • CONCLUSIONS

  3. Introduction • “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.

  4. Introduction • The White paper of eEnvironment (Electronic access to environmental information) was elaborated by the Ad hoc Committee on eDemocracy of the Council of Europe (CAHDE) in 2007, [Nagy, Legat, Hřebíček] • The eEnvironment is integrated into eParticipation and eGovernment initiative of EU and it is going to be one of the fundaments of eDemocracy Nagy, M., Legat, R., Hřebíček, J.: Electronic access to environmental information – an important fundament for eDemocracy and environmental protection. Strasbourg: Council of Europe, 2007http://www.bmeia.gv.at/fileadmin/user_upload/bmeia/media/AOes/e-Democracy/4575_18___eacces_to_environm___info.pdf

  5. Introduction • eDemocracy encompasses, in particular, e-parliament, e-legislation, e-justice, e-mediation, eEnvironment, e-election, e-referendum, e-initiative, e-voting, e-consultation, e-petitioning, e-campaigning, e-polling and e-surveying; • It makes use of eParticipation, eDeliberation and eForums.

  6. eEnvironment legal basis for eParticipation 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 in respect of the drawing up of certain plans and programmes relating to the environment and amending with regard to public participation and access to justice; • 2003/98/EC: Re-use of Public Sector Information; • 2007/2/EC: Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE)

  7. eEnvironment legal basis for its implementation Communications: • COM(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 Planet Recommendations: • Rec 249 (2008) 1: Electronic democracy and deliberative consultation on urban projects • CM/Rec(2009)1: On electronic democracy (eDemocracy) and Strategy and plans: • I2010, Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) • GEOSS(Global Earth Observation System of Systems) 10-Year Implementation Plan

  8. eEnvironment impact on democracy • “Checks and balances” principle: Effective legal protection for citizens requires that decision-relevant information is available to them. Access to environmental information provides each person with the possibility to check compliance with environmental laws and to point out deficits in implementation. Hence, the right to access environmental information leads to decentralized and effective checks by the public on governmental activities. • Participation principle : The right to access environmental information increases transparency and allows better public participation in governmental decisions. Therefore, access to environmental information is an important step to participation, deliberation and the democratisation ... • Education principle (awareness principle): 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. This leads to a better awareness of environmental issues in the general public.

  9. eEnvironment impact on business and society • Prevention principle : 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 principle : The International Conventions and European Directives, Communications and initiatives (INSPIRE, GMES, SEIS) dealing with access to environmental and spatial information provide principles that are comparable EU-wide regarding access to and monitoring of environmental data and information. This facilitates pan-European activities to protect the environment, supports sustainable growth and prevents competitive distortion.

  10. eEnvironment impact on eDemocracy • Recommendation CM/Rec(2009)1 of theCommittee of Ministers to member states on electronic democracy (eDemocracy), from 18. February 2009 established: • Principle 40. “eEnvironment is the use and promotion of ICT for the purposes of environmental assessment and protection, spatial planning, and the sustainable use of natural resources, and includes public participation. Using ICT to introduce or enhance public participation can improve democratic governance in respect of environmental issues.”

  11. eEnvironment impact on eDemocracy Explanatory memorandum to Recomendation CM/Rec(2009)1 established: • eEnvironmentincludes 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.

  12. eEnvironment impact on eDemocracy • Spatial planning and spatial cohesion are 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 249 (2008)on “Electronic democracy and deliberative consultation on urban projects”.

  13. eEnvironment impact on eDemocracy • The UNECEAarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters includes provisionscalling 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 taskforce to facilitate implementation of the Convention through the effective use of electronic information tools designed to provide public access to environmental information.

  14. eEurope challenges for eDemocracy, eParticipation and eEnvironment • It follows from the above Recommendation CM/Rec(2009)1 and Explanatory memorandum that the above principles of eEnvironment are in compliance with the vision of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the role of eEnvironment in eDemocracy.

  15. Current implementation of eEnvironment: SISE • 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. • SISE supported by FP7 research projects will provide a kind of an integrated environmental information space in which environmental data and information will be combined with knowledge for decision support of environmental protection and sustainable development.

  16. Current implementation of eEnvironment: 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 Commissionoutlined 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) 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 a Communication Towards a Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS), COM(2008) 46 final.

  17. Development of SEIS

  18. Current implementation of eEnvironment: GMES • In 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 monitoring tools for SEIS and eEnvironment.

  19. Current implementation of eEnvironment: GEOSS • It follows from the explanatory memorandum to Recommendation CM/Rec(2009)1 that eEnvironment also has a worldwide dimension as regards the monitoring and sharing of environmental data and information, coordinated by the Group on Earth Observations (GEO)[1] to build a Global Earth Observation System of Systems(GEOSS)[2]. • Thus, GEOSS realisation could substantially support the development of monitoring tools for SEIS and eEnvironment. • [1]http://www.earthobservations.org/about_geo.shtml • [2]http://www.earthobservations.org/geoss.shtml

  20. Current implementation of eEnvironment

  21. Towards eEnvironment

  22. Development of an ICT infrastructure for eEnvironment • Establish eEnvironment national/regional environmental information web centres or equivalent sources of information as the part of SEIS that will stimulate and promote public access to information and public participation in environmental decision-making; promote access to electronically stored environmental information by establishing and maintaining community web access points; • Establish one-stop access point(s) for citizen-oriented environmentaland related eGovernment services, with coordinated input from the relevant public authorities and/or linkages to other similar sites; • Develop human capacity for the use of ICT tools of SISE, SEIS, GMES and GEOSS to promote the implementation of eEnvironment through comprehensive and forward-looking training and education strategies for public officials;

  23. Development of an ICT infrastructure for eEnvironment • Promote the Commission’s efforts to develop the institutional capacities of public authorities to monitor, collect, organize, store and disseminate environment-related data, information and knowledge in an easily accessible and user-friendly manner; • Ensure the availability of commonly readable, user-friendly and easily transferable formats of SEIS, GMES and GEOSS for environment-related data, information and knowledge and develop and apply comprehensive environment-related ICT tools, including specific training programmes linking the use of ICT tools to the promotion of good environmental governance; • Promote the involvement of different stakeholders representing both SEIS providers and its users, including civil society and private sector institutions, in the development and use of ICT tools with a view to improving the accessibility, as well as the availability, of environmental information and knowledge to the public;

  24. Development of an ICT infrastructure for eEnvironment • Maintain a national SEIS web site with data and information related to the nationwide implementation of eEnvironment, which will serve also as the national node of the Convention’s clearing-house mechanism; • Designate contact points responsible for collecting, managing and updating the information contained in the national node and for providing the necessary information for the central node of the Aarhus Convention’s clearing-house mechanism, and undertake to disseminate information to the public on the clearing-house mechanism; • Develop capacity for public officials managing and updating information for the national node, and for providing the necessary information for the central node of the clearing-house mechanism. • Develop methods and protocols for service chaining and for the management of the effects of uncertainty propagation through service chaining, which will be included into the ICT infrastructure for eEnvironment.

  25. Road map for stepwise implementation eEnvironment 2007 White paper eEnvironment 2008 2009 SEIS, SISE, GMES implementation plan Political commitment eEnvironment 2010 Revised EC standardised reporting directive Revised White paper eEnvironment 2011 First eEnvironment data services 2012 Online eEnvironment systems 2013 SISE, SEIS, GMES space infrastructure

  26. CONCLUSIONS • 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. • The objectives for SISE research announced in FP7 are focused on the support of SEIS development. • SEIS and ICT calls for SISE are tending to join efforts for support of eDemocracy. • Therefore, SISE togetherwith SEISand GMEScan be considered as advanced associated partners who are on the right track to implement eEnvironment in practice.

  27. Thank you for your attentionOuestions?Contacts:Prof. Dr. Jiří HřebíčekE-mail: hrebicek@iba.muni.czRudolf LegatE-mail: rudolf.legat@umweltbundesamt.at • ffgf 27

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